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
For my proposed journey, the first priority was clearly to start learning Arabic. I have never been a linguist. Though I had tra
For my proposed journey, the first priority was clearly to start learning Arabic. I have never been a linguist. Though I had tra
admin
2013-06-10
35
问题
For my proposed journey, the first priority was clearly to start learning Arabic. I have never been a linguist. Though I had traveled widely as a journalist, I had never managed to pick up more than a smattering of phrases in any tongue other than French, and even my French, was laborious for want of lengthy practice. The prospect of tackling one of the notoriously difficult languages at the age of forty, and trying to speak it well, both deterred and excited me. It was perhaps expecting a little too much of a curiously unreceptive part of myself, yet the possibility that I might gain access to a completely alien culture and tradition by this means was enormously pleasing.
I enrolled as a pupil in a small school in the center of the city. It was run by a Mr Beheit, of dapper appearance and explosive temperament, who assured me that after three months of his special treatment I would speak Arabic fluently. Whereupon he drew from his desk a postcard which an old pupil had sent him from somewhere in the Middle East, expressing great gratitude and reporting the astonishment of local Arabs that he could converse with them like a native. It was written in English. Mr Beheit himself spent most of his time coaching businessmen in French, and through the thin, partitioned walls of his school one could hear him bellowing in exasperation at some confused entrepreneur: "Non, M. Jones. Jane suis pas francais. Pas, Pas, Pas!" (No Mr. Jones, I’m NOT French, I’m not, not, NOT!). I was gratified that my own tutor, whose name was Ahmed, was infinitely softer and less public in approach.
For a couple of hours every morning we would face each other across a small table, while we discussed in meticulous detail the colour scheme of the tiny cubicle, the events in the street below and, once a week, the hair-raising progress of a window-cleaner across the wall of the building opposite. In between, hearing in mind the particular interest I had in acquiring Arabic, I would inquire the way to some imaginary oasis, anxiously demand fodder and water for my camels, wonder politely whether the sheikh was prepared to grant me audience now. It was all hard going. I frequently despaired of ever becoming anything like a fluent speaker, though Ahmed assured me that my pronunciation was above average for a Westemer. This, I suspected, was partly flattery, for there are a couple of Arabic sounds which not even a gift for mimicry allowed me to grasp for ages. There were, moreover, vast distinctions of meaning conveyed by subtle sound shifts rarely employed in English. And for me the problem was increased by the need to assimilate a vocabulary, that would vary from place to place across five essentially Arabic-speaking countries that practiced vernaculars of their own: so that the word for "people", for instance, might be nais, sah ’ab or sooken.
Each day I was mentally exhausted by the strain of a morning in school, followed by an afternoon struggling at home with a tape recorder. Yet there was relief in the most elementary forms of understanding and progress. When merely got the drift of a torrent which Ahmed had just released, I was childishly elated. When I managed to roll a complete sentence off my tongue without apparently thinking what I was saying, and it came out right, I beamed like an idiot. And the enjoyment of reading and writing the flowing Arabic script was something that did not leave me once I had mastered it. By the end of June, no-one could have described me as anything like a fluent speaker of Arabic. I was approximately in the position of a fifteen-year old who, equipped with a modicum of schoolroom French, nervously awaits his first trip to Paris. But this was something I could reprove upon in my own time. I bade farewell to Mr Beheit, still struggling to drive the French negative into the still confused mind of Mr Jones.
It is known from’ the passage that the writer______.
选项
A、had a good command of French
B、couldn’t make sounds properly when learning Arabic
C、spoke highly of Mr Beheit’s achievements in language teaching
D、didn’t like Ahmed’s style of teaching
答案
B
解析
第三段提到“there are a couple of Arabic sounds which not even a gift for mimicry allowed me to grasp for ages”,说明作者的一些阿拉伯语发音很有困难。而A、C、D三项或是文中明确表达了相反的含义,或是没有提到。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/wed4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Whatistheattitudeoftheauthorofthispassagetowardthesaltcontroversy?Whichofthefollowingistheauthor’ssuggesti
Whatistheattitudeoftheauthorofthispassagetowardthesaltcontroversy?Whatdoestheword"felon"(Sentence4,Paragrap
About40percentofAmericansthinkofthemselvesasshy,whileonly20percentsaytheyhaveneversufferedfromshynessatsom
About40percentofAmericansthinkofthemselvesasshy,whileonly20percentsaytheyhaveneversufferedfromshynessatsom
About40percentofAmericansthinkofthemselvesasshy,whileonly20percentsaytheyhaveneversufferedfromshynessatsom
Inthefollowingtext,somesentenceshavebeenremoved.ForQuestions41-45,choosethemostsuitableonefromthelist(A、B、C、
"WewantSingaporetohavetheX-factor,thatbuzzthatyougetinLondon,Paris,orNewYork".ThatishowLeeHsienLoong,Sin
ArecentstudyshowsthatWecanlearnfromthelasttwoparagraphsthat
Today,thepeanutAiscultivatedcommerciallyBinthesouthernUnitedStatesfromCCaliforniatoFloridaandDasfarnorthWashi
随机试题
若f’(x0)=0,f’(x0)>0,则下列表述正确的是()
新生儿,生后3d发现明显青紫,呼吸急促,不吃奶,体检:心脏扩大无明显杂音,应首先想到可能是
导致心肌脂肪变性的原因有
A.胖大海B.马兜铃C.百部D.礞石E.海浮石
案情:河南周口益民公司,经营范围为管道燃气、燃气具、高新技术和房地产。2010年,原周口地区建设局批准该公司为周口城市管道燃气专营单位。在取得该批文后,益民公司先后取得燃气站与燃气管网铺设的许可证等批文。到一审判决时为止,该公司已经实际铺设了一些管道。20
甲公司2011年至2013年发生下列与长期股权投资相关的业务:(1)2011年1月7日,对联营企业投资,购入乙公司的股票100万股,占乙公司股份的25%,从而对乙公司的财务和经营政策有重大影响。该股票每股买入价为8元,其中每股含已宣告分派但尚未领取的现金
《读卖新闻》
甲乙丙三家公司分别出资51万元、30万元、19万元建造写字楼,约定建成后按投资比例使用,但对写字楼的管理和所有权归属未作约定。对此,下列说法正确的是()
Highstreetshopsuseavarietyofmeanstoattractshoppers,suchasstrikingwindowdisplays,hugered"Sale"signsandspecia
A、Hedoesn’thaveenoughmoneytobuyacar.B、Hereallydoesn’twanttobuyacar.C、heplanstobuyacarinalittlewhile.D
最新回复
(
0
)