As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations- UNESCO and National Geographic among them –have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, looking and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Tangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayans reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials- including photographs, films, tap recordings, and field notes- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has founded-the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project- Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the youngers.
Generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected.Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet. Turin notes,the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.Many scholars are making efforts to _____.
| A．promote global languages |
| B．rescue the disappearing languages |
| C．search for language communities |
| D．set up languages research organizations. |
What does “that tradition” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Having first records of the languages |
| B．Writing books on language searching |
| C．Telling stories about language users |
| D．Linking with the native speakers |
What is Turin’s book based on?
| A．The cultural statics in India. |
| B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Britain. |
| D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
Which of the following best describe Turin’s Work?
| A．Write sell and donate. |
| B．Record,repeat and reward. |
| C．Collect,protect and reconnect. |
| D．Design, experiment and report. |
Don't go to Kauai. Go to any of the other Hawaiian Islands --- Maui, Lanai, the Big Island --- but leave Kauai for us. The weather on Kauai is so unpredictable (不可预测的) that sometimes it rains all day --- in fact, it's the second-wettest spot on the earth. Yes, there are giant double rainbows all the time, and the sunlight through the clouds is magical. But if you are not interested in these, go somewhere else. You just can't control the nature on Kauai, and who wants to surrender (屈服) to the nature when you could be at a fine hotel, lying in a comfortable chair next to a swimming pool, with food served upon request?
So what if Kauai produces surf champions the way Texas produces cowboys？Most of its 300 white-sand beaches are unmarked. Unless you connect with the local people, the hidden spots are hard to find. While Hanalei is the most beautiful town you've ever dreamed of, you can forget about discos and clubs. Worse, it doesn't have one single four-star restaurant. What it does have is the original drive-through places where you pass by a rambutan tree (红毛丹树), and pick a piece of fruit.
Shopping in Kauai? Forget it --- unless you are interested in shell necklaces and beautifully carved wood bowls. Kauai is not about pampering. It's about going natural and finding the nature within you. It's a do-it-yourself place that offers walking along the coast, diving and swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and lying on the beach.
Don't go to Kauai unless you have a lot of time, because there's only one road, which can be slightly dull. It winds through the beautiful scenery of waterfalls, rivers flowing into the ocean, and taro (芋头) fields. You have no choice but to look at everything, because the speed limit is 35 m.p.h.
If you're not interested in color, don't bother with Kauai, because that's what you get --- red roads, blue oceans, and a hundred different shades of green. It's like diving on land. Many people on Kauai believe that this is Lemuria --- a lost island in the Atlantic. Can you imagine? Those Hawaiians, surfers, New Agers, and people who love nature and beauty and want a different quality of life --- what do they know, anyway? Forget about it --- you're not going to like it. Go somewhere else. Leave Kauai for us. After reading the text, we come to know that it is _____.
| A．a piece of shocking news | B．an exciting story |
| C．an interesting introduction | D．a moving advertisement |
It can be learned from the text that _____.
| A．Kauai is an island near the Hawaiian Islands |
| B．Kauai is another name of the Hawaiian Islands |
| C．Kauai is one of the Hawaiian Islands |
| D．Kauai does not belong to the Hawaiian Islands |
In the writer's real opinion, Kauai _____.
| A．is not worth visiting at all | B．is well worth visiting |
| C．is not a beautiful island | D．is a dangerous island |
Who would like to visit Kauai?
| A．Those who love nature. | B．Those who love city life. |
| C．Those who love the comfort in a fine hotel. | D．Those who love going shopping. |
African-American talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is the world’s most powerful celebrity (名人), according to Forbes （福布斯） magazine. It placed Winfrey at the top of the annual ranking of the 100 people with the biggest pull （影响力）.
Winfrey, 51, draw 30 million viewers weekly in the United States. Her talk show reaches 112 countries. She earned US ＄225 million over the past 12 months to rank second in celebrity riches. The annual Forbes list gives most weight to annual earnings. But it also looks at the celebrity’s presence on the Internet and in the media. “After 21 years, her exciting chat show still rules the airwaves,” the magazine said.
