剑桥雅思4 Test 2阅读原文及答案消失的语言 lost for words

剑桥雅思4 Test 2阅读原文及答案消失的语言 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, ‘apprentice’ programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer ‘apprentices’ 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题答案：isolation

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

解析：从6800往下找，根据variety和diversity，came about和breed的对应确定句子。从题干中可以推断空上填名词，而且是造成语言多样性的原因，因此确定答案为isolation.

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

对应原文：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：根据government定位到第5段，intiative与policy对应，而空上填的又是与initiative并列的词汇，因此确定答案为economic globlisation

第3题答案：cultural identity

对应原文：第7段：But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true.

解析：题干中句子意思是说阻止语言灭绝的因素，文中第7段开始讨论这一问题。根据increasing与growing，appreciation与interest的对应确定句子，进而锁定答案。

第4题答案：traditional skill

对应原文：第7段：Volunteer ‘apprentices’ 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：根据apprentice和instruction定位到具体的句子。根据题干推测空上应该文章来自老烤鸭雅思填某种知识或技能，而learn和teach对应，由此确定答案为traditional skills

第5题答案：E

对应原文：第7段：Doug Whalen … Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism

解析：bilingualism指的是双语，与题目中的more than one language对应，unless与without，save与survive对应，由此确定答案。

第6题答案：B

对应原文：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：文中指出阻止语言灭绝与让他重焕新生是不一样的事情，即保护语言免除灭绝之外还有更高的目标，因此确定答案为B。

第7题答案：D

对应原文：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：原文中相当于详细解释了一下the way we think，determined与structured同义替换，题干中的每个信息点在句子中都能找到对应，由此确定答案。

第8题答案：C

对应原文：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段提到了年轻人的问题，很容易定位。established way of life又与tradition对应，因此确定答案为C

第9题答案：B

对应原文：第6段：‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene says.

解析：文中提到语言跟文化联系在一起，一个人改换语言也会造成某种东西的丢失。其中change与shift对应，因此确定答案为B

第10题答案：No

对应原文：第3段：Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers.

解析：纳瓦霍语仍然有150000名使用者，一点都不少。而且原文中用的是despite，即尽管这么多人用，但仍然可能灭绝。这点跟题干完全相反，因此确定答案为NO。

第11题答案：YES

对应原文：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：仍然是同一句话，文中用了具体的例子来说明哪怕使用人很多，语言仍然可能消失。与题干中的信息完全对应，因此答案为YES

第12题答案：NOT GIVEN

对应原文：无

解析：文章中第5段确实提到了政府。但是说的是政府政策促进了一些语言的灭绝。并没有提到政府应该怎么做。因此为NOT GIVEN。切不可自己推断，觉得政府既然有责任，就应该做的更多。

第13题答案：YES

对应原文：第7段：So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century.

解析：原文中提到，尽管语言学家的努力，但语言仍然会消失。对应inevitable（必然的，不可避免的）的的意思，因此确定答案为YES.

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