2．Aside from being fun and good exercise，swimming is a very useful skill.

　　3．When did the train come into use？

　　4．She didn't want to work as a servant forever.

　　5．They don't want to add to the government's burden.

　　6．I want my firm to be made up of excellent workers.

　　[答案]　1－6　FCAEDB

　　English and its history

　　All through history，people from many different countries and cultures have lived together in Britain.The English language is made up of the grammar and vocabulary(词汇) ①these people brought to Britain．That is why English has so many difficult rules that confuse people.

　　英语及其历史

　　有史以来，在不列颠共同生活着来自许多不同国家和文化背景的人们。英语就是由这些人带到不列颠的语法和词汇构成的。那就是英语有如此多令人困惑不解的规则的原因。

　　[助读讲解]　these people brought to Britain是定语从句，修饰先行词the grammar and vocabulary，关系代词在定语从句中作宾语时可省略。

　　Old English

Old English is very different from the English ②we speak nowadays(现在，如今)．In fact，we would not be able to understand it if we heard it today.Before the middle of the 5th century，people in Britain all spoke a language ③called Celtic．Then two Germanic groups from the European mainland-the Angles and the Saxons-occupied Britain.Old English consisted of a mixture(混合) of their languages.(Both the English language and the English people are named after the Angles；the word Angle was spelt Engle in Old English.)Aside from place names such as London，very few Celtic words became part of Old English.At the end of the 9th century，the Vikings，④people from Northern European countries such as Denmark and Norway，began to move to