Languages across the world are becoming extinct ______ endangered mammals and four times endangered birds.
A. at twice the rate of B. as twice fast as
C. twice faster as D. twice at rate of
高三英语单项填空中等难度题
Languages across the world are becoming extinct ______ endangered mammals and four times endangered birds.
A. at twice the rate of B. as twice fast as
C. twice faster as D. twice at rate of
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Today, several of the world's nearly 7,000 languages face a serious risk of extinction. "For example, Ainu, a language in Japan, is now seriously threatened, with only 10 native speakers left," said lead study author Tatsuya Amano at the University of Cambridge in England.
The scientists found that 25 percent of the world's languages are threatened. After identifying where the endangered languages were, they looked for any environmental and social or economic factors those languages might have in common, such as rugged terrain or rapid population growth. "We found that at the global scale, language speaker declines are strongly linked to economic growth-that is, declines are particularly occurring in economically developed regions," Amano said.
One important implication of this new study "is that languages in the tropics and Himalayan region are likely to be increasingly threatened in the near future, because these regions still have many local indigenous languages (土语) with a small number of speakers, and at the same time are experiencing rapid economic growth," Amano said.
Economic growth may endanger languages for a variety of reasons. For instance, speakers of endangered languages may view another more dominant language as offering economic opportunities, and thus forego their own languages. There are other important factors that might endanger languages, the researchers said. For instance, policies regarding how languages are used and taught in schools can be very different among countries and even within each country, and these factors may explain more detailed patterns in language endangerment.
Amano suggested it could be possible to forecast future threats to linguistic diversity. "There exists detailed information on projected future changes in the environment, economies and climates," Amano said. "Using such information, together with the findings of this study and further analysis, we would like to understand what will happen to the world's languages, where it will happen and which languages will be threatened in particular."
1.The language of Ainu is mentioned in Paragraph l in order to tell us that _______________.
A. Japanese is new seriously threatened
B. few people speak Japanese in the world
C. Japanese is made up of many languages
D. it is most likely to disappear in the future
2.What may endanger the languages most according to Amano?
A. The diversity of society.
B. The decline of the population.
C. The development of economy
D. The improvement of the environment.
3.The writer shows us the reasons that languages are endangered by ___________________.
A. offering some examples
B. performing some experiments .
C. telling some interesting stories
D. making a list of important facts .
4.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _______________.
A. the study is very important to languages
B. world's languages are developing rapidly
C. it is rather hard for us to protect languages
D. future threats to languages can be predicted
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Pandas are rare animals close to ___________. They have now been listed among the world’s most endangered wildlife animals.
A. distinction B. emergence C. intension D. disappearance
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Pandas are rare animals close to ___________. They have now been listed among the world’s most endangered wildlife animals.
A. extinction, B. emergence
C. intension D. disappearance
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
With globalization sweeping the world, learning foreign languages will become increasingly necessary if a country _________ economically.
A. will compete B. is to compete
C. were to compete D. competes
高三英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
Pangolins (穿山甲) are the most trafficked (非法交易) mammals in the world and are facing extinction. To draw attention to these scaly (有鳞片的), anteater-like animals, a new wildlife documentary, Eye of the Pangolin, is attempting a unique way to inspire action and conservation. Partnering with the non-profit organization Pangolin. Africa, the documentary was made available on YouTube in May 2019. The intention is to reach communities wherever the Internet is available, especially African communities, who live near the animal’s habitats.
Over two years, the documentary crew traveled to South Africa, Ghana, Central African Republic and Gabon in search of the four unique species of pangolin, which has never been achieved before. Filmmakers Bruce Young and Johan Vermeulen say that they went into the shoot knowing relatively little about pangolins, but grew to respect and appreciate the animals. Getting close to the creatures over two years was a crash course in these secretive creatures. Johan Vermeulen said, "One thing however that might seem unimportant is that they are actually quite fussy eaters. You would think they would eat any type of ant, but they all prefer a specific type ant."
Pangolins are hunted illegally across Africa for their scales, which are used for traditional medicine, and their meat. In April 2019, Singaporean customs officials conducted two separate seizures of 24 tons of pangolin scales, which equals to the death of 69,000 pangolins.
Though the documentary focuses less on the trafficking of pangolins, and more on the animals in their natural habitat, the aim of the documentary is to inspire viewers around the world to call for action to end trafficking and protecting these unique creatures.
Filmed on location in South Africa, Ghana, Central African Republic, and Gabon, this powerful documentary is the story of two men on a mission to get all four species of African pangolin on camera for the very first time.
1.What is the purpose of the documentary?
A.To study the situation of pangolins.
B.To collect fund to protect pangolins.
C.To raise awareness of pangolin protection.
D.To propose setting up pangolin reserves.
2.What is the meaning of the underlined word “fussy” in paragraph 2?
A.Picky. B.Messy.
C.Showy. D.Heavy.
3.What’s the documentary mainly about?
A.The illegal trade of pangolins.
B.The medical function of pangolin's scales.
C.The life of pangolins in their natural habitats.
D.The efforts of Pangolin, Africa to save pangolins.
4.Where is the text most likely from?
A.A brochure. B.A diary.
C.A novel. D.A magazine.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The fact has worried the people across the world ___________ the earth is becoming warmer and warmer these years.
A. what B. which C. that D. where
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
How Do Languages Die?
How many languages do you think there are in the entire world? Altogether, people around the world speak about 6,000 languages. Does that surprise you? 1. Today, about half the world’s spoken languages are endangered. Experts say that another language becomes extinct (灭绝) every two weeks.
How do languages die? They die when people stop using them. But most people don’t just stop speaking their native language. It’s more complex than that. More often, they’re either pressured or forced to do so.2.They’re often pressured to speak the area’s main language instead of their own. This leads many immigrants to stop using their native language. They might not even teach it to their children.
