5. …it could still go ignorantly on…

The conversation could go on without anybody knowing who was right or wrong．

6．There are cattle in the fields, but we sit down to beef (boeuf).

These animals are called cattle when they are alive and feeding in the fields；but when we sit down at the table to eat．we call their meat beef．

7. The new ruling class had built a cultural barrier against him by building their French against his own language.

The new ruling class by using French instead of English made it difficult for the English to accept or absorb the culture of the rulers．

8．English had come royally into its own.

The English language received proper recognition and was used by the King once more．

9. The phrase has always been used a little pejoratively and even facetiously by the lower classes.

The phrase，the King's English，has always been used disrespectfully and jokingly by the lower classes． The working people very often make fun of the proper and formal language of the educated people．

10. The rebellion against a cultural dominance is still there.

There still exists in the working people，as in the early Saxon peasants，a spirit of opposition to the cultural authority of the ruling class．

11. There is always a great danger that “words will harden into things for us.”

There is always a great danger that we might forget that words are only symbols and take them for things they are supposed to represent．For example，the word “dog” is a symbol representing a kind of animal．We mustn't regard the word “dog” as being the animal itself．

12. Even with the most educated and the most literate, the King’s English slips and slides in conversation.

Even the most educated and literate people do not use standard，formal English all the time in their conversation．

Lesson 4