Basic English
English can be a hard language to learn. That’s why usually you learn it by levels. In CERF standard A1 is the beginner level, A2 is harder, but still is very easy. Then you have B1 and B2. Highest levels of learning are C1 and C2.
To make things easy for beginners, a special type of English language was made in 1930. The aim was to make it useful for learning and easy enough to explain complex ideas with simple words. This Basic English was made by Charles Kay Ogden, an English writer. Only 850 common words are used in Basic English. Any technical words can also be used, but must be explained with simple words first. New words are formed with common word endings and prefixes: un-, -s, -es, -er, -ed, -est, -ing, -ly. You can also make new words by combining some simple words into a new one. For example: milkman, fireman, sunrise, northeast, gearbox. In regular English such words are usually known as compound words.
Basic English has a sort of wordplay inside its name. The word ‘basic’ means ‘simple’ or ‘something that lies in a foundation’. But you can also read it as a short for ‘Business Academic Scientific International Commercial’. An abbreviation that reads as a real word is sometimes called a backronym.
Basic English was criticised as ‘too basic’, ‘biased towards native speakers’, ‘not really basic, and not really English’. Still, it was a large amount of work to do. Today the list of 850 nouns that was used in Basic English is still used in learning regular English. New similar systems were made some years later. They used Basic English as a foundation. For example, Learning English was made in 1959. Learning English is used nowadays by some TV and radio stations aimed at foreign audience.
Подсказки:
1-levels – уровни;
2-still (контекст.) – всё ещё, по-прежнему;
3-learning – обучение;
4-aim (контекст.) – цель;
5-useful – полезный;
6-easy enough – достаточно легко;
7-common (контекст.) – распространённый;
8-prefixes – грамматические приставки;
9-gearbox – коробка передач;
10-compound words – сложные слова;
11-foundation (контекст.) – основание;
12-Business Academic Scientific International Commercial – деловой, академический, научный, международный, торговый;
13-criticized – подвергался критике;
14-biased – предвзятый;
15-amount – количество;
16-nouns – существительные;
17-similar – похожий;
18-audience – аудитория.
Подпишись и делись своим результатом в комментариях!