Question

【題目】 Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the population of the world was hunter-gatherers, small, closely connected groups developed their own speech different from each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.

Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages also became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialization, the development of the nation-state and the spread of education, especially globalization and better communications in the past few years, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution(分布) of these languages is hugely unbalanced. The general rule is that warm, pleasant areas have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet areas have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone has well over 800. The median number (中位數(shù)) of speakers is only 6,000, which means that half the world’s languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

Already over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. For example, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

【1】What can we learn about languages in hunter-gatherer times?

A. They were developing very fast.B. They were similar to each other .

C. They were large in number.D. They were closely connected.

【2】Which of the following best explains “dominant” underlined in paragraph 2?

A. Powerful.B. Traditional.C. Simple.D. Modern.

【3】How many languages are spoken by less than 6,000 people at present?

A. About 6,800.B. About 3,400.C. About 2,400.D. About 1,200.

【4】What is the main idea of the text?

A. New languages will be created.

B. People’s lifestyles are seen in languages.

C. Language development depends on geography.

D. Human development leads to fewer languages.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】A

【3】B

【4】D

【解析】

本文是一篇科教類閱讀，文章講述的是語言已經(jīng)千百年的歷史，不斷地出現(xiàn)和消失，但最近新出現(xiàn)的語言越來越少，而消失地越來越多，隨著社會和工業(yè)化的發(fā)展，語言消失地越來越快。

【1】推斷判斷題。根據(jù)文章第一段第二句 When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit (聯(lián)系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. 和最后一句 Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them. 可知，在游獵社會時期，族群內(nèi)部非常緊密，而族群之間語言相互獨立；一萬年前，世界人口僅有五百萬到一千萬，而語言的種類數(shù)達到一萬兩千種。故C項正確。A項，“語言發(fā)展得非�？�”。在文中沒有提到。故A項錯誤；B項，“語言模式很相似”。和原文表意相反。故C項錯誤；D項，“語言緊密聯(lián)系”。和原文表意相反。故D項錯誤。故正確答案為C。

【2】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)文章第二段最后一句中 and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over 可知，dominant 的語言指的是漸漸變成主流（take over）的英語、西班牙語和中文這些在世界上被廣泛使用的語言。A. powerful 意為“強大的”，符合題意。B項“傳統(tǒng)的”；C項，“簡單的”；D項，“現(xiàn)代的”；沒有討論語言的現(xiàn)代與古老。故D項錯誤。doninant占優(yōu)勢的，占支配地位的�？芍�可以用powerful這個近義詞來表達。故正確答案為A。

【3】數(shù)字計算題。根據(jù)文章第三段最后一句 The median number (中位數(shù)) of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.可知，少于6,000人的群體在說的語言占所有語言的一半。又根據(jù)文章第三段第一句At present, the world has about 6,800 languages.可知，用所有的語言數(shù)量6,800除以2，因此正確答案為大約3,400種語言。故正確答案為B。

【4】主旨大意題。根據(jù)文章第一段第一句Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going.可知，曾經(jīng)的語言有新生有消失，但是最近沒有新生的語言，只有消失掉的語言。又根據(jù)文章第四段第一句 Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡) 可知，世界上的語言正在變得越來越少。第二段和第三段也明確告訴人們，隨著社會的發(fā)展，更多的語言擁有更少的使用者。故D項正確。A項“新的語言會被創(chuàng)造”。和第一段第一句相反。故A項錯誤。B項“人們的生活方式被反映在語言中”。文中未提及。故B項錯誤。C項“地理決定了語言的發(fā)展”。并不是貫穿文章的主旨，只在第三段有提及，所以不是文章主旨。故C項錯誤。故正確答案為D。

做這類題材閱讀理解時要求考生對文章通讀一遍，做題時結(jié)合原文和題目有針對性的找出相關(guān)語句進行仔細分析，結(jié)合選項選出正確答案。推理判斷題也是要在抓住關(guān)鍵句子的基礎上合理的分析才能得出正確答案，切忌胡亂猜測，一定要做到有理有據(jù)。