Thehistoryofnomenclature(命名)inBritainissooldthatnooneknowsthebeginningofthestory.Sincewrittenhistorybegan，peoplehavehadnames.Itisthereforeimpossibletodomorethanguessathowtheearliestgivennameswerechosen.Mostnamesappeartohavehadsomesortoforiginalmeaning，usuallydescriptive，ratherthanbeingsimplyapleasingcollectionofsounds.

Thesedescriptivenamesdevelopedbothfromnounsandadjectives.TheIrishGaelicpeople useddescriptivenounsandadjectiveswhichweremeaningful.Earlyinprehistorysomedescriptivenamesbegantobeusedagainandagainuntiltheyformedanamepoolforthatparticularculture.Parentswouldchoosenamesfromthepoolofexistingnamesratherthaninventnewonesfortheirchildren.

WiththeriseofChristianity(基督教)，Christianswereencouragedtonametheirchildrenaftertheholypeopleofthechurch.TheseearlyChristiannamescanbefoundinmanyculturestoday，invariousforms.ThepoolofnamesinuseinEnglandchangedbasicallyaftertheNormancamein1066.ThenFrenchnamesofGermanicoriginbecamepopularwithinthreegenerations.AsaresultnameslikeEmma，Matilda，Richard，andWilliam，becamecommoninEnglishnomenclature.AtthesametimeafewOldEnglishnames，likeEdwardandAlfredremainedbecausetheywerenamesofholypeopleorkings；otherswerekeptbecausetheywereusedwithslightchangesbyGermanicnamesfromtheNormanslikeRobert.

Surnamesdevelopedfrombynames，whichareadditionalonesusedtodifferentiatepeoplewiththesamegivenname. Thesebynamesfallintoparticularpatterns. Thesestartedoutasspecific toapersonandweretakendownfromfathertosonbetweenthetwelfthandsixteenthcentury.Thenobleusuallyusedtaken-downsurnamesearlyorthepeasantsdidsolater.

1.Wecaninferfromthetextthat.

A.thefirstgivennameshadnotanyactualmeanings

B.peopleprobablyhadnameswhentherewasnowrittenlanguage

C.thehistoryofnomenclatureisshorterthanwrittenhistory

D.namesbegantobeusedlongaftertherewaswrittenlanguage

2.Theunderlinedword“they”(inPara.3)refersto“”.

A.OldEnglishnames B.othernames

C.namesofGermanicorigin D