The History of the English Language Stage 4

Before Reading 4 Friday was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess of

love.

activities answers
5 King Alfred won an important battle against the
before reading activities (page 76)
Vikings.
For these activities, encourage students to exchange
6 King Alfred decided to make English the language of
ideas, and to speculate and to guess. Do not tell
education and literature.
them the answers that are factual; they will find out
7 Most towns with names ending in –thorpe are in the
the answers as they read.
north of England.
ACTIVITY 1 BEFORE READING
ChApTer 4 whIlE READING
vowels: e, i
(Open answers.)
articles: an, the
1 William will win.
consonants: b, s
2 French will become an important language in
verbs: get, turn
England, and many French words will be taken into
prepositions: from, with
English.
endings: -ful, -ing
punctuation: full stop, question mark ChApTers 4 And 5 whIlE READING
genders: feminine, masculine 1 Large stone castles
2 King John
ACTIVITY 2 BEFORE READING
3 Because of the Black Death
1 northern Europe
4 (Norman) French and Latin
2 gods and goddesses
5 He translated the Bible from Latin to English
3 a river
6 The Canterbury Tales
4 French
7 The printing machine (or printing press)
5 pronounced
ChApTers 6 And 7 whIlE READING
ACTIVITY 3 BEFORE READING
1 Isaac Newton wrote a book in Latin, but later chose
Open answers.
English.
2 William Shakespeare had the largest vocabulary of
While Reading any English writer.
3 After King Charles the First was killed, England was
ChApTer 1 whIlE READING without a king for eleven years.
1 English is spoken very widely. About a quarter of all 4 King James the Second was so unpopular that he
the people in the world use English in some way. had to leave England, and his daughter became
2 ‘Airspeak’ is a simple form of English used in queen.
international air traffic control. 5 Jonathan Swift wanted to fix the English language
3 English started to spread around the world about because he didn’t like the continual changes.
three hundred years ago, when many British people 6 Samuel Johnson wrote a dictionary which was a
settled in other countries. great success.
4 In the twentieth century, air travel made more
ChApTer 8 whIlE READING
international business possible. Telephones and
computers also made faster communication possible. 1814: bronchitis 1860: photo
1919: airport 1938: nylon
ChApTer 2 whIlE READING 1948: TV 1964: disco
3, 9, 6, 8, 5, 1, 4, 7, 2 1982: e-mail 1999: google
ChApTer 3 whIlE READING
© Oxford University Press

ChApTer 9 whIlE READING

1 The name Dover comes from the Celtic word for 1F; 2F; 3T; 4F; 5T; 6F; 7T.
water.
ChApTers 10 And 11 whIlE READING
2 The Anglo-Saxons borrowed the words for street
and wall from the Romans. 1+g Thee and thou are used in some British dialects,
3 The word school came from Latin, which was used a but they are not used in Standard British
lot by monks. English.
2+e Gaelic is an old Celtic language which is still
spoken in the west of Ireland.

oxford bookworms library stage 4 35 the history of the english language

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 3+d The English of Canada is similar to both
American and British English.
4+b ‘Spanglish’ is a variety of English which uses
English and Spanish words together.
5+f Jargon is the special language used by people
who have the same job or hobby.
activities answers
suggested new spellings, and many of these are now
accepted American spellings.
James Murray was a Scotsman who worked on the
first Oxford English Dictionary. Although he had
planned to finish in ten years, after five years he had
only reached the word ‘ant’. When he died in 1915, he

6+h Some people use slang to show that they belong was working on the letter U.
to a group.
ACTIVITY 2 AFTER READING
7+c Joke used to be a slang word, but it’s now part
1 g motorway, main road
of Standard British English.
2 e describes a book that you cannot stop reading
8+a Grub and tucker are slang words for food.
3 h What did you say?
ChApTer 12 whIlE READING 4 c piece of bread and butter
Some people think that over half the people in the 5 j Why are you late?
world will be able to speak English by 2050. They 6 d girl
think that the US will remain the richest country in 7 a foreigner (later, Welsh)
the world, and American popular music and films 8 i stupid person
will continue to be fashionable. But in some countries 9 b past tense of climb
people think that it is harmful to teach children 10 f you (plural)
English, because they are worried that their own
ACTIVITY 3 AFTER READING
languages might not survive. Some governments want
The English language developed from the dialects
to stop the borrowing of English words, and they have
spoken by invaders from northern Europe who
passed laws against the use of foreign words in some
settled in Britain fifteen centuries ago. Since then, the
situations.
language has changed continually. English people have
borrowed words (like coffee) from other languages,
After Reading and have made new words (like fingerprint) by putting
old words together. Developments in technology have
ACTIVITY 1 AFTER READING brought new vocabulary, too, like website and chat
Relevant notes are: room. People often complain about new words and
King Alfred: 5, 7, 15 expressions. But the English language is used by a
William the Conqueror: 4, 10, 11 quarter of the world’s people. It can’t be controlled!
Geoffrey Chaucer: 1, 9, 13
ACTIVITY 4 AFTER READING
Noah Webster: 3, 8, 14
James Murray: 2, 6, 12 Open answers.
Possible answers: ACTIVITY 5 AFTER READING
King Alfred was a king of Wessex who won an Open answers.
important battle against the Vikings. He wanted
ACTIVITY 6 AFTER READING
to bring back the centres of learning that had been
destroyed by the Vikings, so he decided to make Open answers.
English the language of education. He himself learnt ACTIVITY 7 AFTER READING
Latin so that he could translate important books into Open answers.
English.
William the Conqueror was a leader of Normandy
who defeated Harold in 1066. When he became king
of England, he took land from rich English families
and gave it to his followers. William spoke French, and
so French became the language of government and
business in England.
Geoffrey Chaucer, who was both a poet and a
© Oxford University Press

government official, lived in London. He wrote in

the East Midlands dialect and also used words from
French. He was good at describing people, and many
other writers copied him.
Noah Webster was an American teacher who was
proud of American English. He wrote a book on
spelling that was extremely successful. He also

oxford bookworms library stage 4 36 the history of the english language