adopt接受
origin 起源
impact影響
citation引用
The Wall Street Journal
《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》
influential 有影響力的
What is this passage mainly about?
A. The inclusion of words in major
dictionaries.
B. The English language and the
Chinese language.
C. The increase in the number of
words in the English language.
D. The influence of the Chinese
language over English vocabulary.
Words of Chinese origin have huge influences on English, experts in both languages say.
According to English expert Paul Payack, about 300 million Chinese people are now studying or have studied English. This means Chinese has huge impacts on English. One example of an English word with Chinese origin is “chengguan(城管)”. On Google there are nearly one million citations for chengguan.
Every year, some 10,000 words are added to the English language. And The Oxford English Dictionary wont include a new word until it has existed for 10 years. Now there are about 1,000 words of Chinese origin. “Chinese will continue its influence in the 21st century,” Payack said.
In August 2013, The Wall Street Journal used the term dama to describe the middle-aged Chinese women who buy gold like crazy. Because of dama, China has become the worlds largest gold market.
The use of dama is seen as evidence for a simple fact: the more powerful a country becomes, the more influential its language is. Wei Chongxin, a Chinese expert, believes such influence is a result of Chinas growing global power. “When more native English speakers learn about China, its normal to see the two languages influence each other.”