Lecture Listening One

姓名： 专业班级： 学号：

Now answer the following questions. You may use your notes to help you.
1). According to the lecture, which statement is NOT true?
(A) Chaucer was from a wealthy family. (B) King Richard II spoke English.
(C) Chaucer was born in 1400.
(D) 50% of Chaucer's words were Germanic in origin.
2). What did Chaucer have?
(A) An English dictionary (B) A good vocabulary
(C) A style manual (D) A formal grammar
3). Why is Dante Alighieri important?
(A) Chaucer adapted one of his tales for 'The Canterbury Tales'.
(B) Chaucer met him in Italy.
(C) Chaucer structured 'The Canterbury Tales' after his 'Divine Comedy'.
(D) He gave Chaucer the idea of writing in English.
4). What makes 'The Canterbury Tales' easier to understand?
(A) Modernized versions (B) The Great Vowel Shift
(C) Spelling conventions (D) Its Romance vocabulary
5). The lecturer mentions the word 'hotel' as an example of what?
(A) A Norman-French rather than a continental French word
(B) A Germanic word absorbed into Norman-French
(C) A Middle English word carried into Modern English
(D) A foreign word recognized as English
6). Which do you think is nearest to the author's viewpoint?
(A) Chaucer introduced a vast number of Germanic and Romance words into our vocabulary.
(B) Chaucer's use of English led to the Great Vowel Shift.
(C) Chaucer was the bridge between Old English and Modern English.
(D) Chaucer was the first great English author.

Listen to the lecture again and then complete the following passage. (从 3’26’’开始)
About fifty percent of Chaucer's vocabulary has its in the Romance languages, but they
weren't French or Italian or Latin - his language wasn't a hybrid of his own devising.
Chaucer wasn't coining words from his familiarity with continental French or Italian. No, Anglo-
Norman still had a very strong in England, and it's this that Chaucer's vocabulary reflects.
Much Norman-French had entered the English vocabulary by Chaucer's time, and its foreign
origin was as little as we today recognize the foreignness of the words 'hotel' or
'parachute'. Words like 'bachelor' in the Merchant's Tale carry the Norman-French meaning of 'an
unmarried man'- as it does today- not the continental French meaning of 'a high school
graduate'.
Vocabulary
Geoffrey Chaucer 杰弗雷·乔叟，英国文学之父，中世纪公认为最伟大的英国诗人。最为著名
的作品是《坎伯雷故事集》（The Canterbury Tales）。
overstate
Norman-French
bilingual
Anglo-Saxon
clergy
aristocrat
well-to-do 富有的
butler 管家
by turns
courier 信使
diplomat
consequently
continental 欧洲大陆的
adaptation
Petrarch 彼特拉克，意大利学者、诗人，文艺复兴第一个人文主义者，被誉为“文艺复兴之
父”。他以其十四行诗著称于世，后世人尊他为“诗圣”。
Boccaccio 薄伽丘，意大利文艺复兴运动的杰出代表，人文主义杰出作家。与诗人但丁、彼特
拉克并称为佛罗伦萨文学“三杰”。其代表作《十日谈》是欧洲文学史上第一部现实主义作
品。
narrative
pilgrim
Decameron《十日谈》
Dante Alighier， 但丁
precedent 在先的
Divine Comedy 《神曲》
constraint
vernacular
blend
eventually
hybrid
devise
daunting
rhyme
syllable
Great Vowel Shift（日耳曼语的）主要元音转移
available
Penguin Books 企鹅图书出版社
Bantam Classics 出版社
outstandingly