Question

As an English person, 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 (数据) from the survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) 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 many people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students aren’t required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only a choice at school. In British schools it’s 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’s 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.

1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A.The people in England are good at learning languages.

B.Most of British people only speak English.

C.British people are known for speaking foreign languages.

D.Most of British people want to learn more than one language.

2.How many ways will the British government use to improve language learning?

A.One. B.Two. C.Three. D.Four.

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A.People in other European countries speak English as much as British people.

B.One British student can’t give up learning a foreign language until 14.

C.Students in Britain prefer to learn science or history rather than learn a foreign language.

D.It’s unusual for British students not to learn a foreign language.

4.What does the passage mainly want to tell us?

A.Young English learners. B.Schools in the UK.

C.Speaking English. D.Foreign language learning in the UK.

Answer 1