首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
The status of English as an international language appears unassailable. It is simultaneously preeminent in science, politics, b
The status of English as an international language appears unassailable. It is simultaneously preeminent in science, politics, b
admin
2016-08-02
59
问题
The status of English as an international language appears unassailable. It is simultaneously preeminent in science, politics, business and entertainment. And unlike any of its lingua franca predecessors, it has all this on a truly worldwide scale. There is no challenger comparable to it: Chinese has more native speakers, but every schoolchild in China now studies English. And India, set to overtake China in population by 2050. is avidly trading on its English expertise.
But English is not thereby immune to the principles of language survival. Above all, it is notable that beyond the 330 million or so native speakers, perhaps twice as many more use it as a second language. And this community of over 600 million second-language speakers, who make English preeminent as a world language, also make it vulnerable in the long term.
In 5,000 years of recorded language history, a few dozen languages have achieved the status of lingua franca, a language of wider communication among people whose mother tongues may be quite different. But this status does not come about by some utilitarian reckoning, or democratic selection. There is always a reason, be it conquest, trade, religious mission or social aspiration, which has selected a language to have this wider role, and that reason is hard to forget—and ultimately often hard to forgive.
This is seldom clear—at first to native speakers. They naturally see their mother tongue as a simple blessing for the wider world. But neither Latin nor French would have spread across Western Europe if their use had not once upon a time been imposed—by forces other than lucidity and charm.
There was status or wealth to be gained from knowing these languages, and in their heyday, no one believed they might one day go out of use. After all, they seemed not only useful, but also such exceptional languages.
But far from being disinterested aids to thought and communication, every lingua franca continues to bear the badge of its original spread; and this is often the cause of its ultimate undoing. This moral is as clear and well-established as the recorded history of the lingua franca phenomenon.
English will not decline as a first language: Indeed for the foreseeable future it will be among the five major mother tongues of the world. Spread out worldwide, it may even change and ultimately split into a family of languages. But it would go against the pattern of world history if alien peoples patronized English for very much longer than necessary.
In sum, the world in the next few generations is likely to see greater multilingualism and less English-backed bilingualism. We can learn the long view from language history, but it may be a hard lesson.
It is implied in the text that both Latin and French
选项
A、were imposed upon many nations by charm
B、spread across the whole continent of Europe
C、maintained the status of lingua franca at a time
D、fascinated as many people as English once did
答案
C
解析
根据第四段中的“But neither Latin nor French would have spread across Western Europe if…”,C应为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/B9oZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Organizationsandsocietiesrelyonfinesandrewardstoharnesspeople’sself-interestintheserviceofthecommongood.Thet
Startingthismonth,roughlyonequarteroftheworld’spopulationwilllosesleepandgainsunlightastheysettheirclocksah
RichardRortywasoneofthemosttalked-aboutthinkersinAmerica.EveryprofessionalphilosopherintheEnglish-speakingworld
RichardRortywasoneofthemosttalked-aboutthinkersinAmerica.EveryprofessionalphilosopherintheEnglish-speakingworld
Shortlybeforehediedoflymphoma,thegreatwriterandphysicianLewisThomas,whosebooksturnedscienceintoawayofapprec
Shortlybeforehediedoflymphoma,thegreatwriterandphysicianLewisThomas,whosebooksturnedscienceintoawayofapprec
LatinoyouthsneedbettereducationforArizonatotakefulladvantageofthepossibilitiestheirexplodingpopulationoffers.A
LatinoyouthsneedbettereducationforArizonatotakefulladvantageofthepossibilitiestheirexplodingpopulationoffers.A
Nowcustomhasnotbeencommonlyregardedasasubjectofanygreatimportance.Theinnerworkingsofourownbrainswefeelto
Nowcustomhasnotbeencommonlyregardedasasubjectofanygreatimportance.Theinnerworkingsofourownbrainswefeelto
随机试题
竹笋在我国主要产于________。
现代企业的会计制度具有国际通用规范的性质。()
A、 B、 C、 D、 C
关于抗疟药下列说法正确的是
以下对有关指标说法正确的是()。
台灯作为一个实体可由市场决定其生产量,这种需求量是()。
《尚书》是中国文学史上第一部记叙文和议论文。()
2019年9月23日,“()——庆祝中华人民共和国成立70周年大型成就展”开幕式在北京展览馆举行。中共中央政治局常委、国务院总理李克强出席开幕式并讲话。
Evidenceofthebenefitsthatvolunteeringcanbringolderpeoplecontinuestorollin."Volunteershaveimprovedphysicalands
Whenyourunyourhandsthroughyourlover’shair,you’reprobablynotthinkingaboutyourplaceinthesocialhierarchy.Givey
最新回复
(
0
)