Can a Language Become Extinct?
A language can become extinct when the last person who can speak it passes away. Or more likely when the secondlast person who speaks it dies because then there is no one left to talk to. According to linguists (语言学家) there is nothing unusual about a single language dying out. But what is happening today is quite remarkable. According to the recent statistics, there are approximately 6,000 languages in the world as we speak. Of these, about half are going to die out in the next century.
There are several reasons as to why a language can eventually die out. These range from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, to sociological factors, like cultural assimilation, in which the culture of a minority group is gradually replaced by a stronger one. The former can cause tribes to leave their natural habitat(栖息地) and therefore become fewer and fewer in number. However, it doesn't happen very frequently. In fact, the latter is a much bigger threat and it is responsible for the extinction of a lot of languages in countries like the USA and Australia. For instance, Chemehuevi is one of the languages which is really close to dying out since its sole speaker is an old, yet healthy, man named Johnny Hill, Jr.
It is very important for as many languages as possible to be preserved. Scientists have been trying to raise people's awareness on how certain tribes have specific words which cannot be expressed in let's say English simply because there is no equal meaning. Namely, the Yupik of Alaska have 99 names to describe different layers of ice formation, or how the Tofa of Siberia classify reindeer (驯鹿). In other words, when languages die out, mankind's wisdom reduces.
On a happier note, there are many famous cases which show what can be done to preserve languages in danger of extinction. In particular, the Maori in New Zealand have created socalled “language nests”： organizations which help children under five learn the language. They provide them with a setting where they are exposed to the language intensively so that they get to realise that communicating in Maori is as natural as communicating in English. There is always, of course, the risk that the children won't keep the language alive after they have left their “nests”. Nevertheless, hope dies hard.
【小题1】What most probably caused the death of languages in the USA and Australia?
| A．Habitats were lost. |
| B．Natural disasters struck. |
| C．Native cultures disappeared. |
| D．Foreign languages were spoken. |
| A．listing definitions |
| B．providing examples |
| C．presenting causes and effects |
| D．comparing with other opinions |
| A．Attempts may not produce the desired effect. |
| B．Environment is important in language protection. |
| C．People can do little about a language's extinction. |
| D．Measures should be taken in spite of difficulties. |
| A．all languages are finally going to die out |
| B．human wisdom can be reflected in languages |
| C．the protective approaches have proved ineffective |
| D．the current situation of languages hardly requires attention |
【小题1】D
【小题2】B
【小题3】C
【小题4】B
解析文章大意：语言会灭绝吗？它又会带来怎样的后果？让我们保护语言。
【小题1】D 推理判断题。由最后一段，特别是最后一句话“Nevertheless, hope dies hard.”可知，不能放弃保护语言的努力。
【小题2】B 推理判断题。第三段第三句话举例证明作者的论点：应该尽可能多的保护语言。
【小题3】C 细节理解题。由第二段第五句话“In fact, the latter is a much bigger threat and it is responsible for the extinction of a lot of languages in countries like the USA and Australia.”可知，应该是前面介绍的两种语言中的后者“...to sociological factors, like cultural assimilation, in which the culture of a minority group is gradually replaced by a stronger one(本族文化的消失)”应该为美国和澳大利亚的语言灭绝负责。
【小题4】B 推理判断题。由第三段最后一句话“In other words, when languages die out, mankind's wisdom reduces. ”可推知，语言反映了人类的智慧。
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倍速训练法直通中考考点系列答案科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
People diet to look more attractive．Fish diet to avoid being beaten up，thrown out of their social group，and getting eaten as a result．That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists．
The research team have discovered that subordinate(低一等的) fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors．"In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals，a male and female，had breeding（繁殖）rights within the group，" explains Marian Wong．"All other group members are nonbreeding females，each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor．We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation．"
The reason for the size difference was easy to see．Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor，it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group．More often than not，the evicted fish is then eaten up．
It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish．Whether they did so voluntarily，by restraining how much they ate，was not clear．The research team decided to do an experiment．They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened．To their surprise，the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered，clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights，over having a feast．
The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group．Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves，so keeping their competitors small．
While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious，Dr．Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understand how hierarchical（等级的）societies remain stable．
The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans．"As yet，we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature，" the researchers comment．"Data on human dieting suggests that，while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness，rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females' own ideal．"
【小题1】When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor，it _________．
| A．leaves the group itself | B．has breeding rights |
| C．eats its competitor | D．faces danger |
| A．the fish beaten up | B．the fish driven away |
| C．the fish found out | D．the fish fattened up |
| A．fought over a feast | B．preferred some extra food |
| C．challenged the boss fish | D．went on diet willingly |
| A．Fish dieting and human dieting． | B．Dieting and health． |
| C．Human dieting． | D．Fish dieting． |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
WASHINGTON The head of the World Bank says for the first time in human history, it is possible to end poverty around the world. Jim Yong Kim told a Washington audience Tuesday, he wants to make ending world poverty by 2030 a top goal for the bank and governments around the world.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says that the problems of poverty, hunger and inequality are wide, urgent and a matter of survival of millions.
