高普考/三四等/高員級◆英文題庫下載題庫

The speech of every group of people has developed differently. One reason for this is that each group often lived in isolation.  Another reason is that each language grew up separately under different conditions.  Gradually, over many centuries, some groups came in contact with other groups.  When this happened, their languages grew more and more alike.  In other cases, however, a group would break apart, and new languages would grow from the original one.  The new languages, though distinct in many ways, would maintain similarities to one another. 

每個人的言論都有不同的發展。其中一...

The speech of every group of people has developed differently. One reason for this is that each group often lived in isolation.  Another reason is that each language grew up separately under different conditions.  Gradually, over many centuries, some groups came in contact with other groups.  When this happened, their languages grew more and more alike.  In other cases, however, a group would break apart, and new languages would grow from the original one.  The new languages, though distinct in many ways, would maintain similarities to one another. 

每個人的言論都有不同的發展。其中一個原因是每個團體都經常孤立生活。另一個原因是每種語言在不同的條件下分開成長。幾個世紀以後，一些團體逐漸與其他團體接觸。發生這種情況時，他們的語言越來越相似。然而，在其他情況下，一個小組會分裂開來，新的語言會從原來的那個開始增長。新語言儘管在很多方面有所不同，但仍會保持相互之間的相似性。

There are many different countries in the world today.  One might conclude that each country has its own language and that languages are only as numerous as countries.  Actually, there are many more languages than there are countries.  For example, in  the United States, we have considered English the one language of the people.  Yet at one time, on the Great Plains alone, more than 22 native American languages were spoken. 

當今世界上有許多不同的國家。有人可能會得出結論，每個國家都有自己的語言，語言的數量和國家一樣多。實際上，除了國家之外，還有更多的語言。例如，在美國，我們認為英語是人們的一種語言。然而，僅在大平原地區，就有22種以上的美洲土著語言被使用。

In addition, a single language may have two or more dialects, or varieties.  It is estimated that there are several thousand languages and dialects spoken in the world today. 

另外，一種語言可能有兩種或兩種以上的方言或變體。據估計，今天世界上有數千種語言和方言。