Question

【题目】请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填1个单词。

Do you think you could learn a language in an hour?

We know, we know! We would expect you to be skeptical. It’s ridiculous to think you can learn a language in 60 minutes. You wouldn’t even get through the As in a bilingual dictionary in that amount of time! Best-case situation: in an hour, most of us could probably stuff a few words and ready-made phrases into our short-term memory (with a high likelihood of forgetting it all by the following day). Accomplishing anything more than that in one hour? Impossible. Unless…

We posed the one-hour language challenge to four polyglots(通晓数种语言的人) who are experts on how to study languages. To keep the challenge from becoming completely impossible, we gave them a bit of a break: to learn Romanian in one hour. Why Romanian? Because it’s a Romance language and shares many similarities with the languages that the polyglots already know: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese. And to make sure their hour of learning was as effective as possible, all of them were assigned a personal Romanian tutor to help coach them on their way to success.

Although each polyglot has a different technique for picking up and remembering a new language, all four methods offer valuable insights to anyone, from casual learners to hard-core language enthusiasts.

Alex Rawlings — UK

"I’m a bit nervous. This is probably the craziest language-learning thing I’ve ever done, but learning languages has always been about fun. I expect that, after this, I’ll be prepared to have a simple chat over a coffee in Romanian. Is that reasonable?"

Method: Learn the verbs first

With only an hour until he had to start demonstrating his grasp of Romanian, Alex knew he had to start talking quickly. He chose to focus first on commonly used verbs and how to conjugate（动词变形） them. Once he had some verbs down, he could start collecting nouns from his tutor and plugging them in to make more interesting and relevant sentences.

Luca Lampariello — Italy

"Every time I have a conversation with native speakers, it really motivates me. Human contact is really important when learning a language."

Method: Start speaking right away

Speaking doesn’t mean speaking perfectly. Speaking even a little bit is a huge confidence boost. When you can say something in a new language and people actually understand you, it’s very motivating. Yes, you’ll make mistakes, but you’ll also learn faster than if you try to get it all perfect in your head first.

Michael Youlden — UK

"We all speak a variety of Romance languages which I think will help us get into Romanian quickly."

Method: Write everything down

Language learning is about recall; there’s no use learning something if you don’t remember it. Speaking new words aloud is very important, but so is writing them down — after all, words exist as sounds and in written form. Taking notes is a proven way to put new vocabulary and grammar into your memory. Writing supports memorizing which supports speaking... it’s a cycle. Plus, you have an easy reference when you want to review what you’ve learned.

Matthew Youlden — UK

"I’m going to look for the patterns and similarities with languages I already know. We won’t be able to speak fluently after an hour of study, but we should be able to get by with some basic vocabulary and phrases."

Method: Look for cognates

Cognates are words in different languages that look and sound similar and have the same meaning, due to a common origin. Almost every language combination contains cognates (even if two languages aren’t seemingly related), but languages from the same language family have many more. Whichever language you are learning, identify the familiar words and then use them to anchor the new words that aren’t so familiar. To use English as an example, because it’s a sort of Germanic-Romance hybrid, English already has many words that cognate with German, Dutch and Swedish on one hand, and on the other hand it also has lots of words that cognate with French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and, of course, Romanian!

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Four Learning Methods From Four Language 【1】：How To Make Meaningful Progress In Your First Hour
The people who are 【2】	Four polyglots who are good at learning languages
The language they are to study	Romanian
【3】 limits 1 hour	1 hour
The reason for choosing the target language	Romanian has much in 【4】 with their familiar languages
The 【5】to learning the language	the language Alex: give 【6】 to commonly used verbs; add some 【7】to make sentences
	Luca: attach great 【8】to speaking; don’t be afraid to make mistakes
	Michael: take notes to keep new words and grammar in 【9】
	Matthew: try to【10】 similar words and patterns with familiar languages

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】Experts/Masters

【2】challenged

【3】Time

【4】common

【5】approaches

【6】priority

【7】nouns

【8】importance

【9】mind

【10】identify/find

【解析】

试题分析：本文主要通过抛出疑问，解释原理以及引用案例的方式来论证一个匪夷所思的结论：大家可以在一个小时内学好一门外语，只不过每个人语言学习的侧重点不一样而已。

【1】Experts/Masters 原词再现题 依据文章中的“…who are experts on how to…”可知答案。

【4】challenged 信息转换题 依据文章中的“To keep the challenge from becoming completely impossible”可知答案。

【3】Time 信息转换题 依据文章中的“to learn Romanian in one hour”可知是“时间限制”，故答案用“Time”一词。

【4】common 信息转换题 依据文章中的“…shares many similarities with the languages…”可知此处使用短语“have…in common with…”，表示“与……有相同之处”。

【5】approaches 总结归纳题 依据文章中的“all four methods offer valuable insights to anyone”以及表格中的内容可知，此处用“approach”一词适合。

【6】priority 信息转换题 依据文章中的“He chose to focus first on commonly used…”可知此处表示“优先考虑”的意思，结合表格即短语：give priority to，故priority一词适合。

【7】nouns 原词再现题 依据文章中的“he could start collecting nouns from his tutor”可知答案。

【8】importance 信息转换题 依据文章中的“Human contact is really important when learning a language”可知答案。

【9】mind 信息转换题 依据文章中的“Taking notes is a proven way to put new vocabulary and grammar into your memory”可知短语转换成“keep…in mind”，表示“记住……”。

【10】identify/find 原词再现题 依据文章中的“identify the familiar words and then use them to anchor the new words that aren’t so familiar.”可知答案。