完形填空

    Is it possible that people of the world today could agree upon a single international language that everyone would be able to speak and understand?

    In the UN, there are five (1) languages English, Chinese, (2), French and Spanish. How about (3) one of them into an international language? (4) has been worked on for this (5), A basic word list of 850 English words (6) Basic English was made. These are the only (7) in the entire (全部的) list: “come, go, give, keep ,let, do, put, make, say, be, seem may, will, have, send”. Writing in Basic English may (8) you to use a greater number of (9) as in having to say“ it came to my (10)” instead of “I hear” but you can still (11) anything you want to with just 850 (12) words and a few suffixes and prefixes(后缀和前缀). This is a much smaller (13) of words to have to (14) than the ordinary number (15) to the students of a foreign (16).

    But people have always had a (17) to do more than simply “tell it (18) it is ”. Language is for reporting (19) one’s work, For this, a language needs idioms, needs (20) of grammar and style that reflect (反映) its (21) and development just as a (22) needs eyebrows (眉毛) Is there some special reason (23) our lips should be a different colour from the (24) of our face? Perhaps not, but this is how people real people are. For communication between people, languages in all diversity (多样化) will (25) to reflect the growth and soul of the societies that speak them.

    There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo- European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

    Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even die out completely. About 1, 000 years ago English was a little- known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

    If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.

1. The first paragraph mainly tells us that________.

A．most people in the world speak Chinese

B．there are thousands of languages in the world today

C．man has much knowledge about languages

D．some people know several languages

2. Most European and Indian languages

A．will soon die out completely

B．were once a relative of English

C．are no longer spoken

D．come from the same family

3.________seems to have changed a lot.

A．Chinese

B．English

C．Spanish

D．German

4 The word dialect in the last paragraph means________.

A．a special language spoken by Chinese

B．the sign used by the Chinese people in a special area

C．the difference between the old and today’s Chinese

D．the form of the language used in one part of the country

    Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

    There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo- European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

    Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even die out completely. About 1, 000 years ago English was a little- known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

    If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.

1. The first paragraph mainly tells us that________.

A．most people in the world speak Chinese

B．there are thousands of languages in the world today

C．man has much knowledge about languages

D．some people know several languages

2. Most European and Indian languages

A．will soon die out completely

B．were once a relative of English

C．are no longer spoken

D．come from the same family

3.________seems to have changed a lot.

A．Chinese

B．English

C．Spanish

D．German

4 The word dialect in the last paragraph means________.

A．a special language spoken by Chinese

B．the sign used by the Chinese people in a special area

C．the difference between the old and today’s Chinese

D．the form of the language used in one part of the country