Winfrey is most popular with her popular talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. She can always attract the superstars and let them open up to her intimate interviewing style. Winfrey’s approach appears to be simple. She is in a pursuit （追求）of self-improvement and self-empowerment. This has proved to be just what people, especially women, want.
Winfrey often talks about her personal secrets on her show. That pulls in viewers. For example, she made it known that she had been sexually abused as a child, and has spoken freely of her struggle with her weight.
Her success has not just been on the screen. Her media group includes a women’s TV network and websites for women. Her work has extended to social change. In 1991, she did a lot of work for the National Child Protection Act. She testified before the US Senate to establish a national database （数据库）of dangerous child abusers. The then President Bill Clinton later signed the “Oprah Bill” into law.The annual Forbes list selects its celebrities according to ____.
| A．their names | B．their annual earnings |
| C．their presence on the Internet and in the media | |
| D．their annual earnings and presence in the public |
Which of the following statements is WRONG?
| A．Oprah Winfrey was the first of the 100 celebrities according to Forbes magazine. |
| B．Oprah’s success has been only on the screen. |
| C．Oprah can attract superstars and get them to open up to her interview. |
| D．Oprah ranked second in celebrity riches that year. |
The underlined phrase “rules the airwaves” in the passage means ____.
| A．attracts many readers’ attention | B．causes many people to take planes |
| C．has a large number of viewers | D．measures the airwaves |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Oprah Winfrey Conquering the Americans. | B．Oprah Winfrey—the No 1 Celebrity. |
| C．Forbes Ranking First. | D．The Oprah Winfrey Show. |
In some remote Turkish village of Kuskoy, whistling is as important as talking．In fact, whistling is talking because the villagers speak and sing by whistling．Kuskoy parents begin to teach their boys and girls the language of whistling about the time the children learn to talk．It is considered so important that the village school includes it as one of the subjects taught along with the Turkish language.
This art of communication has taken centuries to develop．The village of Kuskoy spreads out across two hillsides that are separated by a deep valley．The villagers had to find an easy way to communicate where their voices couldn’t carry．They developed a high-pitched (高音的) whistle language that could be transmitted as far as five miles through air．As a result, Kuskoy, which means “bird village” in Turkish, has come to be known as a whistler’s paradise (乐园).
Whistling is so much part of everyday life in Kuskoy that men and women speak, argue, and court (求爱) in whistles．The story was recently told of a young couple who ran away secretly．The news was sent over the “mountain telephone” by whistling．The lover’s adventure was quickly known to all the villagers.
It is little wonder, then, that the children of Kuskoy study whistling in school．Wouldn’t it be fun to start the school day with a song—whistled of course!The children of Kuskoy learn to whistle because __ _．
| A．it is fun | B．it is an important way to communicate |
| C．it helps them learn to sing | D．it is like the Turkish language |
In Kuskoy, whistling as a way of talking started __ _．
| A．recently | B．hundreds of years ago |
| C．fifty years ago | D．ten years ago |
Which one of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．The high-pitched whistle can be heard at a distance of 5 km. |
| B．The parents were too ready to allow the young couple to marry each other. |
| C．The villagers found an easy way to communicate where they could be heard. |
| D．The villagers of Kuskoy are often informed of news by whistling. |
Which of the following do you think is the best title for this story?
| A．To Learn Whistle Is Very Important | B．Whistling Is Fun |
| C．Whistling—The Mountain Telephone | D．The Strange Turkish Language |
It came as something of a surprise when Diana, Princess of Wales, made a trip t Angola in 1997, to support the Red Cross’s campaign for a total ban on all anti-personnel landmine landmines(地雷)Within hours of arriving in Angola, television screens around the world were filled with images of her comforting victims injured in explosions caused by landmines. “I knew the statistics,” she said. “But putting a face to those figures brought the reality home to me; like when I met Sandra, a 13-year-old girl who had lost her leg, and people like her.”
The Princess concluded with a simple message: “We must stop landmines”. And she used every opportunity during her visit to repeat this message.
But, back in London, her views were not shared by some members of the British government, which refused to support a ban on these weapons. Angry politicians launched an attack on the Princess in the press. They described her as “very ill-informed” and a “loose cannon”(乱放炮的人).
The Princess responded by brushing aside the criticisms: “This is a distraction(干扰), we do not need. All I’m trying to do is help.”
