瀕臨消失的語言

侯昌瑋

每種語言都能表現(xiàn)使用者所在民族的世界觀、思維方式、社會特性以及文化、歷史等，都是人類珍貴的非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)。

1?A?new?study?warns?1，500?endangered?languages?could?no?longer?be?spoken?by?the?end?of?this?century.?The?study，?led?by?the?Australian?National?University?（ANU），?identified?predictors?that?put?endangered?languages?at?high?risk.

2?Coauthor?Professor，?Lindell?Bromham，?said?that?of?the?worlds?7，000?recognized?languages，?around?half?were?currently?endangered.?“We?found?that?without?immediate?intervention（干預(yù)），?language?loss?could?triple?in?the?next?40?years.?And?by?the?end?of?this?century，?1，500?languages?could?cease?to?be?spoken.”

3?Their?study?found?the?widest?range?of?factors?ever?putting?endangered?languages?under?pressure.?One?finding?was?that?more?years?of?schooling?increased?the?level?of?language?endangerment.?The?researchers?said?it?showed?that?we?need?to?build?curricula?that?support?bilingual?education，?promoting?both?native?language?proficiency?as?well?as?use?of?regionallydominant?languages.?“Across?the?51?factors?or?predictors?we?investigated，?we?also?found?some?really?unexpected?and?surprising?pressure?points.?This?included?road?density，”?Professor?Bromham?said.“Contact?with?other?local?languages?is?not?the?problem—in?fact，?languages?in?contact?with?many?other?native?languages?tend?to?be?less?endangered.?“But?we?found?that?the?more?roads?there?are，?connecting?the?country?to?cities，

and?villages?to?towns，?the?higher?the?risk?of?languages?being?endangered.?Its?as?if?roads?are?helping?dominant?languages?replace?other?smaller?languages.”

4?Professor?Bromham?said?the?studys?findings?were?a?vital?reminder?that?more?action?was?urgently?needed?to?preserve?atrisk?languages.?He?added，?“When?a?language?is?lost，

or?is?‘sleeping?as?we?say?for?languages?that?are?no?longer?spoken，?we?lose?so?much?of?our?human?cultural?diversity.?Every?language?is?brilliant?in?its?own?way.?Many?of?the

languages?predicted?to?be?lost?this?century?still?have?fluent?speakers，?so?there?is?still?the?chance?to?invest?in?supporting?communities?to?bring?native?languages?back?to?life?and?keep?them?strong?for?future?generations.”

Detail?1.?What?can?we?learn?from?the?first?two?paragraphs？

A.?1，500?endangered?languages?at?high?risk.

B.?A?new?study?concerning?atrisk?languages.

C.?Reasons?for?putting?languages?under?pressure.

D.?Most?of?the?recognized?languages?at?risk.

Detail?2.?Which?suggestion?is?mentioned?to?save?the?endangered?languages？

A.?Setting?up?bilingual?courses.

B.?Avoiding?building?more?roads.

C.?Opening?more?language?classes.

D.?Relating?to?different?languages.

Gist?3.?What?does?the?author?mainly?tell?us?in?paragraph?3？

A.?Some?examples?of?the?new?research.

B.?Detailed?ways?to?save?atrisk?languages.

C.?Some?factors?in?preserving?atrisk?languages.

D.?Diverse?reasons?for?endangered?languages.

Inference?4.?Whats?Bromhams?attitude?towards?saving?atrisk?languages？

A.?Indifferent.B.?Hopeless.C.?Optimistic.D.?Uncertain.

Difficult?sentence?in?the?text

One?finding?was?that?more?years?of?schooling?increased?the?level?of?language?endangerment.?研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，受教育的年限越長，語言瀕危的程度越高。

【點(diǎn)石成金】句中的that引導(dǎo)的是表語從句。如：

One?advantage?of?solar?energy?is?that?it?will?never?run?out.?太陽能的其中一個(gè)優(yōu)點(diǎn)是它永遠(yuǎn)也不會耗盡。