题目内容
Next Hot Language to Study: Chinese
The fourth-graders at Chicago’s McCormick Primary School are unaware of the difficulty in learning Chinese. For most, who speak Spanish at home, it’s becoming their third language. They’ve been learning and using Chinese words since kindergarten, and it’s now second nature to give a hearty “ni hao” when strangers enter the classroom.
The classroom scene at McCormick is unusual, but it may soon be a common fixture(固定物) in American schools, where Chinese is rapidly becoming the hot new language. Government officials have long wanted more focus on security—useful languages like Chinese, and pressure from them—as well as from business leaders, politicians, and parents—has driven a quick growth in the number of programs.
Chicago itself is home to the largest effort to include Chinese in US public schools. The program here has grown to include 3,000 students in 20 schools, with more schools on a waiting list. Programs have also spread to places like Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and North Carolina. It’s true that the number of students learning Chinese is tiny compared with how many study Spanish or French.
Advocates (提倡者，拥护者) see knowledge of the Chinese language and culture as a help in a global economy where China is growing in importance. “This is an interesting way to begin to engage with the world’s next superpower,” says Michael Levine, director of education at the Asia Society, which has started five new public high schools that offer Chinese. “Globalization（全球化) has already changed the arrangements in terms of how children today are going to need to think about their careers… The question is, when not whether, the schools are going to adjust.”
In Chicago, the trend extends beyond schools with high numbers of Asian students. “The fact that my students are 98% low income and 99% Latino(拉丁美洲人) and they are succeeding in this, tells me everyone should have a try at learning languages,” says Virginia Rivera, principal at McCormick.“We want to give our young people opportunities to advance… and Chinese is a great opportunity to survive in today’s economy,” says Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago.
The first paragraph is mainly written to _______.
A. show the importance of Chinese learning
B. introduce the topic to be followed
C. advise primary schools to teach Chinese
D. prove it’s easy for children to learn language
How many languages are mentioned in this passage?
A. Six. B. Two.
C. Three. D. Four.
In the last paragraph, the underlined word “this ”probably refers to _____.
A. the competition between Latino and Asian students
B. the global economy
C. the interesting way to engage with China
D. the Chinese learning
What CANNOT be learned from this passage?
A. Most students at McCormick can speak three languages.
B. Chinese is gaining its popularity in all schools in Chicago.
C. French has far more speakers than Chinese does in Chicago.
D. Globalization in a way makes it necessary to learn Chinese.
Which of the following is mainly about in this passage?
A. The Chinese learning in Chicago.
B. The ways to learn Chinese.
C. McCormick Primary School.
D. Globalization and Chinese learning.
China is casting such a huge shadow on the United States that many Americans are struggling to learn Chinese in order to maintain their competitive edge, "Interest in learning Chinese among American youth and their parents has grown dramatically in the past five years," said Vivien Stewart at the Asia Society, a US group trying to bridge the gap between Americans and people of Asia and the Pacific．
China, the world's most popular nation, is critical to the United States because it is a leading trader, consumer and investor- Its political influence is also rising across the globe．It has replaced the United States as the world's largest consumer and become the second largest economy in the world after the superpower status and its telling effects politically, economically and culturally are driving the interest to learn the language, experts say．
From kindergartens to high schools, studies by the Asia Society show, there is a "rapid rise" in interest among pupils to study the Chinese language．
Even though the US State Department has stressed the Chinese language "critical " to national prosperity and security, the "current infrastructure （基础设施）to support recruitment （招生） of students and teachers as well as the growth of high quality programs is -badly inadequate," an Asia Society study says．The Society has set a target of having at least 5% of American high school students learning Chinese by 2015．"Millions of Chinese are learning English, but only 24,000 Americans are learning Chinese," said Andrew Corcoran of the San Francisco - based Chinese American International School．
The most popular languages after English in the United States at present are Spanish and French.
1.The passage mainly tells the readers that _____,
A．China is getting under a shadow from USA
B．American competitive edge is shaking
C．Americans object to learning Chinese
D．Chinese appeals to more Americans
2.Based on the context, what does the underlined word "inadequate" （in Paragraph 5） mean?
