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
One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking province of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive Engli
One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking province of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive Engli
admin
2014-06-25
69
问题
One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking province of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive English courses would be offered to students in state schools. Odd, because in the past half-century, much of the Quebecois identity has been built on resisting English. Authorities
throw the book at
people for doing things that would be normal elsewhere in Canada. Last autumn, the Montreal newspaper La Presse revealed that two real estate executives had made presentations in English to a Montreal-based pension fund, violating the province’s language laws, which give workers the right to a French-speaking environment.
Now, school authorities in Quebec City are questioning whether the time is ripe for introducing those English classes after all. Their hesitation has left French-speaking parents angry. On one hand, those parents want their children to cherish their own community and its language. On the other hand, English is the international language of business, and their children will have a hard time climbing the social ladder without it.
Not all cultures have the same historical anguish over English that Quebecois do. But almost all are being dragged inevitably towards giving English a bigger role in their societies. So now we can all talk, we peoples of the world. The universalisation of English has happy consequences. But like the building of the Tower of Babel, it has negative ones, too. English as a lingua franca offers unfair advantages to the half-billion people who speak English as a native language. We sometimes assume that English is a world standard only for superficial interactions—hotel personnel saying "How was your stay?" or business consultants importing words like "benchmarking" into their own languages. But French and German professors, for instance, often grumble that it is hard to build a career when academic journals are all in English.
Meanwhile, there can be a diversity-stifling effect to "diversity". When universities teach classes in global English, they can adorn their student bodies with exotic people from around the world—the most talented ones, the flower of their respective cultures. But the net effect can be to turn these varied young people into extremely unvaried adults. Language shapes mentalities—how deeply is harder to say. But the spread of English may be limiting our ability to think in different ways.
The writer Robert McCrum wrote in his recent book Globish that there are 4bn people who understand English, if we’re generous about what we mean by English. One can only rub one’s eyes. The population of the planet reached that level in 1974, just seven years before Fran ois Mitterrand came to power in France. His culture minister, Jack Lang, waged a fight against the linguistic imperialism of English. A later government would specify that 40 per cent of popular songs on the radio had to be in French. That law gave rise to a lot of laughter in Washington and London. It doesn’t seem quite so crazy as it did back then.
In the author’s view, Jack Lang’s action against English is______.
选项
A、insane
B、reasonable
C、cautious
D、laughable
答案
B
解析
作者在最后一段提及法国文化部长贾·克朗反英语的举措,末两句明确指出“该措施(由此出台的法案条例)在华盛顿和论断一度成为笑料,当初看上去很疯狂,现在似乎不会这么疯狂了”,言外之意为,贾·克朗反英语霸权地位的举措放置在今天这一英语全球化的情境下是合理的,[B]选项符合文意。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/aFK4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
Untilthelate1940swhentelevisionbeganfindingitswayintoAmericanhomes,companiesreliedmainlyonprintandradiotopr
Artistsroutinelymockbusinesspeopleasmoney-obsessedbores.Orworse.Manybusinesspeople,fortheirpart,assumethatartis
Antibiotics,beforetheybecameusedasdrugs,werenaturalproducts.Anewfindingprovidesthefirstdirect【C1】______thatanti
Somepeoplethinkpeopleshouldlearntocompete,butothersthinkthatpeopleshouldbetaughttocooperate.Whatisyouropini
AyoungmanchoosingacarisnotedtosuggestthatThe"prestigeCollection"businessofHertzis
随机试题
甲醇合成原料气的质量要求中,对甲烷含量无限制要求。
(2009年4月)公务员录用考试的内容有:______。______,或叫能力测验。______。
伴随人口高速增长而来的城市化发展速度居于世界首位的是()
Thebookis______tobeputintothatenvelope.Youneedabiggerone.
下列哪些选项的增减核算,一般不以具有法律效力的文书为依据,不具有政策性强的特点?()
我国最大的政策性银行是()。
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定的规律性。
A.肺炎链球菌肺炎B.支气管扩张C.肺炎克雷伯杆菌肺炎D.急性肺水肿痰液呈红棕色胶冻样可能是
用户在开始通信前,必须申请建立一条从发送端到接收端的物理信道,并且在双方通信期间始终占用该信道,这样的交换方式属于______。
在进行数据库物理设计时,为了保证系统性能,需要综合考虑所选择的数据库管理系统的特性及软硬件具体情况。下列关于数据库物理设计的说法,错误的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)