题目内容：

It’s never easy to explain exactly when a specific language began, and in the case of English we can hardly regard it as a separate language before the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Germanic invaders (入侵者) came and settled in Britain from the north-western coastline of continental Europe in the fifth centuries. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic (related to Dutch, Frisian, German and the Scandinavian languages), but we’ll probably never know how different their speech was from that of their continental neighbors.

The reason that we know so little about the language in this period is because we do not have much in the way of written records from any of the Germanic languages until several centuries later. When Old English writings began to appear in the seventh and eighth centuries there was a good deal of regional variation (变化), but not more than that found in later periods.

The Celts already lived in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but there are few obvious signs of their language in English today. Some scholars have suggested that the Celtic tongue might have had some influence on the grammatical development of English, particularly in some parts of the country, but this is highly speculative (猜测). The number of borrowed words that have entered Old English from this language is very small. Those that survive in modern English include “comb” (a type of valley), alongside some place names.

1.When did the English language begin?

A. After the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain.

B. Before the Germanic invaders settled in Britain.

C. At a time that no one will know for certain.

D. At the same time as Germanic languages began.

2.“Continental neighbors” in Paragraph 1 refer to people living in _____.

A. Great Britain    B. Africa

C. Europe    D. Ireland

3.Why do people know so little about the language in Britain in the Anglo-Saxon period?

A. There are no written records from the Germanic languages.

B. Old English didn’t have any written system.

C. Much of the written records have been lost.

D. There was a good deal of variation in the records.

4.What does the author think about the Celtic language?

A. It influenced the grammatical development of English.

B. It had little influence on modern English.

C. It borrowed a few words from Old English.

D. It greatly enriched modern English vocabulary.