Opposition parties, the media and the public immediately voiced their support for the Princess. To make matters worse for the government, it soon emerged(显现出来)that the Princess’s trip had been approved by the Foreign Office, and that she was in fact very well-informed about both the situation in Angola and the British government’s policy regarding landmines. The result was a severe embarrassment for the government.
To try and limit the damage, the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkidnd, claimed that the Princess’s views on landmines were not very different from government policy, and that it was “working towards” a worldwide ban. The Defense Secretary, Michael Portillo, claimed the matter was “a misinterpretation or misunderstanding.”
For the Princess, the trip to this war-torn country was an excellent opportunity to use her popularity to show the world how much destruction and suffering landmines can cause. She said that the experience had also given her the chance to get closer to people an their problems.Princess Diana paid a visit to Angola in 1997
| A．to clarify(澄清)the British government’s stand on landmines |
| B．to establish her image as a friend of landmine victims |
| C．to investigate the sufferings of landmine victims there |
| D．to voice her support for a total ban of landmines |
What did Diana mean when she said “…putting a face to those figures brought the reality home to me”(Line 5, Para. 1)?
| A．Meeting the landmine victims in person made her believe the statistics. |
| B．She just couldn’t bear to meet the landmine victims face to face. |
| C．The actual situation in Angola made her like going back home. |
| D．Seeing the pain of the victims made her realize the seriousness of the situation. |
Some members of the British government criticized Diana because
| A．They were actually opposed to banning landmines. |
| B．She was ill-informed of the government’s policy. |
| C．She had not consulted the government before the visit. |
| D．They believed that she had misinterpreted the situation in Angola. |
How did Diana respond to the criticisms?
| A．She made more appearances on TV. |
| B．She paid no attention to them. |
| C．She rose to argue with her opponents. |
| D．She met the 13-year-old girl as planned. |
What did Princess Diana think of her visit to Angola?
| A．It had caused embarrassment to the British government. |
| B．It had greatly promoted her popularity. |
| C．It had brought her closer to the ordinary people. |
| D．It had affected her relations with the British government. |
The total on advertising spent on the Chinese mainland last year rose by 25 per cent over 2003, a survey shows.
Expense reached US$23 3 billion, including television and print media, the survey/vas released by CTR Market Re-search on February 23, 2005.
The cosmetics and toiletries化妆品) sector was ranked No.1 in spending with US＄4.8 billion, an increase of 34 percent.
Advertising can be seen as the "weather glass" of the overall development of the country's economy, said Tian Tao, deputy general manager of CTR..
"The results of the survey reflect strong economic development in the country," Tian said.
"One of the most interesting-findings from the survey is that local and foreign mobile phone manufacturers reacted quite differently in terms of advertising spending," Tian said.
Most local mobile phone manufacturers had decreasing advertising expense while the foreign ones saw significant growth, Tian said.
Researchers also found that advertising on so called functional drink categories(种类) increased while milk makers decreased after a clear increase in advertising spending in 2003.
The survey also includes figures from Hong Kong and Taiwan, advertising expense in Hong Kong reached US $ 4.8 billion, an increase of roughly 15 per Cent from the previous year. Taiwan advertising spending reached US $15 billion, up roughly 27 per cent from the previous year.
In Hong Kong, the top three advertising categories were household and toiletries~ banking and investment services, and cosmetics.
In Taiwan, the top three advertising categories were real estate(房地产) , automobile and financial institutions.The first largest advertising spending on the Chinese mainland in the year 2004 was .
| A．real estate | B．household |
| C．the cosmetics and toiletries | D．automobile |
Advertising can be seen as the "weather glass" of the overall development of the country's economy because the rise of the advertising spending reflects strong __.
| A．agricultural development in the country |
| B．trade development in the country |
| C．industrial development in the country |
| D．economic development in the country |
According to the passage, the advertising expense on __ dropped in the year 2004.
| A．most foreign mobile phones |
| B．most local mobile phones |
| C．so-called functional drink categories |
| D．banking and investment services |
According to the passage, the growth. rate on advertising spending of __ is the fastest.
| A．the Chinese mainland | B．Hong Kong | C．Taiwan | D．Macao |