Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists (语言学家) say, nearly half are likely to disappear this century. In fact, one falls out of use about every two weeks.
Some languages die out in an instant, at the death of the only surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual (双语的) cultures, as local tongues are edged out by the dominant (占主导地位的) language at school, in the marketplace and on television.
New research, supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, has found the five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly. They are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States.
K. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, US, said that more than half the languages had no written form and were vulnerable to loss and being forgotten." Their loss leaves no dictionary, no text, or no record of the accumulated knowledge and history of a disappeared culture.
Harrison and other researchers started their rescue project last year. They have been trying to identify and record endangered languages. They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involve hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammar and preparing children's readers in the obscure (逐渐没落的) language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families.
"These are probably languages that cannot be brought back, but at least we made records of them," said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, in Oregon, US.What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．Many languages are quickly disappearing. |
| B．Some languages are disappearing because they are hard to remember. |
| C．Chinese is one of the languages that are disappearing. |
| D．Thanks to some researchers, many endangered languages have been rescued. |
What does the word vulnerable in the fourth paragraph mean?
| A．easy to remember. | B．easy to forget. |
| C．likely to be damaged. | D．likely to be protected. |
Which of the following is true according to the fifth paragraph?
| A．Harrison and other researchers are trying to find out why some languages died out. |
| B．Harrison and other researchers tried to start a rescue project. |
| C．Harrison and other researchers have concentrated on preserving all the languages. |
| D．Harrison and other researchers have done some rescue work on the obscure languages. |
One of the things that Harrison and other researchers did was .
| A．to have more people speak the disappearing language |
| B．to make records of the disappearing language |
| C．to limit dominant languages |
| D．to publish a dictionary of the disappearing language |
What do you think is the suggested reason for some languages disappearing?
| A．Local tongues are gradually edged out by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television. |
| B．The number of people who speak the languages are small. |
| C．There are no dictionaries for the languages. |
| D．No one make records of the languages, so they gradually disappear. |
The deserts of the world are not all covered with sand. Many of them have surfaces of rock or clay or small stones. They are not flat, either. They often have high hills and deep valleys. There is some plants’ life in many parts of the desert. There is little rain in the desert, but it does fall often enough for most plants.
The deserts of the world are not uninhabited(not lived by people). People also live outside oases(绿洲), but these people are not farmers. They have camels, goats, donkeys, sheep, etc. These animals can live on the desert plants and do not need much water.
The people of the desert have to move constantly from place to place, they must always look for grass or desert plants for their animals. They usually live in tents. When there is no more food for their animals, they fold up their tents, pat them on their camels and donkeys, and move to another place. In good years, when there is enough food for their animals, they trade their skins and their goats and camel hairs with the people of oases for wheat and fruit. But in bad years, when there is not enough food for their animals, the people of the desert would attack the oases people. But they are also hospitable, no man in the desert would ever refuse to give a stranger food and water.According to the passage, deserts are mostly made up of _______.
| A．clay | B．rock |
| C．stones | D．sand |
The underlined word “hospitable” has the meaning of being _______.
| A．brave | B．cruel |
| C．strange | D．kind |
In the desert _______.
| A．it rains in spring only |
| B．there is some rain, but far from enough |
| C．it rains for a short time every month |
| D．the rainfall is just enough for the plants |
People live _______.
| A．only inside the oases |
| B．only outside the oases |
| C．both inside and outside the oases |
| D．in places with regular rainfalls |
From the passage we know that life _______.
| A．is hard in deserts |
| B．is happy in deserts |
| C．is impossible in deserts |
| D．in deserts in much better now |
Travel is fun and exciting, but it’s not if you get sick. You may think, “Not me, I won’t get sick in my holiday.” But, for many people, that is what happens.
Of course you don’t want to spend your holiday sick in bed. So what can you do to stay in good health? There are three things you should remember when you travel: relax, sleep, and eat well.
A holiday must be a time for relaxing. But very often it is not. Think about what you do when you are a traveller. There are many places to visit: museums, shops, parks, churches. You may spend most days walking around these places. This can be very tiring. You may have a terrible headache after a few hours. If this is the way you feel, you should take a rest. Don’t ask your body to do too much. A tired body means a weak body. And a weak body gets sick easily. So sit down for a few hours in a nice place. In good weather, look for a quiet park bench(石凳). Or you can stop at a cafe. You can learn a lot by watching people while you rest.
Sleep is also important. If you want to stay healthy, you need to get enough sleep. You may have trouble sleeping at night when you travel. There may be too many noises in your hotel or the bed may be uncomfortable. If this is true, don’t be afraid to change rooms or hotels. Or you may get enough sleep for another reason. You may want to stay out late at night. In many cities, the nightlife can be very exciting. Then you should plan to sleep for an hour during the day. The extra(额外) hour can make a big difference。
Finally, if you want to stay healthy, you must eat the right kinds of foods but you need to be careful about how much you eat. Lots of food is not good for you.
So, remember this, if you want to enjoy your holiday, take care of yourself. Give your body some rest. Get enough sleep and eat good, healthy food.This passage is about ______
| A．how to stay healthy when you travel |
| B．how exciting travel is |
| C．relaxing when you travel |
| D．what you eat when you travel |
Travel is ______
| A．the best way to relax | B．very tiring |
| C．never any fun | D．unhealthy |
Your body needs sleep to_____
| A．enjoy the nightlife | B．stay strong and healthy |
| C．change hotels | D．learn a lot about a new place. |
Why can you have a terrible headache while visiting these places?
| A．Because you don’t like these places |
| B．Because some place makes you feel headache |
| C．Because you feel boring to visit these places. |
| D．Because there are so many places to visit. |
You can change your rooms or hotels, if______.
| A．you want to stay out late at night |
| B．you want to eat different food |
| C．your hotel is noisy |
| D．you can’t get on well with the manager in the hotel |
Saturday, March 24th
We have arrived in the hot, wet city of Bangkok. This is our first trip to Thailand（泰国）. All the different smells make us want to try the food. We are going to eat something special for dinner tonight. The hotel we are staying in is cheap, and very clean. We plan to stay here for a few days, visit some places in the city, and then travel to Chiang Mai in the North.
