阅读理解

阅读短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案。

　　The publication of“Harry Potter and the Half - Blood Prince”gladdens booksellers across China．The British and American editions were No．1 and No．3 respectively on the sales chart of the Beijing Xidan Book Building last week．The book's poster is highlighted and news about the book can often be heard on the radio．

　　Why is the book so attractive to children? With curious mood , the author got a copy of“Harry Potter”．Originally , I wanted to glance over it and made some criticisms．But , out of expectation , the author has been deeply attracted by the magic world．On the other hand , one cannot help asking：where is our own“Harry Potter”?

　　The Chinese nation has a history of 5 , 000 years , which cannot be regarded as short and its culture as not profound．With a vast market of youngsters , China did publish many books popular among children．However , why are the present works not as good as those imported?

　　There come two major reasons：Firstly , quite a number of children’s books are of strong sense of teaching , and lack interest and entertainment．Children often have a feeling of being“educated”．No wonder they don't like them．Secondly , children’s reading materials involving“idiom stories”and "Chinese talents’ stories" , though always in different covers , are usually much the same or plagiarized (剽窃)．One knows the ending as early as in the beginning．In final analysis , the authors of the books seldom take children’s requirements into consideration．

　　As a matter of fact , each child has his own wonderful imagination．They long to understand the world and nature．Similarly they have their own choices．They dislike similar stories , even if the stories are excellent．First - class reading for children should be very interesting , which contains knowledge and the essence (精髓) of national culture , which are presented in children’s language．

　　Market is a touchstone for products．The theory also holds true for cultural products．It is hoped that the authors of children's books can learn something from the good market of“Harry Potter”and write out more and better books loved by children．

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阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给出的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳答案。

　　Endangered languages are languages that wouldn’ t exist any longer, much like endangered species of plants or animals．Languages are considered to be endangered when parents are no longer teaching the language to their children and are not using it actively in everyday life．A language is considered to nearly disappear when it is spoken by only a few elderly native speakers．

　　The world faces enormous challenges in order to protect different kinds of languages．Of the more than 6, 912 languages, half may be in danger of disappearing in the next several decades．

　　It is caused by many reasons：small numbers of speakers, the regular use of other languages, attitudes towards their languages, moving of the younger population, government policies, and languages used in education and so on．A language may lack important things such as a body of literature, and people who read and write it．A language may also lack prestige(声望)and support of its speakers．

　　The survival of a language is also threatened when speakers move to other areas where different languages are spoken, or when government policies improve the use of a specific language in school, official business and the media．These situations encourage people to learn the wider－known language and may cause them, especially the young, to stop using their mother tongue．Often those speaking lesser-known languages will choose to learn a more prestigious language with the hope of greater economic opportunities．Most of the world's parents are teaching their children English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian or some other main languages instead of their own languages for social and economic reasons．

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