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

 Today's American high school students are far likelier than those in the 1970s to believe they're much more likely to claim they are " straight A” students with high IQs— even though other research shows that today's students do less homework than those in the 1970s. The findings sup?port the idea that the " selfesteem" movement popular among today's parents and teachers may have gone too far.

"What this shows is that confidence has crossed over into overconfidence”,said Jean Twenge,a professor. Twenge stressed that youthful confidence isn't necessarily bad. " Young people have always had some degree of dreamy optimism,and that's probably a good thing. And setting goals for yourself is a good thing. It's just when those goals are wildly unrealistic,then that can cause trouble for everyone."

For example,young people entering the workforce may score well in job interviews if they show selfconfi?dence,but that can quickly sour if a new employer doesn't provide them with the promotions they feel they deserve. "They don't set the right goals for themselves,because they are overconfident―and that's when it blows up in their faces”,Twenge said.

The blame for all this may lie with wellintentioned adults. " These kids didn't raise themselves;they got these ideas from somewhere," Twenge said. With parents handing out endless praise,kids today readily believe they are somehow superior,she said. And teachers aren't blameless,either: high school teachers now give out an "A" grade more easily than those in the 1970s,even though today's high school students report doing less homework than students from that period.

Not everyone interpreted the new findings in the same way,however. Jennifer Crocker is a professor of psychol?ogy. Based on available academic data,today's young Americans might be right to be more selfconfident. "The fact is that we are all getting smarter―IQ is going up quite dramatically over this same period of time," Crocker noted. "Students may believe that they are getting trained better than they used to,and that they are learning skills that they didn't use to have."

23. Why does Twenge worry about overconfident teenag?ers?

   A. Because they don't do homework any more.

   B. Because the real world doesn't always meet their expectations.

   C. Because their parents don't support the " selfesteem" movement.

   D. Because their teachers expect the best performance from them.

24. What causes teenagers to have too much confidence in themselves?

   A. They were born confident in themselves.

   B. The students got the confidence from somewhere in the media.

   C. Their parents are constant to praise them for their performance.

   D. School teachers are reluctant to prize students with an "A" grade.

25. The underlined part "when it blows up in their faces" in Paragraph 3 may mean "       ”,

   A. when their goals seem more important

   B. when they encourage themselves at once

   C. when they give up their goals immediately

   D. when it suddenly goes wrong

26. Jennifer Crocker seems to think that         .

   A. it is reasonable for students to be selfconfident

   B. students are full of dreams about something unre?alistic

   C. the American students have higher TQs than those in other countries

   D. teenagers are too ready to believe they are some?how superior

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