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, industrialisation, 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 dominantlanguages 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.
28.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. |
29.Which of the following best explains "dominant" underlined in paragraph 2?
| A． | Complex. |
| B． | Advanced |
| C． | Powerful. |
| D． | Modern. |
30.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. |
31.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. |
People living in the UK take quite a few holidays abroad and in the country each year. Choices made about where to go, how to get there and what to do can either benefit or harm the environment.
While on holiday
Many of the things you can do to the greener on holiday will be the same things you can do at home—but there are also some extra things too, like avoiding gifts made from endangered plants and animals. Here are some suggestions:
●Making the most of locally produced food and drink, and local activities and attractions will support people in the area you are visiting and reduce the need for further environmental influence from transport.
●Switching off any air conditioning, heating and lights will help reduce climate change effect.
●Save water—some countries suffer from water shortages and saving water can help avoid damage to our natural habitats（栖息地）.
Endangered species(物种)
Some gifts and foods available in some countries can be made from endangered plants or animals. Check before you buy, but if you doubt, avoid animal and plant gifts. More details of the types of products to avoid any illegal trade hotspots can be found on the Souvenir Alert webpage.
Making a positive contribution to the place you are visiting.
There are ways in which your holiday can help support local people and the environment.
●There are many opportunities to volunteer and help with projects that conserve and improve natural habitats.
●When you are away, or if you are looking for somewhere to visit, you can support projects or attractions which protect wildlife, such as nature reserves and conservation projects.According to the passage, we can to help reduce climate change effect.
| A．make good use of water | B．buy local food and drink |
| C．save electricity | D．go around on foot |
We should check the gifts and foods before buying because ______.
| A．sometimes they are of poor quality |
| B．they may not be typical local products |
| C．some of them will do harm to our health |
| D．they may be made from endangered animals or plants |
We can infer from the passage that ______.
| A．it is not easy for people to travel abroad |
| B．not everyone can tell an illegal souvenir |
| C．green holidays have been accepted by people |
| D．volunteer work is a must for protecting natural habitats |
The passage is mainly about ______.
| A．travel enjoyment | B．the harm to the environment |
| C．greener choices for holiday | D．protection of endangered animals |
Robert is nine years old and Joanna is seven. They live at Mount Ebenezer. Their father has a big property. In Australia they call a farm a property.
Robert and Joanna like school very much. At school they can talk to their friends but Robert and Joanna cannot see their friends. They live 100, perhaps 300, miles away and like Robert and Joanna, they all go to school by radio.
Mount Ebenezer is in the center of Australia. Not many people live in “The Center”. There are no schools with desks and blackboards and no teachers in “The Center”. School is a room at home with a two-way radio. The teacher also has a two-way radio. Every morning she calls each student on the radio. When all students answer, lessons begin… Think of your teacher 300 miles away! The children in “The Center” do not go to a school because ______.
| A．they live too far away from one another | B．they do not like school |
| C．they are not old enough to go to school | D．their families are too poor |
In order to send their children to school, parents in “The Center” of Australia must have ______.
| A．a property | B．a car |
| C．a school room at home | D．a special radio |
Teachers in “The Center” of Australia teach ______.
| A．not in a classroom but at the homes of the students |
| B．by speaking only and not showing anything in writing |
| C．without using any textbooks or pictures |
| D．without knowing whether the students are attending |
A “property” in Australia is a ______.
| A．house | B．school | C．farm | D．radio |
When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at ‘bed and breakfast’ houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ‘VACANCIES’ meant ‘holidays’, because the Spanish word for ‘holidays’ is ‘vacaciones’. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION’ means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said “Thank you” in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise, the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No, thank you.”My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.
| A．learning English | B．finding places to stay in England |
| C．driving their car on English roads | D．going to England by car |
‘NO VACANCIES’ in English means ______.
| A．no free rooms | B．free rooms | C．not away on holiday | D．holidays |
When someone offered me more coffee and I said “Thank you” in French, I ______.
A didn’t really want any more coffee B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away
C. really wanted some more coffee D. wanted to express my politeness I was surprised when the coffee pot was taken away because I ______.
| A．hadn’t finished drinking my coffee | B．was expecting another cup of coffee |
| C．meant that I didn’t want any more | D．was never misunderstood |
I love charity shops and so do lots of other people in Britain because you find quite a few of them on every high street. The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won’t find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.
The first charity shop was opened in 1947 by Oxfam. The famous charity’s appeal to aid postwar Greece had been so successful it had been flooded with donations(捐赠物). They decided to set up a shop to sell some of these donations to raise money for that appeal. Now there are over 7,000 charity shops in the UK. My favourite charity shop in my hometown is the Red Cross shop, where I always find children’s books, all 10 or 20 pence each.
Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public. Every morning you see bags of unwanted items outside the front of shops, although they don’t encourage this, rather ask people to bring things in when the shop is open.
The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding（资助）medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more. What better place to spend your money? You get something special for a very good price and a good moral sense. You provide funds to a good cause and tread lightly on the environment. The author loves the charity shop mainly because of _______.
| A．its convenient location |
| B．its great variety of goods |
| C．its spirit of goodwill |
| D．its nice shopping environment |
The first charity shop in the UK was set up to ____.
| A．sell cheap products |
| B．deal with unwanted things |
| C．raise money for patients |
| D．help a foreign country |
Which of the following is TRUE about charity shops?
| A．The operating costs are very low. |
| B．The staff are usually well paid. |
| C．90% of the donations are second-hand. |
| D．They are open twenty-four hours a day. |
Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?
| A．What to Buy a Charity Shops. |
| B．Charity Shop: Its Origin & Development. |
| C．Charity Shop: Where You Buy to Donate. |
| D．The Public’s Concern about Charity Shops. |
Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertiser, hoping to sell their products.
The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item(商品) that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.
It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?
| A．The exercise of rights is a luxury. |
| B．The practice of choice is difficult. |
| C．The right of choice is given but at a price. |
| D．Choice and right exist at the same time. |
Why do more choices of goods give rise to anxiety?
| A．Professionals find it hard to decide on a suitable product. |
| B．People are likely to find themselves overcome by business persuasion. |
| C．Shoppers may find themselves lost in the broad range of items. |
| D．Companies and advertisers are often misleading about the rage of choice. |
By using computers as an example, the author wants to prove that _______.
| A．advanced products meet the needs of people |
| B．products of the latest design flood the market |
| C．competitions are fierce in high-tech industry |
| D．everyday goods need to be replaced often |
What is this passage mainly about?
| A．The variety of choices in modern society. |
| B．The opinions on people’s right in different countries |
| C．The Problems about the availability of everyday goods. |
| D．The helplessness in purchasing decisions |