“We know that despite the great successes of the last decade, there are still about 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty, 870 million who go hungry every day, and 6.9 million children under five dying every year,” he said.
But Kim told a Washington audience that the previous successful efforts to cut the number of people living in extreme poverty by half give them hope.
“We are at an auspicious moment in history, when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favourable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance－for the first time ever－to end extreme poverty within a generation,” he said in a speech at Georgetown University. “Our duty now must be to ensure that these favourable circumstances are matched with deliberate decisions to realize this historic opportunity.”
Kim says success will require increasing the speed of economic growth, particularly in South Africa and South Asia.
But he warned that civil unrest could happen if economic growth does not help people at all income levels, and also include women and youth．
Kim says that the World Bank and other development agencies will have more resources to get this job done right. “Meeting this 2030 goal will take extraordinary effort,” he said.
However, Kim warned that all the progress in fighting poverty could be destroyed by climate disasters unless the nations of the world do more to prevent climate change.
【小题1】In the opinion of Jim Yong Kim, world poverty _____．
| A．is difficult but hopeful to end by 2030 |
| B．exists only in Africa and Asia |
| C．is not quite hard to end by 2030 |
| D．will be sure to disappear by 2030 |
| A．Economic growth is increasing in developing countries． |
| B．Great successes have been achieved in science and technology． |
| C．A decreasing number of people are living in poverty． |
| D．All countries have started to fight poverty． |
| A．unforgettable | B．lucky |
| C．disappearing | D．important |
| A．The key of ending world poverty is preventing climate change. |
| B．A top goal－ending world poverty will possibly be achieved by 2030. |
| C．The success of ending poverty－economic growth. |
| D．The progress in fighting poverty. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
One of the latest trend（趋势） in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4,000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country.
“I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of s company, says of his 2-year old son. “I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future,” After only six months of being cared by 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says.
Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots.” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触) the language and culture.” she says.
“Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom,” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children.”But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders. Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12.”
The popularity if au pairs from china has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.
【小题1】What does that term” au pair” in the text mean?
| A．A mother raising her children on her own |
| B．A child learning a foreign language at home |
| C．A professor in language education of children |
| D．A young foreign woman taking care of children. |
| A．to live in China some day |
| B．to speak the language at home |
| C．to catch up wit other children |
| D．to learn about the Chinese culture |
| A．Learning Chinese is becoming popular In America, |
| B．Educated woman do better in looking after children |
| C．Chinese au pairs need to improve their English Skills. |
| D．Children can learn a foreign language well in six months. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Few of us haven’t read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone’s heart—we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity(默默无闻)or neglect. 
Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.
Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenage pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.
Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not—kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey’s paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked(邪恶的)stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn’t get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her.
The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.
“The movie takes the fairy tale Cinderella as its jumping off point, ”writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson. “The focus is firmly on following your dream. ”
【小题1】The first paragraph is mainly to .
| A．build interest and lead us to Mary’s secret dream |
| B．remind us why Cinderella is popular all the years |
| C．inform us of the main topic of the whole passage |
| D．tell us how interesting the fairy tale Cinderella is |
| A．is brave in expressing her love |
| B．is attended to badly by the stepmother |
| C．has a dream of meeting a prince |
| D．is embarrassed by the pop singer |
| A．Joey is just like other boys in Mary’s class. |
| B．Mary’s mother influences her a lot in singing. |
| C．Not many people have a dream to be realized. |
| D．The MP3 player helps Joey in finding Mary. |
| A．an introduction to a film |
| B．a review about a film |
| C．an essay about dreams |
| D．an advertisement of Cinderella |
| A．follows Cinderella with nothing new |
| B．pays more attention to the looks of the actors |
| C．encourages young people to follow their dreams |
| D．focuses more on materialism than other films |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
What is a six-letter word that immediately comes to mind when you need some information on the Internet? You probably thought of Google. But Google wasn’t always the name of the famous search engine. In fact, the original name was BackRub!
BackRub was the name two graduate students gave to the new search engine they developed in 1996. They called it BackRub because the engine used backlinks to measure the popularity of Web sites. Later, they wanted a better name — a name that suggests huge quantities of data. They thought of the word googol. (A googol is a number followed by 100 zeros.) When they checked the Internet registry of names to see if googol was already taken, one of the students misspelled the word by mistake, and that’s how Google was born.
Google is just one example of a name change in the business world. Many other companies have decided to change their names or the names of their products. Here are some more examples:
Jerry Yang and David Filo, two young computer specialists, developed a guide to Internet content in 1994. They called it “Jerry and David’s Guide to World Wide Web.” But they soon realized that this wasn’t a very catchy name, so they searched through a dictionary and found a better one: “Yahoo.”
Sometimes companies change their names because of the popularity of one of their products. In 1962, a young runner named Phil Knight started a company called Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971, Knight decided to design and manufacture his own brand of shoes. He named the shoes after the Greek goddess of victory — Nike. Nike shoes became so well known that Knight changed the name of the whole company to Nike.
