If you ever travel to Canada, one of the first things you will notice is that all products have English and French labels on them. Likewise, airport and other public announcements are made in both languages. That’s because Canada is officially a bilingual country. In order to understand how this came to be, you must take a look at Canada’s history.
如果你有機會去加拿大，你最先會注意到所有產品都有英文和法文的標示。同樣的，機場和其他公告都是用兩種語言標示。那是因為加拿大是官方語言為雙語的國家。為了解其來由，你必須看看加拿大的歷史。

For thousands of years, Canada was home to the First Nations, or aboriginal people. The first Europeans to arrive on the east coast of Canada were Vikings around the year 1000 but they didn’t stay very long. 500 years later, the French arrived and began exploring Canada. In 1604 they established their first city there, and by 1685 there were 10,000 people inhabiting “New France.” However, the English were also interested in Canada. There were four major wars between the French and English in Canada. The French lost the last war in 1763 and were forced to give up their territory in Canada. But because there were so many French people living there already, the British allowed them to stay and maintain their culture and language.
數千年來，加拿大是第一民族(或稱北美原住民)的家園。第一批到加拿大東海岸的歐洲人是在西元一千年左右抵達的維京人，但他們沒有停留很久。五百年後，法國人抵達了加拿大並開始探索新大陸。1604年時，他們在那裡建立了第一座城市，到了1685年，已經有一萬人居住在「新法蘭西」。然而，英國人也對加拿大有興趣，法國與英國之間在加拿大進行了四次大戰。法國在1763年輸了最後一場戰爭，被迫放棄在加拿大的領土。但是因為已經有許多法國人生活在那裡，英國人允許他們留下並保有他們的文化和語言。

When Canada gained independence in 1867, the first four provinces were created. One of them was Québec, where most of the French speakers lived. If you visit Québec today, you will notice that most people there still speak French, while in Canada’s other nine provinces, most people communicate in English. That’s why today, both are officially recognized as the national languages of Canada, and even in the primarily English-speaking provinces, most students learn some French in school, too.
1867年加拿大獨立時，創立了最初的四個省。其中一個是魁北克省，是大多數法國人居住的地方。如果你現今造訪魁北克省，則會注意到大多數人仍然說法文，而在加拿大的其他九個省，大多數人是用英文溝通。這就是為什麼現在這兩個語言都被加拿大承認為官方語言，甚至在主要使用英文的省份，大多數學生也會在學校學些法文。

Vocabulary 好字精選

1. bilingual (adj) speaking two languages 雙語的
Jackie is bilingual; she can speak Italian and German fluently.
Jackie會說雙語，她會講流利的義大利文和德文。

2. aboriginal (adj) describing an original inhabitant of an area 原住民
Aboriginal people have been occupying Australia for 40,000 years.
原住民已經佔領了澳洲約四萬年。

3. inhabit (v) live in/occupy an area 居住，棲息於
People have been inhabiting this river valley since 5000 BC.
在公元前5000年開始，人們就一直居住在這個河谷。

4. territory (n) area 領土
The north of Canada is a very large territory that is occupied mostly by animals and very few people.
加拿大北部的領土非常大，主要由動物和極少數人佔領。

5. maintain (v) keep 維持，保持
In order to maintain peace, both sides signed an agreement.
為了維持和平，雙方簽訂了協議。

6. province (n) like a state, but used in Canada, China, etc. 省份
China has 23 provinces as well as 11 of special regions.
中國有23個省和11個特別行政區。

7. communicate (v) share ideas/information 溝通，聯絡
He can’t speak but he uses sign language and writing to communicate with others.
他不能說話，但他以手語和寫字來和別人交流。