A．leading B．interesting
C．disappointing D．promising
3.According to the text which of the following is TRUE?
A．Culture can have an effect on exciting persons'
B．USA has got the high quality current
C．Chinese ranks 4th on the American Language
D．Politics decides language studying
4.What might be the most suitable title for this passage?
A, US Government Requires its People to Learn Chinese
B．Chinese Gains its Popularity with Most Americans
C．China's Economy Helps to Spread its Language
D．Americans Show Interest Learning Chinese
As the US wakes up to China’s rising status (地位) as an economic and strategic competitor, US parents are urging their children to learn Chinese, reports Julian Borger.
The US is being swept by a rush to learn Mandarin (普通话) -- from wealthy New York mothers hiring Chinese nannies (保姆) for their small children to a defence department education project in Oregon.
The forces driving Mandarin’s momentum (势头) are parental ambition for children facing a future in which China is almost certain to be a major player, and the government is worried about that America may get left behind in that new world.
The bottleneck is the supply of teachers. Mandarin instructors are difficult to import and difficult to train. There are visa problems in bringing over teachers from China but the biggest barrier is cultural. Teaching in Asia is generally done by rote and the change to western, interactive styles of instruction can be a large leap（跳越）.
On the other hand, it requires enormous firmness for westerners to learn a language like Chinese, with its thousands of written characters. According to the Asia Society in New York, all of America’s teacher-training institutions turn out only a couple of dozen homegrown Mandarin teachers.
One way to ease the shortage is to find native Mandarin speakers and use fast-track methods to train them. However, the majority of Chinese-Americans grew up speaking Cantonese, the dialect（方言）spoken in Hong Kong, where their parents came from. Many are themselves signing on as Mandarin students at the private language schools springing up on the west coast.
Title : in the USA
New train route opens from China to Germany
A container(集装箱) train left Beijing on Wednesday on its way to Hamburg, Germany. The new service was welcomed as real progress made in international rail cooperation.
The train will travel about 9,800 kilometers through six countries, including China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. The trip has gained support from those in customs declaration and clearance.
Zhang Mingli, chairman of China Conainer Transportation Co., said, “This can be seen as a breakthrough in our cooperation. Today , railway officials from six countries are here to witness this event. This is very important to the development of the Asia-Europe Continental Bridge. This means of transportation has great potential for the countries involved.”
Cargo on board includes electronic products, textiles and shoes. The trip to Hamburg, Germany will take 18 days. The same trip would take at least 40 days by container ship.
Tomasl Palaszewski, vice president of Polish Natiional Railway, said, “There is big potential for container transportation to Europe. The ceremony today shows that it will bring big benefits to all of us. So we hope that it will not only be a pilot train, but a permanent connection between China and Europe.”
Railway officials from the six countries will discuss detailed measures to advance container transportation.
Experts expect that the new land route will take a big slice of the pie of Chinese-EU trade. But improvements in Chinese railway networks will still matter. China has plans to invest huge amounts of money to build up 18 railway container terminals in the coming five years.
63. The purpose of this passage is to _______.
A. tell us about a new train route from China to Germany
B. promote the relationships between China and Europe
C. introduce a newly-developed container train
D. improve Chinese railway conditions
64.The new train route from China to Germany will______.
A. be opened in the coming five years B. strengthen the Chinese-EU trade
C. make it convenient for us to visit Germany D. take the place of container ships
65.From this passage, we know that_____.
A. it was China alone that built the new train route
B. not all of the countries along the new train route will support the event
C. one of the problems in railway cooperation between countries is customs declaration and clearance
D. the train mainly carries grains from China to Europe
66.The underlined word “pilot” most probably means ______.
A. guide B. beginning C. cooperative D. cargo
67. From this passage, we can safely conclude that ______
A. there will be more and more railway cooperation between China and Europe
B. more and more Chinese will have better chances to visit Europe
C. Europeans enjoy Chinese electronic products
D. China-EU trade will depend on this newly-developed cargo train