【小题1】According to the text, Google .
| A．has been famous since 1996 |
| B．is a result of a spelling mistake |
| C．means a number followed by 100 zeros |
| D．is the original name of the search engine |
| A．had been registered | B．had been forgotten |
| C．was not attractive | D．was too short |
| A．its founders | B．its customers |
| C．its popular products | D．its advanced techniques |
| A．The name changes | B．The history of Google |
| C．How to choose a name? | D．Why are names important? |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
In English the spelling of words does not always represent the sound. So people say /rait/ but spell it right or write, or even rite. Combinations of letters may be pronounced in many ways. And some words just seem to have too many letters.
For Americans things are a little bit easier, thanks to the work of Noah Webster, a teacher who graduated from Yale University in 1778. As a young man, he had fought against the British in the American War of Independence, and he felt that written English in the newly independent United States should have a distinctive American look.
So he began his work on American English. His first book, The Elementary Spelling Book, suggested simplifying the spelling of English words. The book was extremely popular. By the 1850s, it was selling one million copies a year, making it one of the most popular school books ever.
Many of the suggestions were quickly adopted. Center instead of centre, program instead of programme, and flavor instead of flavour. Others, however, such as removing silent letters like s in island or the final e in examine, were not .
Webster is best known for his American Dictionary of the English language, which first appeared in 1828. It introduced lots of new American words, with information about their pronunciation and use, and, of course, the new spelling. The British criticized the dictionary, but it quickly became a standard reference book in the States. Today, Webster's dictionary is still the number one dictionary for American students.
【小题1】What is the text mainly about?
| A．Webster and his best sellers. |
| B．British and American English. |
| C．The history of American English. |
| D．The man who made spelling simple. |
| A．②①③④ | B．③①②④ | C．④①③② | D．①②③④ |
| A．They thought highly of it. |
| B．They found fault with it. |
| C．They argued bitterly about it. |
| D．They followed the examples of it. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
A World of Color
No matter where you go, colors are everywhere! And while the colors may be the same, their meanings change depending on the country.
| Colors | Different Meanings | | ||
| Green | Green means “hope” in Ecuador. In the U.S., it’s a symbol of money and concern for the environment. | | ||
| Purple | Purple is worn by kings and queens in Europe, while in Thailand, it’s worn by women whose husbands have died. | | ||
| | Black | Black is the traditional color of mourning(哀悼) in the West. But on the Pacific islands of Melanesia, it’s a symbol of beauty and speed. | ||
| | White | White is considered a pure color and is worn at weddings in America. In parts of Asia, however, white is worn to funerals(葬礼) as a sign of winter, when everything is dead. | ||
| | Red | Red means “beautiful” in Russia, but in South Africa, it’s the color of mourning. In the United States, a bride would be criticized(批评) for wearing a red gown. In India or China, though, brides often wear red as a symbol of good fortune. | ||
| A．green | B．purple | C．black | D．white |
| A．Five. | B．Four. | C．Three. | D．Two. |
| A．Thailand | B．America | C．India | D．South Africa |
| A．White stands for purity in China. |
| B．An American bride will wear a red gown on the wedding. |
| C．Black is a symbol of beauty and speed in the west. |
| D．Purple is worn by kings and queens in Europe |
| A．All the colors have different meanings in different countries. |
| B．From country to country, people view colors differently. |
| C．All the brides from China prefer to wear white gowns. |
| D．White is considered a pure color and often worn to funerals. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
As the father of a student, I have experienced first hand what a great teacher is. My son was in the 4th grade last year, and he had a teacher called Miss Green. I believe that when he is an adult he will surely look back on her as the best teacher he has ever had.
My son has attention deficit disorder(注意力缺损症) that makes it a little more difficult for him to learn. She was able to change her teaching methods for him so that he could keep up with the rest of the class. As a result, he got straight As on many subjects. She regarded her class as a family and they even had their own class song. She would often have them sing it to encourage them and develop a team spirit for them. When she saw that they were no longer listening carefully to what she was teaching, she would have them close their textbooks, stand up all around the room and throw around a small football. This helped them clear their minds and then focus on the lesson again. Besides, she was quick to reply to any phone calls or emails from us and got rid of our worries about children quickly.
When my son went to the 5th grade this year, we happened to pass her classroom. When she saw my son, she smiled, and she came out and hugged him. She generally loves all of the children in her classroom and that love really shows. I can only pray that my son will continue to get teachers just like her for the rest of his school years.
【小题1】With the teacher’s help, the writer’s son ______.
| A．became the best student in his class |
| B．was interested in singing songs |
| C．quickly finished his 4th grade lessons |
| D．improved his grades greatly |
| A．She regarded the students as members of a family. |
| B．She had special ways to help students study. |
| C．She was good at teaching football and music. |
| D．She usually made a quick reply to parents’ emails. |
| A．Miss Green didn’t teach the writer’s son in the 5th grade |
| B．Miss Green was the best teacher at the school |
| C．all the students in the school liked Miss Green |
| D．the writer’s son had many teachers like Miss Green |
| A．what his son studied at school |
| B．his son once had a good teacher |
| C．how to be a good and popular teacher |
| D．a teacher who liked playing with students |
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