Question

    For immigrant (移民) parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle.

“You understand grandmother when she talks to you, don’t you, darling?” The girl nods. Johnson met her — and her Danish mother and English father — at the airport, on the way to Denmark. The parents were eager to discuss their experience of bringing up their daughter bilingually (双语) in London. It isn’t easy: the husband does not speak Danish, so the child hears the language only from her mother, who has come to accept that her daughter will reply in English.

This can be painful. Not sharing your first language with loved ones is hard. Not passing it on to your own child can be especially hard. Many immigrant parents feel a sense of failure; they are worried and share stories on parenting forums and social media, hoping to find the secret to bringing up bilingual children successfully.

Children are linguistic sponges (海绵), but this doesn’t mean that brief exposure (接触) is enough. They must hear a language quite a bit to understand it — and use it often to be able to speak it comfortably. This is mental work, and a child who doesn’t have a motive (动机) to speak a language — either a need or a strong desire — will often avoid it. Children’s brains are already busy enough.

So languages often fade and die when parents move abroad. Consider America. The foreign-born share of the population is 13.7%, and has never been lower than 4.7% (in 1970). And yet foreign-language speakers don’t increase: today just 25% of the population speaks another language. That’s because, usually, the first generation born in America is bilingual, and the second is monolingual (单语) — in English, the children often struggling to speak easily with their immigrant grandparents.

In the past, governments discouraged immigrant families from keeping their languages. These days, officials tend to be tolerant; some even see a valuable resource in immigrants’ language abilities. Yet many factors ensure that children still lose their parents’ languages, or never learn them.

1.Find out or write out one sentence to state the main idea of this passage.

2.The underlined word “it”, in Paragraph 2 refer to ________.

3.Restate (重新叙述) the main meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3.

4.The statistics in Paragraph 4 are used to support the idea that ________.

5.Find out one word to show the American officials’ present attitude toward immigrants keeping their languages.

Answer

1.For immigrant parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle.

2.bringing up their daughter bilingually in London.

3.Children can acquire language naturally if exposed to language enough.

4.languages often fade and die when parents move abroad.

5.Tolerant.

【解析】

本文是说明文。文章介绍了移民家庭的母语传承。

1.

主旨大意题。通读全文可知，第一段的For immigrant (移民) parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle.是文章主旨，介绍了外籍父母想要下一代传承母语并非易事，下文就这个问题展开阐述。故答案是For immigrant parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle.

2.

词句猜测题。it指代上文提到The parents were eager to discuss their experience of bringing up their daughter bilingually (双语) in London.(这对父母很想分享在伦敦用双语抚养女儿的经历)，故答案是bringing up their daughter bilingually in London.

3.

推理判断题。根据下文but this doesn’t mean that brief exposure (接触) is enough. They must hear a language quite a bit to understand it — and use it often to be able to speak it comfortably.可知，但这并不意味着粗略地接触就足够。必须听的足够多直到能够理解，用得足够多直到能够顺畅地表达出来。因此推断划线句：儿童的语言可塑性较强表示“如果接触到足够的语言，孩子们就能自然地获得语言”。故答案是Children can acquire language naturally if exposed to language enough.

4.

推理判断题。第四段第一句So languages often fade and die when parents move abroad.可知，因此，父母移居国外时，母语会越说越少。接下来列举了数据说明，因此第4段中的统计数据用于支持这一想法。故答案是languages often fade and die when parents move abroad.

5.

推理判断题。根据最后一段的These days, officials tend to be tolerant; some even see a valuable resource in immigrants’ language abilities.(如今，政府倾向于减少干预；有些官员甚至在移民的语言能力中发现了宝贵的资源)可推断，现在美国政府官员对待移民保存自己的语言是容忍的。故答案是Tolerant。