Slowly, the native language dies out.
Sometimes, languages shift or develop instead of becoming extinct. Have you ever heard that Latin is a dead language? In a way, it is. No one today speaks Latin as their native language.3. People still use Latin in many ways. Scientists use it to name plants and animals.
4. That means the death of a language hurts people’s ability to take part in cultural traditions. They might lose access to stories and knowledge that were passed down for many years. This is one reason why many people today are working to save dying languages.
How can languages be saved? Some young people learn the language of their ancestors as adults.
Linguists travel the world to record the last native speakers of dying languages5.They do so in hopes that future generations will bring the languages back to life. Many educational programs today also work to help preserve native languages and cultures.
A.There used to be many more!
B.You may have used it in school.
C.Language is extremely closely tied to culture.
D.But that doesn’t mean it disappeared completely.
E.One example is when people move to a different country.
F.Some native speakers write dictionaries in their language.
G.There are plenty of things to do to help protect languages.
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
The world’s native languages are dying out at an unprecedented(空前的) rate, taking with them irreplaceable(不能替代的) knowledge about the natural world, according to a new study.
The study identified five global “hot spots” where languages are vanishing faster than anywhere else ---- eastern Siberia, northern Australia, central South America, the US state of Oklahoma and the US Pacific Northwest. “Languages are suffering a global extinction crisis that greatly goes beyond the pace of species extinction,” linguistics(语言学的) professor David Harrison noted, who said half of the world’s 7,000 languages were expected to disappear before the end of the century.
Native people had an intimate(详尽的) knowledge of their environment that was lost when their language disappeared, along with other certain things often unfamiliar to us, Harrison stressed. “Most of what we know about species and ecosystems is not written down anywhere, it’s only in people’s heads,” he said. “We are seeing in front of our eyes the loss of the human knowledge base.”
Harrison was one of a team of linguists who carried out the study. The researchers traveled to Australia this year to study native languages, some of the most endangered. According to Harrison, in Australia, they were heartened to see a woman in her 80s who was one of the only three remaining speakers of the Yawuru language passing on her knowledge to schoolchildren. He said such inter-generational exchanges were the only way native languages could survive. “The children had elected to take this course, no one forced them,” he said. “When we asked them why they were learning it, they said,‘This is a dying language, we need to learn it’.” Also, while there they found a man with knowledge of the Amurdag language, which had previously been thought extinct.
The researchers said all five of the hot spots identified were areas that had been successfully colonized and where a dominant language such as Spanish or English was threatening native tongues.
1.What does this text mainly talk about?
A. A study on native languages endangered.
B. The knowledge of native languages.
C. People’s efforts in saving native languages.
D. Harrison and his study on languages.
2.The underlined word“vanishing”in the second paragraph can be best replaced by________.
A. developing B. changing C. increasing D. Disappearing
3.According to Harrison, language extinction________.
A. causes the researchers lots of worries
B. speeds up the pace of species extinction
C. threatens the existing of Spanish and English
D. brings about a loss of knowledge about the environment
4.Which of the following can be described as good news?
A. Native languages became less endangered in Australia.
B. A man was found with knowledge of the Amurdag language.
C. Researchers were well received by native people in Australia.
D. Many schoolchildren showed interest in the Yawuru language.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Though there are about 400 languages from all over the world that are in danger of disappearing completely, Zoque-Ayapaneco, a native Mexican language is considered the most likely to become extinct, because the only two people in the world that speak it fluently do not talk to each other!
And, it's not because they live in different countries, states or even villages. In fact, Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, both in their 70s, live within 500 yards of each other, in the village of Ayapa in the Southern Mexican State of Tabasco. They, however, refuse to communicate because they simply don't have much in common. Segovia is apparently a little flank in nature while Velazquez is described as shy.
Segovia was at least able to talk in Zoque-Ayapanece with his brother until he passed away about 12 years ago, and still manages to practice it with his family, especially his son Manuel, who for the last five years has been trying to learn it and hopes to become fluent enough to teach it to the next generation. Velazquez on the other hand, has not been heard speaking in the language with anybody.
The two men say the language used to be widely spoken in the village, but the younger generation shunned it for fear of being laughed at, and it therefore began to die a slow death, as the elders passed away.
Unless the two men get their acts together, the only way to hear the language will be to either listen to Manuel's not-so-fluent statement or see them talk in a documentary entitled “Lengua Muerta” (Dead Language) that is being filmed to capture Zoque Ayapaneco and 364 other native Mexican languages that are in a similar state.
We sure hope Segovia and Velazquez soon find something common to talk about. Maybe the fact is that the language is dying and that they should start encouraging and teaching the next generation together.
1.The reason why Segovia and Velazquez don't talk to each other is that ________.
A. they both are too shy
B. they live in different villages
C. they are too familiar to talk
D. they have no similarity in their character
2.What do we know about Zoque-Ayapaneco?
A. It was widely used twelve years ago.
B. It will be dying out if no effective measures are taken.
C. It will be popular in Mexico in the near future.
D. It is a Southern American language.
3.The underlined word “shunned” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”.
A. favored B. identified
C. were unwilling to learn D. protected
4.From the passage, we can conclude that ________.
A. altogether 365 languages are becoming extinct in the world
B. Segovia and Velazquez will communicate with each other soon
C. the government cares a lot about the protection of Zoque-Ayapaneco
D. we can hear the language from Manuel or documentary “Lengua Muerta”
5.What's the main idea of the passage?
A. World's endangered languages are being filmed.
B. Villagers are trying to protect their old language.
C. An endangered language is spoken by only two people.
D. There are a lot of languages in Mexico.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析