Today, several of the world's nearly 7,000 languages face a serious risk of extinction. "For example, Ainu, a language in Japan, is now seriously threatened, with only 10 native speakers left," said lead study author Tatsuya Amano at the University of Cambridge in England.
The scientists found that 25 percent of the world's languages are threatened. After identifying where the endangered languages were, they looked for any environmental and social or economic factors those languages might have in common, such as rugged terrain or rapid population growth. "We found that at the global scale, language speaker declines are strongly linked to economic growth-that is, declines are particularly occurring in economically developed regions," Amano said.
One important implication of this new study "is that languages in the tropics and Himalayan region are likely to be increasingly threatened in the near future, because these regions still have many local indigenous languages (土语) with a small number of speakers, and at the same time are experiencing rapid economic growth," Amano said.
Economic growth may endanger languages for a variety of reasons. For instance, speakers of endangered languages may view another more dominant language as offering economic opportunities, and thus forego their own languages. There are other important factors that might endanger languages, the researchers said. For instance, policies regarding how languages are used and taught in schools can be very different among countries and even within each country, and these factors may explain more detailed patterns in language endangerment.
Amano suggested it could be possible to forecast future threats to linguistic diversity. "There exists detailed information on projected future changes in the environment, economies and climates," Amano said. "Using such information, together with the findings of this study and further analysis, we would like to understand what will happen to the world's languages, where it will happen and which languages will be threatened in particular."
1.The language of Ainu is mentioned in Paragraph l in order to tell us that _______________.
A. Japanese is new seriously threatened
B. few people speak Japanese in the world
C. Japanese is made up of many languages
D. it is most likely to disappear in the future
2.What may endanger the languages most according to Amano?
A. The diversity of society.
B. The decline of the population.
C. The development of economy
D. The improvement of the environment.
3.The writer shows us the reasons that languages are endangered by ___________________.
A. offering some examples
B. performing some experiments .
C. telling some interesting stories
D. making a list of important facts .
4.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _______________.
A. the study is very important to languages
B. world's languages are developing rapidly
C. it is rather hard for us to protect languages
D. future threats to languages can be predicted
Freda Bright says, “Only in opera do people die of love.” It’s true. You really can’t love somebody to death. I’ve known people to die from no love, but I’ve never known anyone to be loved to death. We just can’t love one another enough.
A hear-warming story tells of a woman who finally decided to ask her boss for a raise in salary. All day she felt nervous and late in the afternoon she summoned the courage to approach her employer. To her delight, the boss agreed to the raise.
The woman arrived home that evening to a beautiful table set with their best dishes. Candles were softly glowing. Her husband had come home early and prepared a festival meal. She wondered if someone from the office had tipped him off, or --- did he just somehow know that she would not get turned down?
She found him in the kitchen and told him the good news. They embraced and kissed, then sat down to the wonderful meal. Next to her plate the woman found a beautifully lettered note. It read: “Congratulations, darling! I knew you’d get the raise! These things will tell you how much I love you.”
Someone has said that the measure of love for his wife is love without measure. What this man feels for his wife is total acceptance and love, whether she succeeds or fails. His love celebrates her victories and soothes her wounds. He stands with her, no matter what life throws in their direction.
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said, “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. And love your friends. Love them without measure.”
1.The sentence in the first paragraph “Only in opera do people die of love.” means ________.
A. no love in the world is believable
B. love is one thing, and life is another
C. love in operas is truly touching
D. love can survive forever, though people die at different ages
2. That the husband prepared her a second letter about her raise suggests that ________.
A. he loves her because he believes that she is sure to receive a raise
B. he has a great way to promote his wife’s love towards him
C. he has a false love for people even if the person is his wife
D. he loves his family members truly, whether they are in good conditions or not
3.From the text, we might say the author ________.
A. refuse any spiritual emotions as embraced and kissed
B. criticizes the attitude of suspicion of the love
C. doesn’t believe there is true love in the world
D. thinks the true love does not expect repayment
I am 26. I’m clear that I’m never going to catch up with Mother Teresa. But I want to do something to help people every single day like her.
