劍橋雅思4 Test 2閱讀原文及答案消失的語言 lost for words

劍橋雅思4 Test 2閱讀原文及答案消失的語言 lost for words

In the Native American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street signs, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.

Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations – that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world,’ says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. ‘It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know.’

Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3,000have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000speakers. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in Fairbanks.

Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture,’ he says. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.’

The change is not always voluntary Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national unity The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics Department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures,’ he says. ‘They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English.’ But are languages worth saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.

Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene says. ‘Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world,’ says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces physiological changes in the brain. ‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French, for instance,’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’

So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true. ‘The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language,’ says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. ‘Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism,’ he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8,000new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, ‘a(chǎn)pprentice’ programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer ‘a(chǎn)pprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language. After about 300 hours of training they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language from dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day. ‘Preserving a language is more like preserving fruits in ajar,’ he says.

However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later generations. But a written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before.

第1題答案：isolation

對應(yīng)原文：第3段：Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people.

解析：從6800往下找，根據(jù)variety和diversity，came about和breed的對應(yīng)確定句子。從題干中可以推斷空上填名詞，而且是造成語言多樣性的原因，因此確定答案為isolation.

第2題答案：economic globalization/socio-economic pressures

對應(yīng)原文：第5段：the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures,’

解析：根據(jù)government定位到第5段，intiative與policy對應(yīng)，而空上填的又是與initiative并列的詞匯，因此確定答案為economic globlisation

第3題答案：cultural identity

對應(yīng)原文：第7段：But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true.

解析：題干中句子意思是說阻止語言滅絕的因素，文中第7段開始討論這一問題。根據(jù)increasing與growing，appreciation與interest的對應(yīng)確定句子，進(jìn)而鎖定答案。

第4題答案：traditional skill

對應(yīng)原文：第7段：Volunteer ‘a(chǎn)pprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language.

解析：根據(jù)apprentice和instruction定位到具體的句子。根據(jù)題干推測空上應(yīng)該文章來自老烤鴨雅思填某種知識或技能，而learn和teach對應(yīng)，由此確定答案為traditional skills

第5題答案：E

對應(yīng)原文：第7段：Doug Whalen … Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism

解析：bilingualism指的是雙語，與題目中的more than one language對應(yīng)，unless與without，save與survive對應(yīng)，由此確定答案。

第6題答案：B

對應(yīng)原文：第7段：But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day

解析：文中指出阻止語言滅絕與讓他重?zé)ㄐ律遣灰粯拥氖虑?，即保護(hù)語言免除滅絕之外還有更高的目標(biāo)，因此確定答案為B。

第7題答案：D

對應(yīng)原文：第6段：Pagel … The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.

解析：原文中相當(dāng)于詳細(xì)解釋了一下the way we think，determined與structured同義替換，題干中的每個信息點(diǎn)在句子中都能找到對應(yīng)，由此確定答案。

第8題答案：C

對應(yīng)原文：第4段：Nicholas Ostler … When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.

解析：全文中只有第4段提到了年輕人的問題，很容易定位。established way of life又與tradition對應(yīng)，因此確定答案為C

第9題答案：B

對應(yīng)原文：第6段：‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene says.

解析：文中提到語言跟文化聯(lián)系在一起，一個人改換語言也會造成某種東西的丟失。其中change與shift對應(yīng)，因此確定答案為B

第10題答案：No

對應(yīng)原文：第3段：Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers.

解析：納瓦霍語仍然有150000名使用者，一點(diǎn)都不少。而且原文中用的是despite，即盡管這么多人用，但仍然可能滅絕。這點(diǎn)跟題干完全相反，因此確定答案為NO。

第11題答案：YES

對應(yīng)原文：第三段：Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers…

解析：仍然是同一句話，文中用了具體的例子來說明哪怕使用人很多，語言仍然可能消失。與題干中的信息完全對應(yīng)，因此答案為YES

第12題答案：NOT GIVEN

對應(yīng)原文：無

解析：文章中第5段確實(shí)提到了政府。但是說的是政府政策促進(jìn)了一些語言的滅絕。并沒有提到政府應(yīng)該怎么做。因此為NOT GIVEN。切不可自己推斷，覺得政府既然有責(zé)任，就應(yīng)該做的更多。

第13題答案：YES

對應(yīng)原文：第7段：So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century.

解析：原文中提到，盡管語言學(xué)家的努力，但語言仍然會消失。對應(yīng)inevitable（必然的，不可避免的）的的意思，因此確定答案為YES.

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