Задание 9 ЕГЭ по английскому языку

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Now we are ready to start.

Presenter: Welcome to our weekly program Fun with Language. As always, we have Sally Smith here.

Sally: Good afternoon.

Presenter: So today you're going to tell us about the development of the English language after William Shakespeare's time?

Sally: Exactly. The development of the English language took a giant step just nine years before the death of Shakespeare. A great event in its development was when three small British ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1607. They landed in an area that would later become the Southern American state of Virginia, and they began the first of several British colonies. The name of the first small colony was Jamestown.

Presenter: I'm afraid I don't see the connection, Sally.

Sally: Just a little patience. From the very beginning, the colonists began to use words borrowed from the native people where they lived—which made a lot of sense because it was simple and convenient to do. For example, the names of many of the great rivers in the United States are taken from Native American words—the Mississippi, the Tennessee…

Presenter: Any other words apart from geographical names?

Sally: Sure. Other Native American words include moccasin—the kind of shoe made from animal skin that Indians wore on their feet. This borrowing or adding of foreign words to English was a way of expanding the language. And don't forget that Britain had other colonies all around the world. English also became part of these colonies. Of course, today these former colonies are independent states, but in many of them English is still one of the languages spoken. Over the centuries, the English language grew as words were added from all these native languages.

Presenter: Can you give us a few more examples?

Sally: Well let's see…the word shampoo meaning soap for the hair came from India. Banana is believed to be from Africa. At the same time, there are quite a few English words whose origin we just don't understand. For hundreds of years, a dog was called a hound. Hound is still used, but not as commonly as the word dog. Yet experts truly don't know where the word dog came from or when. English speakers just started using it. Other words whose origins are unknown include fun, bad and big.

Presenter: When did English stop producing new words?

Sally: It has never stopped. English speakers continue to invent new words by linking existing words—for example—is how the words motor and hotel were linked to become the word motel—a small hotel near a road where people traveling in cars can stay for the night.

Presenter: What about acronyms? It seems new ones appear every day.

Sally: True, but not all of them become widely known. And sometimes we forget that a word actually began as an acronym. Everyone knows what radar is—a device to find objects that cannot be seen—but few people know that radar is an acronym for radio detecting and ranging.

Presenter: I'm going to ask a question several people may already have asked you: how many words are there in the English language?

Sally: Well, no one really knows. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about six hundred fifteen thousand words, yet many scientific words not in the dictionary could increase the number to almost a million. What makes it more difficult is that experts are never sure how to count English words. For example, the word mouse—a mouse is a small creature from the rodent family, but also a hand-held device used to help control a computer. If you are counting words, do you count mouse twice?

Presenter: Thank you, Sally.


9. Why is it difficult to count the exact number of English words?
Ключевая фраза: "What makes it more difficult is that experts are never sure how to count English words. For example, the word mouse—a mouse is a small creature from the rodent family, but also a hand-held device used to help control a computer. If you are counting words, do you count mouse twice?" → Многие слова имеют несколько значений. → 1. Many of them have several meanings.