2. 外语
  3. Since the late 1930’s the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States has been working to promote native language literacy amo

Since the late 1930’s the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States has been working to promote native language literacy amo

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问题     Since the late 1930’s the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States has been working to promote native language literacy among Indians. Indians were to be taught to read and write in their native language before being taught English. Studies in many cultures around the world demonstrate that children learn to read best in their mother tongue. Bilingual reading books and other educational materials were prepared in Navaho, Hopi, Siouan, Pueblo, and Papago languages. The difficulties were tremendous because many American Indian languages are distinctively different in structure from all other languages in the world. They do not have "words" in the sense that other languages do—as independent meaningful sound sequences that combine into "sentences". Their "sentences" are made by combining prefixes, infixes, and suffixes into what looks like one long word but is essentially the equivalent of our sentence. It is impossible, in other words, to make an Indian utterance that is not a sentence. In our sense, Indian languages do not have parts of speech, conjugations etc. The sentence is the smallest structure available to speakers of the language. Therefore bridging the translation gap between English and such language is a massive feat.
    In most cases, Indian children need to be bilingual though not necessarily be literate. That is, they need to speak their native language to participate fully in their home and tribal affairs. But, they do not need to read and write that language. On the other hand, they also need a reading, writing, and speaking knowledge of English, not only to get their due in this country but, ironically, also to preserve their heritage.
Which phrase best expresses the main idea of this passage?
选项 A、The importance of bilingual reading books.
B、Language problems confronting the American Indian.
C、Historical backgrounds of American-Indian English.
D、The importance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
答案B
解析 这是一道要旨题，需结合全文来理解。本文的主题就是如何在印第安人中展开双语教学，即让他们在掌握英语的读写知识的同时，又让他们学会读写自己的语言。但要想真正做到这一点却存在很大的难度，因为两种语言的差异非常大。B“美国的印第安人面临的语言问题”与文中的主题最接近。A“双语阅读课本的重要性”。只是文中第二段重点表达的内容，不是文章的主题。C“美国印第安英语的历史背景”。文中未提及。D“印第安事务署的重要性”。在文中只是第一句提到过，以后均未涉及。
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