Question

【題目】As an Englishman, I can speak three languages—English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics（數(shù)據(jù)）from the survey done by the European Commission（歐盟委員會）showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why my people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only an option at school. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude（態(tài)度）to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decided to try!

【1】Which of the following about the British people is TRUE?

A. They are good language learners.

B. 62% of them speak two or more languages.

C. More than half of them only speak English.

D. They are famous for speaking foreign languages.

【2】In Paragraph 4, “option” means .

A. game B. choice C. mistake D. conversation

【3】What is the best title of the passage?

A. Speaking English B. Young English learners

C. Schools in the UK D. Foreign Language Learning in the UK

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】 C

【2】 B

【3】 D

【解析】

文章大意：本文主要介紹英國人在語言方面學習的情況，我們都知道英語是使用最廣泛的外語，因此英國人對于學外語沒有什么熱度和興趣，而且比其它學科要難，為了解決這種情況，英國政府正在尋找不同的方法來改善學校的語言學習。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第二段第一句Some statistics （數(shù)據(jù)） from the survey done by the European Commission （歐盟委員會）showed that 62% of the British people only speak English．歐盟委員會進行的一些調(diào)查顯示，62%的英國人只會說英語，可知C選項"一半以上的人只會說英語"正確。故選：C。

【2】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)上句In Britain，students are not required to learn a foreign language．在英國，學生不需要學習外語，可知，那意味著在學校學習外語只是一種"選擇"。故選：B。

【3】主旨大意題。根據(jù)最后一句Changing the British attitude （態(tài)度） to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!改變英國人學習外語的態(tài)度可能是一項艱巨的任務，但政府決定試一試！及短文內(nèi)容可知，主要介紹的是英國的外語學習情況。故選：D。