Tuesday, March 27th
Bangkok is wonderful and surprising. The places are interesting. We visited the famous market which was on water, and saw a lot of fruits and vegetables. Everything is so colorful, and we have taken hundreds of photos already! Later today we will leave for Chiang Mai. We will take the train north, stay in Chiang Mai for two days, and then catch a bus to Chiang Rai.
Friday, March 30th
Our trip to Chiang Rai was long and boring. We visited a small village in the mountains. The village people here love the quiet life—no computers or phones. They are the kindest people I have ever met. They always smile and say “hello”. Kathy and I can only speak a few words of Thai, so smiling is the best way to show our kindness. I feel good here and hope to be able to come back next year.The diaries above show the writer’s ______ days in Thailand.
| A．3 | B．8 | C．15 | D．7 |
It seems that visitors _________ in Bangkok.
| A．often feel hungry | B．can have a good time |
| C．can’t take any photos | D．feel a little bored |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．The writer left Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai by bus. |
| B．Chiang Mai is a beautiful city in the south of Thailand. |
| C．The writer is traveling alone in Thailand. |
| D．The writer will take a bus to Chiang Mai. |
The people in the village _______.
| A．are friendly to others | B．like to speak English |
| C．hope to live in the cities | D．live a very busy life |
What is the best title（标题）for the whole diary?
| A．My First Travel | B．Traveling in Thailand |
| C． The Outside World | D．My Trip to Chiang Mai |
In the north of Scotland there is a lake called Loch Ness. It is the biggest lake in Britain. It is over thirty kilometres long and in places nearly 300 meters deep. It is cold and dark and not many people went there until after 1930. Then a road was made around the lake. Holiday makers began to use the road, and this was when the stories began.
Someone said that he had seen a monster in the lake. He said it was twelve meters long. It had a long neck and a small head. Then someone else said he had seen it. Others said the same thing and in 1933 a London doctor took a photo. It looked like a monster with a long neck and a thick body but the photo was not dear. The newspapers printed the picture and called it the Loch Ness monster, or "Nessie".
Then the argument began. Some people, however, were certain there was something living in the lake. Others said there was nothing there.
In 1961, a lot of people joined together to make a real effort to see and photograph the monster if there was one! Several times people thought they saw something but after ten years there was still no real proof.
Later underwater television cameras were used, but no one found any real proof. However, they did find something interesting: a huge underwater cave. It was big enough to be home of a monster, but of course, this was not a proof.
In 1975, however, some American scientists formed a search group. They used an underwater camera. It took pictures every seventy seconds. Some of the pictures seemed to show a red-brown creature. Its body was about four meters long and had a very ugly head on the end of a four meter neck. Many people then began to believe in the monster. But even today we can not be certain.Before 1930, ____.
| A．few people went to Loch Ness Lake |
| B．many people had been there |
| C．nobody went to the lake |
| D．nobody knew about the lake |
What did the monster look like?
| A．It looked like a horse. |
| B．It was a creature with a long neck and a small head. |
| C．It looked beautiful. |
| D．It was tiny and pretty. |
Who first took a photo of the monster?
| A．An American |
| B．A television camera |
| C．A holiday-maker |
| D．A doctor from London |
A search group formed by some American scientists.
| A．found the monster itself |
| B．found a huge cave under water |
| C．believed that there wasn't any monster at all |
| D．took some pictures which seemed to show a monster |
Far from the land of Antarctica, a huge shelf of ice meets the ocean. At the underside of the shelf there lives a small fish, the Antarctic cod.
For forty years scientists have been curious about that fish. How does it live where most fish would freeze to death? It must have some secret. The Antarctic is not a comfortable place to work and research has been slow. Now it seems we have an answer.
Research was begun by cutting holes in the ice and catching the fish. Scientists studied the fish’s blood and measured its freezing point.
The fish were taken from seawater that had a temperature of -1.88℃ and many tiny pieces of ice floating in it. The blood of the fish did not begin to freeze until its temperature was lowered to -2.05℃. That small difference is enough for the fish to live at the freezing temperature of the ice-salt mixture.
The scientists’ next research job was clear: Find out what in the fish’s blood kept it from freezing. Their search led to some really strange thing made up of a protein never before seen in the blood of a fish. When it was removed, the blood froze at seawater temperature. When it was put back, the blood again had its antifreeze quality and a lowered freezing point.
Study showed that it is an unusual kind of protein. It has many small sugar molecules held in special positions within each big protein molecule. Because of its sugar content, it is called a glycoprotein. So it has come to be called the antifreeze fish glycoprotein. Or AFGP.What is the text mainly about?
| A．The terrible conditions in the Antarctic. |
| B．A special fish living in freezing waters. |
| C．The ice shelf around Antarctica. |
| D．Protection of the Antarctic cod. |
Why can the Antarctic cod live at the freezing temperature?
| A．The seawater has a temperature of -1.88℃. |
| B．It loves to live in the ice-salt mixture. |
| C．A special protein keeps it from freezing. |
| D．Its blood has a temperature lower than -2.05℃. |
What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 5 refer to?
| A．A type of ice-salt mixture. | B．A newly found protein. |
| C．Fish blood. | D．Sugar molecule. |
What does “glyco-” in the underlined word “glycoprotein” in the last paragraph mean?
| A．sugar | B．ice |
| C．blood | D．molecule |