Unit Five

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Unit Five

• English in Todays World

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Warm-up activities

• How many languages do you know?
• How many languages are spoken in the world today?
• It is believed that there are 6000 languages used
  in the world.
• The number of people who speak and use English
  at least 1.44 billion in total, including those
  using English as their first languages (about 360
  million), second language ( about 360 million)
  and foreign language (about 720 million)

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• Native English, that is, the first language you
  learned
• A language that you speak in addition to the
  language you learned as a child.
• A language learned to use on special occasions
  such as while conducting business deals around
  the world.

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New words and expressions

• 1. statistics
• A. (pl.) collection of information shown in
  numbers
• E.g. politicians love to use statistics to
  support their arguments.
• ????????????????
• Statistics show that marriageable girls outnumber
  marriageable boys.
• B. (sing) science of collecting, classifying and
  analyzing such information
• She majors in statistics.

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• 2. Status
• E.g. to elevate/ raise the status of women in
  society
• ??????????????
• E.g. women have very little status in many
  countries.
• Status symbol
• E.g. Some people like to own a expensive car as
  a symbol of status, to show that they belong to
  the well-to-do classes.
• ???????????????,?????????
• he bought the yacht only as a status symbol- he
  hates sailing.

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• 3. Commerce
• Commercial Bank Bank of Communications
• China Everbright Bank Fujian Industrial Bank
• China Construction Bank China Merchants Bank
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
• Commerce trade ( esp. between countries)
• E.g. we must promote commerce with neighboring
  countries.
• ????????????
• ????????20?
• Overseas commerce increased by 20 in the last
  month.

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• 4. local government
• local call long-distance telephone call
• 5. communicate sth. to sb make sth known
• The officer communicated his order to the
  soldiers by radio.
• Communicate with sb exchange information, news.
• Children dont want to communicate with their
  parents.
• 6. a neutral country
• E.g. Switzerland is always a neutral country.
• remain neutral in war/dispute

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• 7. wide and widely
• E.g. Open your mouth wide
• It is widely known that Guilin is famous for the
  scenery.
• 8. estimate sth at sth
• E.g. we estimate his income at 8000 a year.
• estimate for sth calculate the probable price of
  sth.
• E.g. we asked him to estimate for the repair of
  the ceiling.
• I estimated his age to be about 30.
• She estimated that the work would take three
  months.

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• 9. conference
• a press conference a summit conference
• ?????????????
• Many international conferences are hold in
  Geneva.
• The director is in conference now.
• 10. exaggerate objective
• E.g. he always exaggerate the difficulties.
• He exaggerated to make the story more amusing.
• 11. role function or importance
• the key role of the teacher in the learning
  process.
• ?????????????????
• The role of the railway is declining in the
  transport system.

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• 12. obvious
• E.g. it was obvious to everyone that the child
  had been badly treated.
• 13. establish oneself as
• E.g. he established himself as governor of the
  province.
• 14. citeas
• E.g. she cited the high unemployment figures as
  evidence of the failure of government policy.
• ???????????????????
• 15. at issue being discussed
• E.g. whats at issue is the whole future of the
  industry.

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• 16. standard
• an international standard of weight ??????
• be up to/ below standard
• E.g. their work is not up to standard.
• 17. entertain sb to sth provide food and drink
  for sth, esp. in ones home
• E.g. they entertained us to dinner last night.
• entertain sb with sth amuse sb
• E.g. he entertained the children with his
  stories and jokes for hours.
• entertainment performance
• E.g. the local entertainments are listed in the
  newspaper.

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• 18. majority over sb
• e.g. they had large majority over the other
  party at the last election.
• be in the majority
• minority
• e.g. only a minority of British households do
  not have a car.
• Among the members of the committee those who
  agree to change are in the majority/minority

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Detailed studied of the text

• 1. The populations of the world stood at
• Stand to be at a particular level or amount
• E.g. Their unfavorable trade balance for May
  stood at 30 million.
• ????????????3?????
• my bank account stands at 100 yuan.
• ???????????
• The clock stands at ten to four.
• 2. Of course, roughly 25
• Roughly not exactly, about
• E.g. how much did you earn last year, roughly?
• The two electronic devices work in roughly the
  same way.

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• 3. Well over half of whom live in North American.
  
• well is often used for emphasis.
• E.g. she is not well over twenty. She is only
  21.
• He left the hall well before the lecture was
  over.
• 4. An equal number of people use English.
• Equal the same in number, amount, size, value,
  etc.
• E.g. can you cut the watermelon into eight equal
  pieces?
• Strawberry pineapple pear grape.
• In many parts of the world, women havent got
  equal right with men yet.

