The time may soon come when we say goodbye to most of the world’s languages. Today humans express themselves in over 6,000 different languages. But that is quickly changing. Many scientists say that over half of these languages will disappear within the next 50 years. After 100 years, the languages used in the world will not be more than 20.
Why? It is because people from different cultures live and work together much more often than before. This brings changes. The languages of the world’s main culture are replacing the languages of the smaller cultures. Most international trade takes place in world languages such as English. People respect their own cultures and traditions, but when it comes to getting a job, knowing a world language is often necessary. It may mean the difference between success and failure.
Technology works on the change of languages in an even more amazing way. Modern media such as radio and television give young people in developing countries much knowledge about the world. But this knowledge doesn’t come in words from the mouths of their parents or the elders in their neighborhood. It usually comes in the language of a different culture.
People in different cultures think it good for them to share a popular language. They can quickly share ideas and work together. Knowing the same language means easier communication and is a basis for trust.
Is the death of a small local language such a terrible thing? The answer is maybe. Many cultures may have words for many useful things we know nothing about. If their languages die, their valuable wisdom may be lost forever. The future of the world’s language depends on our actions now. Will we protect endangered languages or allow them to quietly disappear?
Time will have the last word.
1.Scientists say that within 50 years, perhaps, there will be only ________ languages in the world.
A. 4,000B. over 3,000C. no more than 20D. around 3,000
2.The passage says that if all the people in the world knew a major world language, ________.
A. radio and television would all use the language
B. it would be easier for them to share their ideas
C. lessons at schools would be taught in the language
D. people would respect their own culture more
3.Also, the passage says that if nobody spoke the languages of smaller cultures, ________.
A. knowledge would come from the mouths of the elders
B. many of the words for things we do not know would be lost
C. people would have difficulty in working together
D. there would be no smaller cultures
4.By saying “Time will have the last word,” the writer means “________”.
A. let us wait and see
B. we have time to do something
C. it is too late to do anything
D. it is only a problem of time
In the fall of 1985. I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college an the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic—and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 18. Our home was a complete zoo—a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant talking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit. But I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember：little steps add up to big dreams.
1.When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be ________.
A. a writerB. a teacherC. a judgeD. a doctor
2.Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?
A. She wanted to study by herself.
B. She fell in love and got married.
C. She suffered from a serious illness.
D. She decided to look after her grandma.
3.What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?
A. She was busy yet happy with her family life.
B. She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.
C. She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.
D. She was too confused to make a correct choice.
4.What dose the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?
A. Failure is the mother of success.
B. Little by little, one goes far.
C. Every coin has two sides.
D. Well begun, half done.
A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute” someone might say, “are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”
The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase (公文包) and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class. I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.
I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.
“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forests of hands. Every student would yell. “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”
A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I inspected the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.
1.The author took the job to teach writing because ________.
A. he wanted to be expected
B. he had written some storied
C. he wanted to please his father
D. he had dreamed of being a teacher
2.What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2?
A. He would be aggressive in his first class.
B. He was well-prepared for his first class.
C. He got nervous upon the arrival of his first class.
D. He waited long for the arrival of his first class.
3.Before he started his class, the author asked the students to ________.
A. write down their suggestions on the paper cards
B. cut maple leaves out of the construction paper
C. cut some cards out of the construction paper
D. write down their names on the paper cards
4.What did the students do when the author started his class?
A. They began to talk.
B. They stayed silent.
C. They raised their hands.
D. They shouted to be heard.
When I was nine years old, I loved to go fishing with my dad. But the only thing that wasn’t very fun about it was that he could catch many fish while I couldn’t catch anything. I usually got pretty upset and kept asking him why. He always answered, “Son, if you want to catch a fish, you have to think like a fish”, I remember being even more upset then because, “I’m not a fish!” I didn’t know how to think like a fish. Besides, I reasoned, how could what I think influence what a fish does?
As I got a little older I began to understand what my dad really meant. So, I read some books on fish. And I even joined the local fishing club and started attending the monthly meetings. I learned that a fish is a cold-blooded animal and therefore is very sensitive to water temperature. That is why fish prefer shallow water to deep water because the former is warmer. Besides, water is usually warmer in direct sunlight than in the shade. Yet, fish don’t have any eyelids(眼皮) and the sun hurts their eyes... The more I understood fish, the more I became effective at finding and catching them.
When I grew up and entered the business world, I remember hearing my first boss say, “We all need to think like sales people.” But it didn’t completely make sense. My dad never once said, “If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fisherman.” What he said was, “You need to think like a fish.” Years later, with great efforts to promote long-term services to people much older and richer than me, I gradually learned what we all need is to think more like customers. It is not an easy job. I will show you how in the following chapters.
1.Why was the author upset in fishing trips when he was nine?
A. He could not catch a fish.
B. His father was not patient with him.
C. His father did not teach him fishing.
D. He could not influence a fish as his father did.
2.What did the author’s father really mean?
A. To read about fish.
B. To learn fishing by oneself.
C. To understand what fish think.
D. To study fishing in many ways.
3.According to the author, fish are most likely to be found _________.
A. in deep water on sunny days
B. in deep water on cloudy days
C. in shallow water under sunlight
D. in shallow water under waterside trees
假定你是李华，想去一家敬老院(nursing home)当志愿者。请给该院负责人Ms Wang写封信。信的内容包括：
1.为什么要当志愿者；
2.有什么技能和特长；
3.如何当好志愿者。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
下面是一段短文，请你对其进行修改。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
Xihaigu is in the southern part of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Locating on the Loess Plateau(黄土高原), it faces rain lack and extreme poor living conditions. The UN had regarded it as one place that is difficult to live in. So in spite of the tough conditions, there are quite few rural teachers who work there. They do your best to perform their various duty with great devotion. China currently has over to 3 million rural teachers teaching more than 40 million rural children. According by the Ministry of Education, between 2010 and 2013, the number of rural teachers falls from 4.73 million to 3.3 million.
