首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Typically, the death of a language is discussed in the same vein as the disappearance of moas and passenger pigeons. The problem
Typically, the death of a language is discussed in the same vein as the disappearance of moas and passenger pigeons. The problem
admin
2016-10-15
43
问题
Typically, the death of a language is discussed in the same vein as the disappearance of moas and passenger pigeons. The problem is actually more rampant than species
attrition
: A hundred years from now, today’s 6,000 languages will likely number only 600.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Now, to be clear, as someone who has taught himself languages as a hobby since childhood, I hardly rejoice when a language dies. Languages can put concepts together in ways more fascinatingly different from English than most of us are aware. Yet supposing that we could keep 6,000 languages alive is like supposing that we could stop, say, ice from getting soft under the sun.
As people speaking many indigenous languages migrate to cities, inevitably they learn globally dominant languages like English and use them with one another. Their children may use their parents’ indigenous languages at home. But they never knew the lifestyle that those languages were born to express, and will be more comfortable in the public language of the world in which they grow up. They will speak mostly the public one to their own children. This is how languages die.
Many hope that we can turn back the tide with programs to revive indigenous languages, but the sad fact is that this will almost never be seriously effective. I once taught a class of Native Americans their ancestral language in a summer program. This had the positive effect of helping them feel connected to their ancestors, but there was no possible way they were going to be able to converse in the language.
In any case, language death is actually a healthy outcome of diversity. If people speaking different languages truly come together, as the Beatles urged us, then they need to speak a common language. Then the age-old process begins: The first generation is more comfortable in the old language, the second uses it as an at-home language and the third knows only some words and phrases. But cultural diversity persists despite the common language.
When people use their distinct language down the generations, It’s usually bad, indicating discrimination or segregation—precisely what "diversity" fans would otherwise consider a scourge. Jews in shtetls spoke Yiddish at home and other languages elsewhere because they lived in Jewish ghettos, not because they delighted in being bilingual.
I hope that dying languages can be recorded and described, but their individual deaths are not something to be mourned. Indeed a single "world" language would not be in itself catastrophic.
By citing his experience of teaching in a summer program, the author intends to show that______.
选项
A、indigenous languages can be revived
B、a dying language can hardly be revived
C、language death is a healthy consequence
D、only globally dominant languages persist
答案
B
解析
根据第五段中的“…the sad fact is that this will almost never be seriously effective”和“…there was no possible way they were going to be able to converse in the language”,B应为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/XmoZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
IsitanywonderthatAmericaisalsoacountryofdangerouslyoverweightpeople?AccordingtoarecentstudybytheNationa
Dieting,accordingtoanoldjoke,maynotactuallymakeyoulivelonger,butitsurefeelsthatway.Nevertheless,evidencehas
Dieting,accordingtoanoldjoke,maynotactuallymakeyoulivelonger,butitsurefeelsthatway.Nevertheless,evidencehas
Forthepastfiveyears,Dr.StephenPosthasbeenfundingresearchprojectsthattesthowaltruism(selflessness),compassion,
Forthepastfiveyears,Dr.StephenPosthasbeenfundingresearchprojectsthattesthowaltruism(selflessness),compassion,
Thetranslatormusthaveanexcellent,up-to-dateknowledgeofhissourcelanguages,full【C1】______inthehandlingofhistarget
Thetranslatormusthaveanexcellent,up-to-dateknowledgeofhissourcelanguages,full【C1】______inthehandlingofhistarget
Respectisyourabilitytoempathizewithanotherhumanbeing,despitecontrastingopinions,values,orlifestyles.Beingablet
Forthepastfiveyears,Dr.StephenPosthasbeenfundingresearchprojectsthattesthowaltruism(selflessness),compassion,a
随机试题
简述西方行政发展模式的共同特征。
设随机变量X服从参数为1的指数分布,则P{X≥1}=________
中厚皮片包括
某分项工程实物工程量为25000m3,该分项工程人工产量定额为50m3/工日,计划每天安排2班次、每班次10人完成该分项工程,则其持续时间为()天。
桥梁按其上部结构的行车道位置可划分为()。
上海东方公司是一家亚洲地区的玻璃套装门分销商。套装门在香港生产然后运至上海。管理当局预计年度需求量为10000套。套装门的购进单价为395元(包括运费,单位是人民币,下同)。与订购和储存这些套装门相关的资料如下:(1)去年的订单共22份,总处理成本134
教师用即时处理的方式,以果断、机智的态度判断处理问题属于教学事件应对策略的()。
【阿拉伯国家联盟】
下列关于物权的说法错误的是
•Readthearticlebelowaboutcomputers.•Choosethebestworktofilleachgap,fromA,B,CorD.•Foreachquestion19-33,ma
最新回复
(
0
)