Although you can possibly get by as a tourist in weeks, mastering a language is a long-term commitment taking years, not months. The FSI has classified languages in degrees of difficulty for English speakers. Chinese takes approximately 88 weeks or 2,200 hours ranking top 5 along with Arabic, Korean and Japanese.
Each Chinese dialect is effectively another language but Mandarin(Putonghua in Chinese, which means the common language)is considered the official tongue in modern China. They all share roughly one evolving writing system, referred to as written language invented for administering a large, diverse empire.
To complicate(使复杂)the matter further, there are two main types of written Chinese characters under the same writing system: the traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan and the simplified Chinese in mainland China. For example, fly is written as 飛 in traditional Chinese and 飞 in simplified Chinese. They’re basically the same character written in two different ways but pronounced differently when spoken in different dialects.
Each written word when spoken is mutually incomprehensible between a Mandarin speaker in Beijing and a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. If you think that’s odd, consider our number system: the symbol “9” is universally recognized but it’s pronounced “nine” in English and “devet” in Slovenian.
Every word must be memorized separately as you can’t guess its pronunciation from the script-but one could say the same of English if you consider plough, dough and tough.
Meanwhile, dictionaries list words according to stroke(笔画)count. These go from one to over 60 strokes. The archaic character zhé- which appropriately, means “verbose” - has 64 strokes.
And then there are the pronunciation challenges. There are four tones in Mandarin: high pitch (say G in a musical scale), rising pitch(like from C to G), falling(from G to C)and falling low then rising(C to B to G)- and if you think that’s difficult, there are nine tones in Cantonese. In Mandarin, there is a whole poem, “The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den” with just the syllable “shi” repeated 107 times in various tones. In other words, if you are tone-deaf you might as well give up now.
1.What do all Chinese dialects have in common?
A.They were invented by the emperor.
B.They have the same writing system.
C.They evolve in the same way.
D.They serve the same purpose.
2.Why does the author mention the symbol “9” in Paragraph 4?
A.To prove different pronunciations of Chinese dialects
B.To indicate the similarities in all languages.
C.To show that Chinese is an odd language.
D.To compare English with Slovenian.
3.What challenge does the author think is difficult to overcome?
A.Complicated scripts and strokes.
B.Different types of characters.
C.Various tones.
D.Too many dialects.
4.What is the main idea of this passage?
A.Chinese has different dialects.
B.Chinese is very difficult to learn.
C.Chinese is an ever-developing language.
D.Chinese sounds like music and poems.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Although you can possibly get by as a tourist in weeks, mastering a language is a long-term commitment taking years, not months. The FSI has classified languages in degrees of difficulty for English speakers. Chinese takes approximately 88 weeks or 2,200 hours ranking top 5 along with Arabic, Korean and Japanese.
Each Chinese dialect is effectively another language but Mandarin(Putonghua in Chinese, which means the common language)is considered the official tongue in modern China. They all share roughly one evolving writing system, referred to as written language invented for administering a large, diverse empire.
To complicate(使复杂)the matter further, there are two main types of written Chinese characters under the same writing system: the traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong and Taiwan and the simplified Chinese in mainland China. For example, fly is written as 飛 in traditional Chinese and 飞 in simplified Chinese. They’re basically the same character written in two different ways but pronounced differently when spoken in different dialects.
Each written word when spoken is mutually incomprehensible between a Mandarin speaker in Beijing and a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. If you think that’s odd, consider our number system: the symbol “9” is universally recognized but it’s pronounced “nine” in English and “devet” in Slovenian.
Every word must be memorized separately as you can’t guess its pronunciation from the script-but one could say the same of English if you consider plough, dough and tough.
Meanwhile, dictionaries list words according to stroke(笔画)count. These go from one to over 60 strokes. The archaic character zhé- which appropriately, means “verbose” - has 64 strokes.