Everybody thinks we just serve food and soda. The safety training is serious and stressful. Caring for 49 people in a business class in 90 minutes is not easy. I had a roommate who was a waitress; she just left a candle and a table cloth burning, and I used a fire extinguisher (灭火器) to put out the fire. If something goes bad at her job, she calls the police. But if something happens up in the air, it’s up to us.
I’m single and have no kids. I’ve flown every Christmas since 1995. If I fly, someone else can be with their kids. Christmas in an airport can be depressing, but it’s the little things that make a difference.
We’re not robots. It’s hard to put on a smile and just pretend everything is great when it isn’t. I’ve seen co-workers lose a family member the day before a trip and just pull themselves together (take control of their feelings and believe in a calm way). At the end of a 14-hour flight, it’s like, “It was really nice to help you, but I’m ready for you to get off the plane.” Those last 15 minutes can be the longest 15 minutes of your life. You can’t wait to turn off the flight attendant’s voice and get something to eat without anyone saying “Excuse me.”
Sometimes I go all day and never hear a “please” or a “thank you.” When you say thank you, it’s huge. It makes us feel like you actually see us as fellow humans. We’re up there together at a height of 30,000 feet, enjoying the miracle (奇迹) of the modern flight.
1.What’s the author’s attitude towards Mother Teresa?
A. Grateful B. Fearful C. Doubtful D. Admiring
2.How did the author like her roommate’s job?
A. It was the same as hers B. It was more interesting than hers
C. It was easier than hers D. It was more serious than hers
3.Why does the author fly every Christmas?
A. Because she has nowhere to go.
B. Because she’s trying to be a helpful co-worker.
C. Because she owes her co-workers some favors.
D. Because she’d like to earn more money.
4.What does the author imply by saying the underlined sentence “We’re not robots”?
A. Flight attendants are not stronger than robots.
B. Flight attendants also experience emotions.
C. Flight attendants get tired while robots don’t.
D. Flight attendants need to rest now and then.
Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn’t matter where you live ---- in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village --- the chances are that you’ll be disturbed by jet planes, transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc. we seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they’re working.
Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for a human being. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓). The noise level in some discos is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.
One recent report about noise and concentration suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration, what really influences their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise which doesn’t change too much (music, for example) may even help to concentrate.
1.According to this passage, the noise pollution ____________________.
A. has become the worst in the countryside
B. has become better in big cities
C. has spread from cities to villages
D. has been controlled in modern cities
2.Some people have their hearing harmed _____________.
A. while listening to pop music
B. in complete silence
C. when speaking loudly
D. while watching TV
3.Which of the following isn’t included among the things causing noise?
A. trucks B. motorcycles
C. electric engines D. jet planes
4.Scientists have discovered that what prevents people from concentrating on something is _______.
A. all kinds of noise B. great changes in the level of noise
C. background noise D. popular music
书面表达
假设你是李华，你的好友王林生病了。现在请你给他写一封信，要点包括：
1．听到好友生病时的心情；
2．劝他放弃熬夜的习惯；
3．建议他身体康复后要保证睡眠，经常锻炼，合理饮食。
注意：1．词数120左右：
2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Wang Lin,
I am terribly sorry to hear that you have been ill for a few days and
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
短文改错：
文中共有10处语言错误，错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在下面写出该加的词。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1、每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2、只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last summer I pay a visit to London. Now I am very glad to share the experience with the class.
English people prefer meat and fried food . As for transportation, it's different with that in China .The drivers in England drive on the left sides of the road, that requires foreigners to learn as soon as they arrive .Besides .whoever exceeds(超过) the limit speed is punished serious.
As is know to us all, different countries have different customs, In Britain ,it's pleasant to be asked about their privacy , such as men's salaries and women's ages. People should stand in line whenever needed . What's more. It’s shame to bargain when shopped.
All in all .it has been a worthwhile trip .I hope my words can be of helpful if you go to Britain in the future.
