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  3. Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school

Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school

admin2012-06-20  57
问题     Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school graduates can speak a foreign language. But four decades ago, 40 percent had foreign language skills.
    Professor Elise Tipton, from the University of Sydney, says increasingly students do not feel the need to learn another language to boost their career. She believes that Australia’s economic boom, which is driven by red-hot demand for its minerals, is helping mask serious deficiencies (缺陷) in its language skills.
    Australia does business very successfully in English with most of its trading partners. But as the world’s economic power shifts to emerging regions such as Asia, its language gap could soon be exposed. According to the new figures, less than 6.5 percent of high school graduates are proficient in an Asian language. Academics worry that this means Australia will increasingly be isolated from its economically important Asian neighbors. Dilip Dutta, from the economics and business faculty at Sydney University, says language skills can enhance trading opportunities. If Australians want to trade with Asian countries, it is very important for them to learn the language that will help them to get closer to the culture.
    But students have different opinions about Asian language learning. Pippa McCowage, a 22-year-old Australian student, says many young Australians have a half-hearted approach to foreign language, and the language curriculum is often weak. "While we’re encouraged in high school to learn another language, it’s not really apparent to me as a realistic expectation that you will have to speak it," said McCowage. "For example, I learned Japanese in high school. When I went on an exchange in Year 10, I found that the Japanese students of my age had a much greater proficiency in English than I did in Japanese. So in that sense, it almost discourages you."
    At present, about 70 percent of Australia’s major exports go to Asia and the Australian government has been keen on developing closer economic and diplomatic ties with Asia. Academics say that, as Asia becomes one of the world’s economic powerhouses (经济体), Australia needs to improve its language skills if it is to take full advantage of the business opportunities on its doorstep.
What does McCowage mean by "... have a half-hearted approach to foreign language" (Lines 2-3, Para. 4)?
选项 A、Students have no idea of how to learn a foreign language.
B、Students give up learning Asian languages half-way.
C、Many Australian students are not interested in learning a foreign language.
D、High schools fail to provide opportunity for students to speak a foreign language.
答案C
解析 根据题干中的half-hearted approach将本题出处定位到第四段第二句。该句提到，McCowage 说很多年轻的澳大利亚人用a half-hearted approach学习外语。结合McCowage在描述自身经历时提到的it’s not really apparent to me as a realistic expectation以及it almost discourages you可推断出，许多澳大利亚学生缺乏学外语的动力，即对学习外语不感兴趣，故答案为[C]。[B]是对half-hearted approach的错误理解，故排除；第四段第二句提到“外语课程通常质量不高”，但并不代表高中没有提供外语课程，故排除[D]。
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