History of the English language

Literary English originated from the language of 14th century London, which had developed from several local dialects. The history of the London dialect reveals the sources of the literary language in the Late Middle English period.

It is common knowledge that the history of London reaches back to Roman and even pre-Roman days. Already in Old English times London was the biggest town in Britain, although the capital of Wessex – the main Old English kingdom – was Winchester. The capital was transferred to London a few years before the Norman Conquest. The Early Middle English records made in London show that the dialect of London came from an East Saxon dialect. Some later records show that the speech of London becomes more mixed. The most likely explanation for the change of the dialect type and for the mixed character of London speech in Middle English lies in the history of the London population.

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries the inhabitants of London came from the neighbouring south-western districts. In the middle of the 14^th century about one third of the population of Britain died in the epidemics, the highest proportion of deaths falling to London. The depopulation was speedily made good, and by 1447 London had already 35 thousand inhabitants. Most of the new arrivals came from the East Midlands. Consequently, in the late 14^th century the speech of Londoners was brought much closer to the East Midland dialect. From the 14^th century onwards a large number of official and literary papers produced in London show obvious East Midland dialectal features.

Контрольная работа по английскому языку

Для студентов заочного отделения

V Variant

1. Write the plural form of the nouns.

Blow, crown, life, match, case, teacher, brother-in-law, cargo, goose, suffix, ray, party.

2. Change the following word combinations using possessive case.

The case of my friend, the dress of her daughter-in-law, the toys of the twins, the flat of Jack and Susan, the photos of the Simons, the son of my friend Peter.

3. Write the degrees of comparison of the following words.

Hot, early, serious, practical, dry, quick, strong, wise, green, good.

4. Open the brackets using the right form of the verb. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1) The Earth (go) round the Sun.

2) Tom (burn) his hand when he was cooking dinner.

3) I already (post) the letter to my friend.

4) We (go) to Scotland next summer.

5) My parents (not/see) this film yet.

6) Margaret is in the bathroom, she (take) a shower.

7) There (be) a lot of beautiful flowers in the vase.

8) There (be) a little cat under the chair.

9) These roses (be/plant) by the gardener in the park yesterday.

5. Write the numerals.

Pattern: 210-two hundred and ten.

123, 49876, 2007, 119506, 20157480.

6. Translate these sentences from Russian into English, make them interrogative and negative.

1) Как правило, мой брат приходит домой поздно.

2) Мы окончим институт через четыре года.

3) Они получили много подарков на прошлое Рождество.

4) Нелли смотрит телевизор сейчас.

5) Его дядя уже просмотрел газету.

6) Они никогда не видели снег.

7) Книги принесут завтра.

8) Такой кофе производят только в Бразилии.

7. Fill in the necessary modal verb (can, may, must), translate the sentences into Russian.

1) If you don’t take your umbrella, you … get wet.

2) You … be very attentive when the teacher explains new rules.

3) … I take your pen for a moment?

TEXT. Translate into Russian (in the written form).

Sculpture

Sculpture is very old. Even the cave man carved the shapes of the animals they hunted on the handles of some of their tools.

Some of the statues made by the ancient Egyptians were very large. The Sphinx is one of them. It had the body of a lion to stand for strength and the head of a man to stand for intelligence. Some statues were portraits of pharaohs. These great statues were carved in stone.

The Greeks made wonderful statues of white marble and painted them with bright colours such as read and blue. The friezes of the Parthenon are good example of their relief sculpture. The Romans made very life-like portraits in stone.

The Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages had continuous stories carved on their walls. People can stand in front of a cathedral and read Bible stories, not in words bat in carved pictures. Many of the statues on cathedral are architectural, that is, they are part of the structure of the building, and they often serve as columns to support arches over the doors.

Some sculptors have especially liked to design fountains. A beautiful fountain seems so alive. The sculpture in it shines with the water on it. Some sculptors are especially interested in modelling animals. Some make portrait statues just as did the Egyptians of long ago. A sculptor is always interested in how his work is placed and lighted. A piece of sculpture should always be put on a pedestal so that it can be seen from every direction. Poor lighting may make even a good piece of sculpture look uninteresting.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31