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
外语
The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether
The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether
admin
2014-04-25
14
问题
The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether the activity is tourism, research, government, policing, business, or data dissemination, the lack of a common language can severely impede progress or can halt it altogether. ’Common language’ here usually means a foreign language, but the same point applies in principle to any encounter with unfamiliar dialects or styles within a single language. ’They don’t talk the same language’ has a major metaphorical meaning alongside its literal one.
Although communication problems of this kind must happen thousands of times each day, very few become public knowledge. Publicity comes only when a failure to communicate has major consequences, such as strikes, lost orders, legal problems, or fatal accidents - even, at times, war. One reported instance of communication failure took place in 1970, when several Americans ate a species of poisonous mushroom. No remedy was known, and two of the people died within days. A radio report of the case was heard by a chemist who knew of a treatment that had been successfully used in 1959 and published in 1963. Why had the American doctors not heard of it seven years later? Presumably because the report of the treatment had been published only in journals written in European languages other than English.
Several comparable cases have been reported. But isolated examples do not give an impression of the size of the problem -something that can come only from studies of the use or avoidance of foreign-language materials and contacts in different communicative situations. In the English-speaking scientific world, for example, surveys of books and documents consulted in libraries and other information agencies have shown that very little foreign-language material is ever consulted. Library requests in the field of science and technology showed that only 13 per cent were for foreign language periodicals. Studies of the sources cited in publications lead to a similar conclusion: the use of foreign-language sources is often found to be as low as 10 per cent.
The language barrier presents itself in stark form to firms who wish to market their products in other countries. British industry, in particular, has in recent decades often been criticised for its linguistic insularity - for its assumption that foreign buyers will be happy to communicate in English, and that awareness of other languages is not therefor a priorty. In the 1960s, over two-thirds of British firms dealing with non-English-speaking customers were using English for outgoing correspondence; many had their sales literature only in English; and as many as 40 per cent employed no-one able to communicate in the customers’ languages, A similar problem was identified in other English-speaking countries, notably the USA, Australia and New Zealand. And non-English-speaking countries were by no means exempt - although the widespread use of English as an alternative language made them less open to the charge of insularity.
The criticism and publicity given to this problem since the 1960s seems to have greatly improved the situation. Industrial training schemes have promoted an increase in linguistic and cultural awareness. Many firms now have their own translation services; to take just one example in Britain, Rowntree Mackintosh now publish their documents in six languages(English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Xhosa). Some firms run part-time language courses in the languages of the countries with which they are most involved; some produce their own technical glossaries, to ensure consistency when material is being translated. It is now much more readily appreciated that marketing efforts can be delayed, damaged, or disrupted by a failure to take account of the linguistic needs of the customer.
The changes in awareness have been most marked in English-speaking countries, where the realisation has gradually dawned that by no means everyone in the world knows English well enough to negotiate in it. This is especially a problem when English is not an official language of public administration, as in most parts of the Far East, Russia, Eastern Europe, the Arab would, Latin America and French-speaking Africa. Even in cases where foreign customers can speak English quite well, it is often forgotten that they may not be able to understand it to the required level - bearing in mind the regional and social variation which permeates speech and which can cause major problems of listening comprehension. In securing understanding, how ’we’ speak to ’them’ is just as important, it appears, as how ’they’ speak to us .
Questions 14-17
Complete each of the following statements(Questions 14 - 17)with words taken from Reading Passage 2.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 14 - 17 on your answer sheet.
An example of a part of the world where people may have difficulty in negotiating English is______.
选项
答案
Eastern Europe//Far East//Russia//Arab world //Latin America //French-speaking Africa
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/DhNO777K
本试题收录于:
雅思阅读题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思阅读
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
ForeachofQuestions1to9,compareQuantityAandQuantityB,usingadditionalinformationcenteredabovethetwoquantities
Ifa
Thetablebelowshowsthedistributionofagroupof40collegestudentsbygenderandclass.Ifonestudentisrandomlyselect
TRAVELERSSURVEYED:250Inasurveyof250Europeantravelers,93havetraveledtoAfrica,155havetraveledtoAsia,andofth
Onatripof408miles,Tomtravelsthefirst160milesin4hours.Atwhatratemusthetravelfortheremainderofthetripin
Alanguageclasshas155students.80ofthemcanspeakEnglish,40ofthemcanspeakRussian,and60ofthemcanspeakFrench.
Thelanguageofthebureaucratsandadministratorsmustneedsberecognizedas______oflegalparlance,forthereisnootherw
McClary’sposition,concerningtheprocessbywhichmusicisgenderedasmasculineorfeminine,isthatsocially-grounded
McClary’sposition,concerningtheprocessbywhichmusicisgenderedasmasculineorfeminine,isthatsocially-grounded
McClary’sposition,concerningtheprocessbywhichmusicisgenderedasmasculineorfeminine,isthatsocially-grounded
随机试题
考生文件夹下存在一个数据库文件“samp2.accdb”,里面已经设计好“tStud”和“tScore”两个表对象。试按以下要求完成设计:建立“tStud”和“tScore”两表之间的一对一关系;
在出版物定位的方法中,最基础的定位标准是()。
关于法律规则的逻辑结构,下列哪些说法是正确的?()
提高深孔爆破质量的措施有()。
1.背景某建筑设计院具备建筑、市政甲级设计资质,承担了某4D机场的跑道延长工程的工程总承包任务,工程总承包单位负责设计到行业验收综合管理,找了一家民航专业工程设计院设计,又找一家机场场道专业工程二级企业进行道面工程施工。2.问题我国工程总承包资质是
某市一栋四星级宾馆,地上共16层,地下共2层,建筑高度60m。由于客人不小心将烟蒂掉在了地毯上,并引燃了房间内的地毯,大火在不到一分钟的时间内迅速蔓延,整个房间都被点着,在发现火灾后有近百名顾客涌向一个安全出口。部分顾客在火灾初期,没有及时逃生,或者在房间
损益类账户的期末余额及方向表现为()。
Tomgrowsthenicestvegetablesandfruitsandthemostbeautifulflowersinthevillage.PlantsgrowinTom’sgardenallthroug
警衔是区分人民警察等级、表明人民警察身份的()和国家给予人民警察的荣誉。
Whatwasthewomandoingthesedays?Whatisthewomangoingtodoaftertheconversation?
最新回复
(
0
)