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        Most of my earliest childhood memories are of the beach-in the hot sun, building sandcastles,
burying Dad in the sandNow the coast has a pleasant and relaxing attraction beyond words. I looked
forward to a windy cliff-top walk or a rainy day rock-picking just as much as those rare moments when
Iget to a short sleep in the sun. But there's nothing more pleasurable than turning up at a beach to find it
deserted.
      These are my favourite secret beaches-ones either not well known or take a bit of effort to get to.
Most of those listed scored highly in the Marine Conservation Society Good Beach Guide 2009; the
others are too secret even for them.
     Sennen Clove is just a mile northeast of Land's End, the westernmost point of mainland England. It's
a beautiful spot, with white sands, deep green sea and amazing sunsets over the Isles(群岛) of Scilly, 28
miles away.
     The west-facing beach is popular with surfers, with bigger waves and winds often found at the Gwenver end. There's a beach restaurant with good views of the bay and the sunsets.
     The smallest of Isles of Scilly, Bryher is a mile long, half a mile wide-and a natural wilderness of
unbelievable scenery. Walk along the narrow sandy roads to the eastern seaboard and you come to
two quiet beaches.
     Green Bay has views over to the palm trees of Tresco's Abbey Gardens, and a little further south is
Rushy Bay, a beautiful beach facing the deserted island of Samson.
     On Bryher, farm shops sell locally grown produce, and they trust you to leave the money in the pot.
It's that kind of place.

     At the beginning of the twentieth century,many people thought that the American family
was falling apart.A century later,we know that this was not the case.However,although the
family is still alive in the United States,its size and shape were very different from 100 years
ago.
     In the late 1800s and early 1900s,there were mainly two types of families in the United
States:the extended and the nuclear.The extended family usually includes grandparents,
parents,and children living under the same roof.The nuclear family consists of only parents
and children.
     Today there are many different kinds of families.Some people live in “traditional” families,
that is,a stay?home mother,a working father,and their own biological children.Others live in
two?paycheck families,single-parent families,adoptive or foster families,blended families
(where men and women who were married before marry again and combine the children
from previous marriages into the new families),child less families,and so on.
     What caused the structure of the family to change?In the early 1900s the birthrate began
to fall and the divorce rate began to rise.Women were suddenly choosing to go to college
and take jobs outside the home.In the 1930s and 1940s,many families faced serious financial,
or money problems during the Great Depression,when many people lost their jobs.During
World War Ⅱ(1939-1945),5 million women were left alone to take care of their homes and
their children.Because many men were at war,thousands of these “war widows” had to go to
work outside their home.
     During the next ten years,the situation changed.There were fewer divorces,and people
married at a younger age and had more children than the previous generation.It was unusual
for a mother to work outside the home during the years whenher children were growing up.
Families began leaving cities and moving into single-family homes in the suburbs.The traditional
family seemed to be returning.
     In the years between 1960s and 1990s,there were many important changes in the structure
of the family.From the 1960s to the early 1970s,the divorce rate doubled and the birthrate fell
by half.The number of single-parent families tripled,and the number of couples living together
without ?being? married doubled again.In fact,the single?parent household,once unusual,has
replaced the “traditional” family as the typical family in the States.If we can judge from history,
however,this will probably change again in the twenty-first century.
The Changes of the American Family

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     Endangered languages are languages that wouldn't exist any longer, much like endangered species of
plants or animals. Languages are considered to be endangered when parents are no longer teaching the
language to their children and are not using it actively in everyday life. A language is considered to nearly
disappear when it is spoken by only a few elderly native speakers.
     The world faces enormous challenges in order to protect different kinds of languages. Of the more than 6,912 languages, half may be in danger of disappearing in the next several decades.
     It is caused by many reasons: small numbers of speakers, the regular use of other languages, attitudes
towards their languages, moving of the younger population, government policies, and languages used in
education and so on. A language may lack important things such as a body of literature, and people who
read and write it. A language may also lack prestige (声望) and support of its speakers.
     The survival of a language is also threatened when speakers move to other areas where different
languages are spoken, or when government policies improve the use of a specific language in school,
official business and the media. These situations encourage people to learn the wider-known language and may cause them, especially the young, to stop using their mother tongue. Often those speaking
lesser-known languages will choose to learn a more prestigious language with the hope of greater
economic opportunities. Most of the world's parents are teaching their children English, French, Spanish,
Chinese, Arabic, Russian or some other main languages instead of their own languages for social and
economic reasons.
1. What's the main idea of this passage?
A. Languages in the world.
B. Reasons why languages become endangered.
C. What an endangered language is.
D. Languages spoken by few speakers.
2. About _________ languages will probably disappear in this century according to the passage.
A. more than 6,912
B. more than 3,456
C. 6,912
D. less than 3,456
3. Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
①=Paragraph1②=Paragraph2③=Paragraph3④=Paragraph4

4. We can infer that the best way to maintain an endangered language is to _________.
A. forbid the speakers to move about
B. pass laws to protect the language
C. raise the salaries of the people who speak the language
D. teach the language to young children and encourage people to speak it as much as possible
5. All of the following about languages are true EXCEPT __________.
A. many languages will be probably endangered in this century
B. government policies have a big effect on languages
C. the endangered language is a language that is spoken by few people
D. languages are related to their speakers' social and economic position