One Language For Everyone

A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky. But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages.They couldn't understand each other, so their dream never came true.

Yet the dream remains alive:if all men speak the same language, they can do anything.L.L.Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream.He developed Esperanto (世界語) between 1877 and 1885.

As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world.

Last month, the World Esperanto Congress (大會), dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden.

Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland.Esperanto has two advantages.First, it's easy.Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules.The second advantage is that it belongs to no country.

But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world — such as English or Chinese.While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn't have this background.

Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question.

1.The writer tells us a story at the beginning to _______.

    A.explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all

    B.explain why men now speak different languages

    C.show the relationship between man and God

    D.prove language is very important

2.What does the word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?

    A.realize                B.work for         C.be against         D.come true

3.What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?

       A.More people speak English than Esperanto. 

       B.Esperanto words are easier to spell.

       C.Esperanto has fewer grammar rules. 

       D.Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture.

4.What does the story mainly talk about?

A.The advantages of Esperanto.

B.Men's dream of sharing the same language.

C.Comparison of Esperanto and other languages.

D.The most successful man-made world language — Esperanto.

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English nowadays is widely used in science, business, the media and popular culture. For example, 80% of e-mails on the internet are in English. But where will English be at the end of the 21st century?

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A. 200 million     B. 300 million    C. 500 million    D. a billion

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   A. Chinese        B. English       C. French        D. German

What is the best title of the passage?

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It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.

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C. Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D. Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

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A. had an unusual brain

B. was born with great talent

C. had worked hard at languages

D. expected too much of himself

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A. it is not hard to learn foreign languages

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It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.

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Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?

U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.

Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.

Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.

1.What does the underlined sentence imply?

A. Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day.

B. Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages.

C. Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D. Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

2.The Hungarian woman became a hyper-polyglot mainly because of her __.

A. good memory       B. unique brain      C. hard work      D. learning methods

3.The German scientist’s findings showed that Krebs ___.

A. had an unusual brain

B. was born with great talent

C. had worked hard at languages

D. expected too much of himself

4.The author seems to agree that ___.

A. it is not hard to learn foreign languages

B. hard work plays a part in language learning

C. there is no such thing as a talent for languages

D. hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language

 

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It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.

The most famous hyper-polyglot was Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian cardinal, who was said to speak 72 languages. This claim sounds absurd. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, Mezzofanti would have to learn a word a minute, six hours a day, for eleven years—an impossible task. But Mezzofanti was tested by critics, and they were all impressed.

Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?

U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.

Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.

Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.

1.What does the underlined sentence imply?

A. Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day.

B. Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages.

C. Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D. Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

2.The Hungarian woman became a hyper-polyglot mainly because of her __.

A. good memory       B. unique brain      C. hard work      D. learning methods

3.The German scientist’s findings showed that Krebs ___.

A. had an unusual brain

B. was born with great talent

C. had worked hard at languages

D. expected too much of himself

4.The author seems to agree that ___.

A. it is not hard to learn foreign languages

B. hard work plays a part in language learning

C. there is no such thing as a talent for languages

D. hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language

 

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