Question

【题目】 Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the population of the world was hunter-gatherers, small, closely connected groups developed their own speech different from each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.

Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages also became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialization, the development of the nation-state and the spread of education, especially globalization and better communications in the past few years, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution(分布) of these languages is hugely unbalanced. The general rule is that warm, pleasant areas have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet areas have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone has well over 800. The median number (中位数) of speakers is only 6,000, which means that half the world’s languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

Already over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. For example, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

【1】What can we learn about languages in hunter-gatherer times?

A. They were developing very fast.B. They were similar to each other .

C. They were large in number.D. They were closely connected.

【2】Which of the following best explains “dominant” underlined in paragraph 2?

A. Powerful.B. Traditional.C. Simple.D. Modern.

【3】How many languages are spoken by less than 6,000 people at present?

A. About 6,800.B. About 3,400.C. About 2,400.D. About 1,200.

【4】What is the main idea of the text?

A. New languages will be created.

B. People’s lifestyles are seen in languages.

C. Language development depends on geography.

D. Human development leads to fewer languages.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】A

【3】B

【4】D

【解析】

本文是一篇科教类阅读，文章讲述的是语言已经千百年的历史，不断地出现和消失，但最近新出现的语言越来越少，而消失地越来越多，随着社会和工业化的发展，语言消失地越来越快。

【1】推断判断题。根据文章第一段第二句 When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. 和最后一句 Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them. 可知，在游猎社会时期，族群内部非常紧密，而族群之间语言相互独立；一万年前，世界人口仅有五百万到一千万，而语言的种类数达到一万两千种。故C项正确。A项，“语言发展得非常快”。在文中没有提到。故A项错误；B项，“语言模式很相似”。和原文表意相反。故C项错误；D项，“语言紧密联系”。和原文表意相反。故D项错误。故正确答案为C。

【2】词义猜测题。根据文章第二段最后一句中 and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over 可知，dominant 的语言指的是渐渐变成主流（take over）的英语、西班牙语和中文这些在世界上被广泛使用的语言。A. powerful 意为“强大的”，符合题意。B项“传统的”；C项，“简单的”；D项，“现代的”；没有讨论语言的现代与古老。故D项错误。doninant占优势的，占支配地位的。可知可以用powerful这个近义词来表达。故正确答案为A。

【3】数字计算题。根据文章第三段最后一句 The median number (中位数) of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.可知，少于6,000人的群体在说的语言占所有语言的一半。又根据文章第三段第一句At present, the world has about 6,800 languages.可知，用所有的语言数量6,800除以2，因此正确答案为大约3,400种语言。故正确答案为B。

【4】主旨大意题。根据文章第一段第一句Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going.可知，曾经的语言有新生有消失，但是最近没有新生的语言，只有消失掉的语言。又根据文章第四段第一句 Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡) 可知，世界上的语言正在变得越来越少。第二段和第三段也明确告诉人们，随着社会的发展，更多的语言拥有更少的使用者。故D项正确。A项“新的语言会被创造”。和第一段第一句相反。故A项错误。B项“人们的生活方式被反映在语言中”。文中未提及。故B项错误。C项“地理决定了语言的发展”。并不是贯穿文章的主旨，只在第三段有提及，所以不是文章主旨。故C项错误。故正确答案为D。

做这类题材阅读理解时要求考生对文章通读一遍，做题时结合原文和题目有针对性的找出相关语句进行仔细分析，结合选项选出正确答案。推理判断题也是要在抓住关键句子的基础上合理的分析才能得出正确答案，切忌胡乱猜测，一定要做到有理有据。