And then there are the pronunciation challenges. There are four tones in Mandarin: high pitch (say G in a musical scale), rising pitch(like from C to G), falling(from G to C)and falling low then rising(C to B to G)- and if you think that’s difficult, there are nine tones in Cantonese. In Mandarin, there is a whole poem, “The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den” with just the syllable “shi” repeated 107 times in various tones. In other words, if you are tone-deaf you might as well give up now.
1.What do all Chinese dialects have in common?
A.They were invented by the emperor.
B.They have the same writing system.
C.They evolve in the same way.
D.They serve the same purpose.
2.Why does the author mention the symbol “9” in Paragraph 4?
A.To prove different pronunciations of Chinese dialects
B.To indicate the similarities in all languages.
C.To show that Chinese is an odd language.
D.To compare English with Slovenian.
3.What challenge does the author think is difficult to overcome?
A.Complicated scripts and strokes.
B.Different types of characters.
C.Various tones.
D.Too many dialects.
4.What is the main idea of this passage?
A.Chinese has different dialects.
B.Chinese is very difficult to learn.
C.Chinese is an ever-developing language.
D.Chinese sounds like music and poems.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Begin doing the work you love as soon as possible, even if you don’t get paid for it, or if you can only work at it part-time. Albert Einstein was unable to get a job as a physics professor. He could have said to himself, “Well, I just don’t have the work relative to physics. I should give up on it and settle for something else.” Instead, he wrote the two most famous papers when he was employed as a patent clerk. After their publication, there was not a major university in the world that would not have been glad to have him on their staff.
If you want to work as an artist and you are making a living as a waiter, don’t think of yourself as a waiter who hopes one day to become an artist. That puts the work you love somewhere off in the distant future. Rather, think of yourself as an artist, supporting yourself by waiter tables—and paint, or draw as much as you can. It is possible to earn a living wage as a waiter working 24 hours a week. That leaves plenty of time to devote to training or developing your craft（手艺）in the off hours.
While seeking the work you love, it helps to expand your awareness into the universe of all possibilities. You don’t want to be limited to the ideas of what you should do or what you have done before. Having opened to all possibilities, you can make a final decision and select the work you love as your own.
Doing the work you love requires that you be equally comfortable with the imaginative and the practical. It requires the ability to dream big dreams and the ability to face and master all the little details that make dreams come true.
1.According to the passage, perhaps Einstein once said to himself, “_______.”
A．Well, I just don’t have the work relative to physics. I should give up on it and settle for
something else
B．The job is just what I want, I should work very hard at it
C．I have to support myself by working as a patent clerk now, but I won’t give physics up
D．I must wait until I find my favorite job
2.If a person works 24 hours a week, he can________.
A．have enough spare time for his hobbies
B．have no time left to make his dream come true
C．do nothing else
D．make a good living
3.Which of the following is not implied in the last paragraph?
A．Sometimes the imaginative is different from the practical.
B．We have to take care of a lot of details before we make our dreams come true.
C．We shall do practical things rather than dream.
D．We shall dream big dreams and practice as well.
4.According to the passage, the author encourages us to ________.
A．start work quickly B．select job carefully and patiently
C．dream often D．make up our minds quickly
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
（2010·重庆模拟）By looking at a problem in as many ways as possible, creative thinkers can find solutions that would _______ remain invisible．
A．otherwise B．yet C．already D．forever
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
_____ can you get a better job in so competitive working places.
A. Working hard B. Although you work hard
C. Only by working hard D. As long as you work hard
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Fast ____ you read, you can’t finish the book in two days.
A. so B. if C. as D. although
高三英语选择题中等难度题查看答案及解析
We should go by bus ______ we can get there earlier.
A. as soon as B. where C. in order that D. when
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
The doctor will see you again next week. _____, you must rest as much as possible.
A. Somehow B. However C. Meanwhile D. Indeed
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Nowhere else in such a small town, I think, ___ a book as good as this one.
A. can you get B. does you get C. was you get D. you will get
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
The young couple are trying to save as much as possible ________ they can afford a flat by the end of next year．
A．so that B．even though C．in case D．as if
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
—Can you get me some of the novels ?
—By all means. All but one of them ____ in our company.
A．published B．was published C．were published D．had been published
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析