(2018·全国卷Ⅰ· C)
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 world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of 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 too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialization, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalization and better communications in the past few decades, 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 of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones 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 accounts for well over 800. 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.
Already well over 400 of the total of 6, 800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, 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.
【文章大意】本文是一篇说明文, 主要讲述了随着人类社会的发展, 很多语言逐渐消失。
1. What can we infer about languages in hunter-gatherer times?
A. They developed very fast.
B. They were large in number.
C. They had similar patterns.
D. They were closely connected.
【解析】选B。推理判断题。根据第一段中的When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers. . . they spoke perhaps 12, 000 languages between them. 可知, 在狩猎时代虽然人口很少, 但语言种类很多。
2. Which of the following best explains “dominant” underlined in Paragraph 2?
A. Complex. B. Advanced.
C. Powerful. D. Modern.
【解析】选C。词义猜测题。根据第二段最后一句中的increasingly taking over意为“越来越占据统治地位”, 可知dominant意为“占优势的; 占支配地位的”, 与C项同义。
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.
【解析】选B。细节理解题。根据第三段最后一句The median number of speakers is a mere 6, 000, which means that half the world’s languages are spoken by fewer people than that. 以及第四段第一句中的the total of 6, 800 languages可知答案为B。
4. What is the main idea of the text?
A. New languages will be created.
B. People’s lifestyles are reflected in languages.
C. Human development results in fewer languages.
D. Geography determines language evolution.
【解析】选C。主旨大意题。通读全文可知, 文章主要讲述随着人类社会的发展, 语言的种类越来越少, 故C项为正确答案。
