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  3. When one looks back upon the 1500 years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of

When one looks back upon the 1500 years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of

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问题     When one looks back upon the 1500 years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of significant truths. The history of our language has always been a history of constant change -- at times a slow, almost unnoticeable change, at other times a violent collision between two languages. Our language has always been a living growing organism, it has never been static.
    Another significant truth that emerges from such a study is that language at all times has been the possession not of one class or group but of many. At one extreme it has been the property of the common, ignorant folk, who have used it in the daily business of their living, much as they have used their animals or the kitchen pots and pans. At the other extreme it has been the treasure of those who have respected it as an instrument and a sign of civilization, and who have struggled by writing it down to give it some permanence, order, dignity, and if possible, a little beauty.
    As we consider our changing language, we should note here two developments that are of special and immediate importance to us.
    One is that since the time of the Anglo-Saxons(盎格鲁撒克逊人)there has been an almost complete reversal of the different devices for showing the relationship of words in a sentence. Anglo-Saxon(old English)was a language of many inflections. Modern English has few inflections. We must now depend largely on word order and function words to convey the meanings that the older language did by means of changes in the forms of words. Function words, you should understand, are words such as prepositions, conjunctions, and a few others that are used primarily to show relationships among other words. A few inflections, however, have survived. And when some word inflections come into conflict with word order, there may be trouble for the users of the language, as we shall see later when we turn our attention to such matters as WHO or WHOM and ME or I.
    The second fact we must consider is that as language itself changes, our attitudes toward language forms change also. The 18th century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write.
Unlike the earlier linguists, modern linguists tend to ______.
选项 A、attempt to continue the standardization of the language
B、evaluate language practices in terms of current speech rather than standards or proper patterns
C、be more concerned about the improvement of the language than its analysis or history
D、be more aware of the rules of the language usage
答案B
解析 根据题干内容发现是比较现代语言学家与以前的语言学家的差别，故可定位到文章的最后一段。阅读文章时注意首末段及各段开头的句子，这往往都是考点所在。这篇文章讲的主要是英语语言演变的一些特点，指出了古英语与现代英语的不同，以及语言学家态度的转变。本题问的正是现代语言学家与早期语言学家不同的倾向。根据文章末尾The 18th century，for example，produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew，until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write．现代语言学家倾向于根据人们说和写的方式评价语言实践，B)符合文章的意思。A)是最主要的干扰项，但其描述的是早期的语言学家根据一定的模式评价语言，而不是现代的语言学家。
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大学英语四级

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