Lesson 103 Part I

Lesson 103

Part Ⅰ Warming-up Exercises

Note-taking: The English Dictionary

Training Focus:

Note-taking: important facts: numbers

Directions: You are going to hear a development of the English dictionary. write down only the important facts. brief account of the Listen carefully and

Key:

How many words are there in the English dictionary ? If you had asked that question in 1806, the answer would have been 28,000. In 1822 the answer would have been 70,000. Today the question is difficult to answer because there are many kinds of dictionaries. The number of words depends on how complete the dictionary is. A complete and exhaustive English dictionary today would probably contain around 650,000 words. Don't worry, though. Few people use more than 60,000 words.

A recent edition of Webster's New World Dictionary contains more than 142,000 entries. However, each new entry is not necessarily a new word. An entry may be a prefix form or an abbreviation.

In Webster's New  World Dictionary the letter S has more entries than any other letter. Over 200 pages contain S entries. The second highest letter is C with ever 167 pages. The second from the lowest is Z with six pages. The lowest is X with only one and half pages ---- containing exactly 81 entries.

Lesson 103 Part Ⅱ The Development of Writing

Lesson 103

Part Ⅱ The Development of Writing

Ex. Ⅰ

Directions: Give brief answers to the questions you hear on the tape.

Key: 1 . How long has man been able to write ? Only a few thousand years.

2. What did writing develop from ? Drawing.

3. Where have picture writings been found ? All over the world.

4. Who were the first to use written symbols to represent single spoken sounds ? The Phoenicians and Greeks.

5. What can be used to write any languages ? The alphabetic system.

Ex. Ⅱ

Directions: Complete the summary according to what you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Tapescript:

The Development Of Writing ( 1 ′ 39.″ )

Writing is one of mankind's most impertant inventions. Man had been speaking for many thousands of years before he learned to record the sounds of speech by marks that can be seen. He has been able to write for only a few thousand years.

Writing developed from drawing. No one knows exactly how this happened but picture writing was undoubtedly the first step. A picture or series of pictures was used to tell a story, or perhaps to remind the storyteller of the story. Picture writings have been found all over the world. Next. perhaps, pictures or marks derived from simplified pictures were used to represent single words or ideas. For example, a circle, which was originally used for “sun,” might come to represent the related ideas of “heat,” “light,” or “day.”

The Phoenicians and Greeks developed alphabetic writing. They were the first to use written symbols to represent single spoken sounds. The alphabetic system, of course, can be used to write any language. The Romans adopted it for Latin making a few changes. Today many of the languages of the world, including ones which are not related to each other in the spoken form at all (like English, Swahili, Vietnamese, Quechua), use the Roman form of letters. But the alphabetic principle was invented only once. All modern alphabets come by way of the Greeks or Romans.

Lesson 103 Part Ⅲ Where Do These Words Come From

Lesson 103

Part Ⅲ Where Do These Words Come From

Ex. Ⅰ

Directions: Gross out all the words that you think can be omitted in note-taking. You must cross out at least 80 words.

Key: (the remaining part of the passage)

greatest player / One time / played twenty-four hours not leave table / Servants brought food / meat and bread /not stop playing / put meat between pieces of bread / From name of this man / word sandwich today.

Ex. Ⅱ

Directions: Write down the  most important words. Do not write more than 30 words.

Key: panic / comes from / Greek / Pan / Greek god shepherds/half-man half -animal/lived forest/liked hunt/  play music / special flute /frightened people / strange looking / travelers / not know what do / in panic

Ex. Ⅲ

Directions: Write down the most important words. Do not write more than 40 words.

Key: Captain Cook / explorer / encountered / animal / first visit /Australia / pointed to it / asked / native guide identify / kangaroo / noted in word book / missionaries / anxious / see kangaroo / puzzled looks / native saying /don't know what / name stuck

Tapescript:

Where Do These Words Come From ? (2′53″)

Some words have interesting origins. We use these words every day. They are very common. We do not realize the strange history which these words sometimes have.

The word sandwich is a common word. It is an English word. The word is also used today in many other languages. The Earl of Sandwich was an Englishman. He lived in the eighteenth century. He liked to play cards. He liked to play for money. He was the greatest player of his time. Often he played all day and night. One time, he played for twenty-four hours without stopping. He did not leave the card table even to eat. Servants brought food to him. They brought him some meat and some bread. He did not want to stop playing while he ate. He put the meat between two of the pieces of bread. In this way he was able to continue playing.

From the name of this man, the Earl of Sandwich, we have the word sandwich today.

The word panic is a word which comes from the Greek language. Pan was one of the Greek gods. He was the god of the shepherds. A shepherd is a man who watches sheep. Pan was half-man, half-animal. He lived in the forest. He liked to hunt. He also liked to play music. Probably you have seen pictures of Pan. He played a special kind of flute. He went through the woods playing this flute. Very often he frightened people very much. He was very strange-looking. Travelers, when they met him, were always frightened. They did not know what to do. They were in a “panic.”

This is the origin of the word panic. A person in a panic is so frightened and confused that he does not know what to do. Very often people in a panic do very foolish things. The word panic is found in many languages besides English.

Captain Cook, the noted world explorer, encountered an unusual animal during his first visit to Australia. He pointed to it grazing in the distance and asked his native guide to identify it. The guide appeared confused and finally said “kang-a-roo” which Cook carefully noted in his word book. The missionaries who later came to Australia were anxious to see a kangaroo but their inquiries met with puzzled looks. They soon discovered that the native who answered Cook's question was really saying, “I don't know what you're pointing at.” The name stuck and is still in use today.