Question

 One of the main challenges that many countries face is how to maintain their identity in the face of globalization and the growing multilanguage trend. "One of the main reasons for economic failure in many African countries is the fact that,with a few important excep?tions,mother tongue education is not practised in any of the independent African states."said Neville Alexander,director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at the University of Cape Town.

In response to the spread of English and the increased multilanguage trends arising from immigration,many countries have introduced language laws in the last decade. In some,the use of languages other than the national language is banned in public spaces such as advertising posters. One of the first such legal provisions was the "Toubon Law" in France in 1994,and the idea has been copied in many coun?tries since then. Such efforts to govern language use are often considered as futile by language experts,who are well aware of the difficulty in controlling fashions in speech and know from research that language switching among bilinguaLs is a natu?ral process.

It is especially difficult for native speakers of English to understand the desire to maintain the "purity" of a language by law. Since the time of Shakespeare,Eng?lish has continually absorbed foreign words into its own language. English is one of the most mixed and rapidly changing languages in the world,but that has not been a barrier to acquiring superiority and power. Another reason for the failure of many native English speakers to understand the role of the state regulation is that it has never been the Anglo-Saxon way of doing things. English has never had a statecon?trolled authority for the language,similar,for example,to the Academic Francaise in France.

The need to protect national languages is,for most western Europeans,a re?cent phenomenon―especially the need to ensure that English does not necessarily take over too many fields. Public communication,education and new ways of communi?cation promoted by technology may be key fields to defend.

5. Neville Alexander believes that         .

   A. mother tongue education is not practised in all African countries

   B. globalization has resulted in the economic failure of Africa

   C. globalization has led to the rise of multilanguage trend

   D. lack of mother tongue education can lead to economic failure

6. The underlined word "futile" in Paragraph 2 most probably means "         ”.

   A. workable   B. practical   C. useless   D. unnecessary

7. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

   A. English has taken over fields like public communication and education.

   B. Many aspects of national culture are threatened by the spread of English.

   C. Most language experts believe it is important to promote a national language.

   D. Europeans have long realized the need to protect a national language.

8. What would be the best title for the passage?

   A. Fighting against the rule of English

   B. Protecting local languages and identities

   C. Globalization and multilanguage trend

   D. To maintain the purity of language by law

Answer 1

随着全球化的加快，非洲一些国家的本地语言正在受到很大的冲击。文章分析了英语泛滥的原因及其带来的影响。

5. D细节理解题。由第一段第二句Neville Alexander的话可知，除了几个国家之外，非洲其他大部分国家并不在国内实行母语教育。而这些国家母语教育的缺失正是导致这些非洲国家经济失败的一个重要原因。

6. C词义猜测题。由第二段最后一句话可知，语言学专家们深知企图控制这种语言的发展趋势是很困难的，并且通过研究得知，双语之间的语言转换是一个很自然的过程。所以企图控制使用某种语言的努力是"徒劳的"。

7. B推理判断题。根据最后一段可知，英语的传播给民族文化带来了几个方面(public communication,education and new ways of communication promoted by technology) 的威胁。

8. B主旨大意题。文章分析了在非洲英语的传播导致了一些国家当地语言的缺失，这些国家开始采取措施来保护自己的语言。由此可以看出，B项最能概括全文内容。