The future of the world’s language

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题目与答案

1. 27 Of the world’s 6,500 living languages, about half of them are expected to be extinct. Most of the world’s languages are spoken by a _____ of people.
   • A similarity
   • B significance
   • C funding
   • D minority
   • E education
   • F difference

   答案：D minority

   原文定位：In short, 95 percent of the world’s languages are spoken by only five percent of its population-a remarkable level of linguistic diversity stored in tiny pockets of speakers around the world

2. 28 However, Professor Turin set up a project WOLP to prevent _____ of the languages.
   • similarity
   • significance
   • funding
   • minority
   • education
   • difference

   答案：disappearance

   原文定位：Mark Turin, a university professor, has launched WOLP (World Oral Language Project) to prevent the language from the brink of extinction

3. 29 The project provides the community with _____ to enable people to record their endangered languages.
   • similarity
   • significance
   • funding
   • minority
   • education
   • difference

   答案：funding

   原文定位：He is trying to encourage indigenous communities to collaborate with anthropologists around the world to record what he calls “oral literature” through video cameras, voice recorders and other multimedia tools by awarding grants from a £30,000 pot that the project has secured this year

4. 30 The oral tradition has a great cultural _____ .
   • similarity
   • significance
   • funding
   • minority
   • education
   • difference

   答案：significance

   原文定位：For many of these communities, the oral tradition is at the heart of their culture. The stories they tell are creative as well as communicative

5. 31 An important _____ between languages spoken by few people and languages with celebrated written documents existed in many communities.
   • similarity
   • significance
   • funding
   • minority
   • education
   • difference

   答案：difference

   原文定位：Unlike the languages with celebrated written traditions, such as Sanskrit, Hebrew and Ancient Greek, few indigenous communities have recorded their own languages or ever had them recorded until now

6. 32 Turin argued that anthropologists and linguists usually think carefully before selecting an area to research.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN

   答案：FALSE

   原文定位：Many of the choices anthropologists and linguists who work on these traditional field-work projects are quite random,” he admits

7. 33 Turin concluded that the Thangmi language had few similarities with other languages.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN

   答案：NOT GIVEN

   原文定位：Continuing his work with the Thangmi community in the 1990s, Turin began to record the language he was hearing, realising that not only was this language and its culture entirely undocumented, it was known to few outside the tiny community. He set about trying to record their language and myth of origins;So then I produced this trilingual word list in Thangmi, Nepali and English

8. 34 Turin has written that 1000-page document was inappropriate for the Thangmi community.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN

   答案：TRUE

   原文定位：I wrote 1,000 pages of grammar in English that nobody could use - but I realised that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough for me, it wasn’t enough for them. It simply wasn’t going to work as something for the community

9. 35 Some Nepalese schools lack resources to devote to language teaching.
   • TRUE
   • FALSE
   • NOT GIVEN

   答案：NOT GIVEN

   原文定位：That small dictionary is still sold in local schools for a modest 20 rupees, and used as part of a wider cultural regeneration process to educate children about their heritage and language

10. 36 Why does Turin say people do PhDs on the apostrophe in French?
    • A He believes that researchers have a limited role in the research of languages.
    • B He compares the methods of research into languages.
    • C He thinks research should result in a diverse cultural outlook.
    • D He holds that research into French should focus on more general aspects.

    答案：A He believes that researchers have a limited role in the research of languages.

    原文定位：There are more linguists in universities around the world than there are spoken languages - but most of them aren’t working on this issue. To me it’s amazing that in this day and age, we still have an entirely incomplete image of the world’s linguistic diversity. People do PhDs on the apostrophe in French, yet we still don’t know how many languages are spoken

11. 37 What is discussed in the ninth paragraph?
    • A Forces driving people to believe endangered languages can survive.
    • B The community where people distrust language revival.
    • C The methods of research that have improved language restoration.
    • D Initiatives the World Oral Literature Project is bringing to Israel.

    答案：A Forces driving people to believe endangered languages can survive.

    原文定位：Yet, despite the struggles facing initiatives such as the World Oral Literature Project, there are historical examples that point to the possibility that language restoration is no mere academic pipe dream. The revival of a modern form of Hebrew in the 19th century is often cited as one of the best proofs that languages long dead, belonging to small communities, can be resurrected and embraced by a large number of people. By the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. It is now spoken by more than seven million people in Israel

12. 38 How is the WOLP’s prospect?
    • A It would not raise enough funds to achieve its aims.
    • B It will help keep languages alive.
    • C It will be embraced by a large number of people.
    • D It has a chance to succeed to protect the engendered languages.

    答案：D It has a chance to succeed to protect the engendered languages.

    原文定位：Dr Turin believes that the fate of the world’s endangered languages is not sealed;the race is on to collect and protect as many of the languages as possible;We have to be wholly realistic. A project like ours is in no position, and was not designed, to keep languages alive. The only people who can help languages survive are the people in those communities themselves. They need to be reminded that it’s good to speak their own language and I think we can help them do that

13. 39 What is Turin’s main point of globalisation?
    • A Globalisation is the main reason for endangered languages.
    • B Globalisation has both advantages and disadvantages.
    • C We should have a more critical view of globalisation.
    • D We should foremost protect our identity in face of globalisation.

    答案：B Globalisation has both advantages and disadvantages.

    原文定位：I call it the globalisation paradox: on the one hand globalisation and rapid socio-economic change are the things that are eroding and challenging diversity. But on the other, globalisation is providing us with new and very exciting tools and facilities to get to places to document those things that globalisation is eroding. Also, the communities at the coal-face of change are excited by what globalisation has to offer

14. 40 What does Turin suggest that community people should do?
    • A Learn other languages.
    • B Only have a sense of identity.
    • C Keep up with the modern society without losing their language.
    • D Join the race to protect as many languages as possible but be realistic.

    答案：C Keep up with the modern society without losing their language.

    原文定位：They need to be reminded that it’s good to speak their own language and I think we can help them do that-becoming modern doesn’t mean you have to lose your language