Question

Can you imagine a world without a writing system for your language? It may be hard to picture it now, but a man named Sequoyah lived in such a world. Sequoyah was a member of a native American tribe(部落), the Cherokee. Cherokee people speak their own language, but for hundreds of years they did not have a system of writing. Without a writing system, the Cherokee had no newspapers or books before 1809.

Sequoyah was probably born around the year 1770 and lived with his mother in a small village in the mountains of Tennessee. When he grew up, he became a blacksmith(铁匠). When he was doing business with those “English-speaking people”, he noticed that they used paper with marks to record their thoughts and ideas. Sequoyah called these pieces of paper with marks “talking leaves”. He began to wonder why people who spoke Cherokee did not have a way to write down their words.

In 1809, Sequoyah decided to give the Cherokee their own “talking leaves”. At first he tried to make a different symbol for every word in the Cherokee language. But in that case, there would be so many symbols and too hard for people to remember, so he decided to make a picture for each syllable (音节). After much hard work, Sequoyah invented 85 symbols. In order to see whether it would work, he helped his six-year-old daughter Ayoka learn each symbol and found she could learn to read and write very quickly. Sequoyah’s invention was a success!

Before long, Sequoyah’s writing system had spread far and wide. Cherokee people living in all different parts of the country learned to read and write. In 1825, Sequoyah’s system was made the official written language for Cherokee people. To this day, Cherokee speakers still use Sequoyah’s writing system. In some parts of the United States, you can see street signs and billboards written in both English and Cherokee. Sequoyah will always be remembered for his important contribution（贡献）to Cherokee people.

根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

1.How long did Cherokee people not have a system of writing?

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2.What did Sequoyah call the pieces of paper with marks?

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3.How many symbols did Sequoyah invent in the Cherokee language?

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4.When was Sequoyah’s system made the official written language?

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5.Why will Sequoyah always be remembered?

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1.For hundreds of years. 2.Talking leaves. 3.85 4.In 1825 5.For his important contribution to Cherokee people. 【解析】本文叙述了彻罗基族人几百年没有书面语言，后来在Sequoyah的努力下，他创造了85个符号，后来成为彻罗基族人的官方语言。彻罗基族人永远记住...

Answer 1