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• 5. The number in this group must anout to at
  least.
• Amount to to be equal to
• e.g. the bill amounted to 150.
• His debts amounted to 1000.
• 6. Young people aged between 15 and 25.
• Aged years old
• E.g. the course is open to children aged 10 and
  over.
• The police are looking for a woman aged between
  25 and 30.
• 7. The European Union was begun in the 1950s by
  six countries France, Germany, Italy and
  Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

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• There are now 15 EU members states Austria,
  Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
  Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
  Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the
  United Kingdom
• 8. There is no question that there is no doubt
  that
• E.g. there is no question that he is wrong.
• He is by far the best. There is no question about
  it.
• 9. Looking at business opportunities studying
  and considering chances for doing business.
• Look at to study and consider
• E.g. they refused to look at my suggestion.
• I must look very carefully at ways of improving
  my reading speed.

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• 10. So widely spoken is English
• E.g. so tired was he that he went to bed right
  away.
• So dark was it that I couldn't see my own hands.
• 11. With hardly a word of English heard
• E.g. the meeting ended with nothing settled.
• 12. Which in terms of number is certain.
• in terms of with regard to, considering
• E.g. in terms of money she is quite rich, but
  not in terms of happiness.
• the policy is a good one in terms of reducing
  production costs.
• 13. Nevertheless, English has for decade been

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• Nevertheless in spite of the face just mentioned
• E.g. he was certain that he could get over the
  difficulty. Nevertheless, I couldn't help
  worrying.
• 14. The very fact that
• Very used to give force to the noun fact
• E.g. he lived in this very building for 20
  years.
• this is the very thing Ive been looking for
  months.
• 15. Boston-based and classless
• E.g. lonely and helpless, he decided to leave
  the city.
• Unable to cycle to school, I had to take a taxi.

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• 16. In danger of splitting up into.
• in danger of
• E.g. he is in danger of losing her job.
• some animals are in danger of dying out.
• Split up to divide or separate into parts.
• E.g. we split up into groups of five and
  discussed the question.
• 17. Make this increasingly unlikely
• Increasingly more and more all the time.
• E.g. the air in the city has become increasingly
  polluted in the past few year?
• Our nation is increasingly prosperous and strong.

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• 18. Have a vested interest in communicating with
• Have a vested interested in have a strong reason
  in doing sth because you get an advantage from
  it.
• E.g. the slave owners had a vested interest in
  claiming that the system of slavery should not be
  ended.
• They have a vested interest in seeking to
  preserve the political policy.
• 19. Speakers of these different dialects of
  English may meet up
• Meet up to meet sb in order to do sth together
• E.g. we often met up after supper and went for a
  walk.

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• 20. Is here to stay for the foreseeable future
• Be here to stay to be generally accepted and
  used by most people
• E.g. are T-shirts here to stay, or will fashion
  change again?
• Whether you like it or not, examination is here
  to stay.
• For/ in the foreseeable future as long as you
  can imagine or plan for
• E.g. are computers here to stay for the
  foreseeable future?
• We will not buy a house in the foreseeable future.

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• 1. issue
• The burning issue of the day
• E.g. finding the solution to SARS is the burning
  issue of the day.
• settle an issue
• Tension between family members on life-style
  issues
• 2. Identity identity/identification card
• E.g. to escape the police, he had to conceal his
  identity.
• 3. accountable to sb for sth
• E.g. he is mentally ill and cant be accountable
  for his action.

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• 4. There is no escaping the growing bewilderment
  in Japan.
• E.g. there is no joking about such matters.
• There is no denying the fact that he machine has
  greatly raised productivity.
• 5. aura
• E.g. she always seems to have an aura of
  happiness around her.
• 6. recession temporary decline in economic
  activity or prosperity
• an industrial/ trade recession
• 7. adopt
• A adopt sb as sth take sb in ones family

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• E.g. His mother had him adopted because she
  couldn't look after him.
• Having no child of their own, they decided to
  adopt an orphan.
• B. take over and use as ones own
• E.g. adopt a new assembly line
• 8. hit the spot make sb satisfactory
• E.g. Mothers apple pie hits the spot with the
  boys
• Ice cream hits the spot during the hot summer
  months.

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• 9. not have a clue not know anything about sth
• E.g. when does the train leave?
• I have not a clue.
• 10. on the ground that
• E.g. on the ground that he isnt feeling well.
• 11. other than except
• E.g. there is nobody her other than me.
• 12. anything like
• E.g. we have not anything like completed the job.

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• 13. run into
• E.g. a debt running into millions of us dollars.
• His yearly income often runs into six figures.
• 14. A given language settle in different regions,
  their speech continues to develop over time, but
  if contact is not maintained
• given the work must be done within the given
  time.
• settle
• E.g. they got married and settled near London.
• maintain the world peace
• maintain law and order