It’s not just your imagination. In cities from coast to coast, the use of Spanish is booming, and is proliferating in ways no ot

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问题     It’s not just your imagination. In cities from coast to coast, the use of Spanish is booming, and is proliferating in ways no other language has before in the U. S. history--other than English of course.
    It’s this sort of environment that is a cause for concern for many.  Mauro Mujica heads a group called "U. S. English," which lobbies for official English laws across the country. He’s concerned that with so many Spanish speakers entering the country, the U. S. will become a nation split by language, much like Canada.
    "Now we’re beginning to divide ourselves, to split along linguistic lines. We’re beginning to see pockets of people who speak other languages and no English whatsoever. "
    His fear is hardly universal. Gregory Rodriguez is a fellow with the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think-tank based in Washington, D. C. He calls Mujica’s arguments "ridiculous. "
    "This process of immigrant enclaves (少数民族聚集地) and linguistic enclaves is an age-old American process. We’ve all heard the quotes from Benjamin Franklin about his concerns that German- Americans would never assimilate. These concerns are as old as the American republic. "
    Rodriguez argues that the current boom in the use of Spanish is due ahnost entirely to new immigrants, and that their children will, at least for the most part, learn English. He points to 1990 census data, which indicates that by the third generation, two-thirds of all Hispanic children speak English exclusively. Whether that number is going up or down will be difficult to determine since the Census Bureau didn’t track that information in its most recent census.
    But there may be at least one piece of anecdotal evidence. Spanish-language movie theaters once flourished in the Los Angeles area. There were dozens of these theaters just fifteen years ago. Today there are only seven.
    "There is a myth that somehow immigrants come to the most powerful nation in the world simply to resist its cultural embrace," says Rodriguez. "But it is a myth. "
    Immigrant enclaves are, of course, common throughout American History.  German and Polish enclaves were common throughout the Midwest.  The Italians flourished in New York.  But those languages largely faded from use in the U. S. Few are predicting that will happen with Spanish. It’s here to stay, although we won’t know its ultimate impact for generations.
The problems caused by immigrants’ speaking their mother tongues ______.

选项 A、are only a recent phenomenon
B、vary with different immigrant groups
C、dated back to the founding of the nation
D、started with the modern immigration system

答案C

解析
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