(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.
Experts estimate that by the end of the century, half of the 6,000 languages spoke on our planet will have disappeared. In west Africa, academics in Togo are trying to protect the small country's rich cultural and language heritage.
At the University of Lome, Professor N'bueke Adovi Goeh-Akue shows a visitor some video groups of Gen cultural ritual. The Professor is a cultural heritage specialist, he is also himself a Gen, one of many ethnic groups in Togo.
He is making films of Gen cultural customs with financial help from the United States. He says the Gen have an important place in Togo's history and culture. Gen rituals show how its people see their world; the interaction between the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen."
The Gen believe in numerous voodoo deities. But today Professor Goeh-Akue says fewer and fewer Gen children go through voodoo initiation ceremonies. He says that increasingly the new generation does not recognize the importance of these cultural traditions.
He says formal education and the spread of Christianity have reduced their influence. Many young people think traditional practices are uncivilized. And while the Gen language is widely spoken in the capital Lome, The Professor says it is not taught in schools.
Gen is one of about 39 languages spoke in Togo. A specialist in the UNESCO endangered language program says, by the end of the century, more than half of Africa's languages will be gone.
The specialist Anahit Minasyan says a language needs speakers, preferably people who speak as their mother-tongue or first language. But she says a language at least needs people who can speak it as their second language.
If they are tiny, she says , a language is extinct. She says languages can die as a result of an increasingly globalized world.
"People switch to a language or they raise their children in a language which they think will provide for a better economic opportunity in the future."
Ms. Minasyan says in Africa, for example, people often switch to larger African languages — not necessarily to English or French, instead, people might switch to Hausa or Swahili or Wolof, these are more speakers and provide more economic opportunities than their mother tongues.
Socio-linguist Komlan Essizewa says that today many young urban Togolese switch among several languages, these include the Mina language spoken in cities.
"As a linguist, we have to be very worried about it. Because today, even when people move back to their village, they don't use the language of the village as it is."
And that's the Education Report, I'm Bob Doughty.
译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.interaction n. 相互作用；[数] 交互作用
The interaction of the two groups produced many good ideas.
两个组的相互交流产生了许多好主意。
2.uncivilized adj. 未开化的，不文明的
I think any sport involving harm to animals is barbaric and uncivilized.
我认为，任何伤害到动物的体育运动都是野蛮的、不文明的。
3.extinct adj. 灭绝的，绝种的；熄灭的
Herbalism had become an all but extinct skill in the Western world.
草药医术在西方世界几乎已成了一项绝迹的技术。
内容解析
1.switch to 切换到；转到；转变成
At first he studied architecture, but later he switched to geology.
他原是学建筑的, 中途改行搞地质了.
I have just switched to the profession of a teacher and quite lack experience in teaching work.
我刚半路出家来当教师,还没有什么教学经验.
My mother's interest had switched to my health.
母亲转而关注起我的健康来。
I used to cook on electricity, but I've switched to gas.
我过去用电烧饭, 但现已换成用煤气了.
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
专家预测截至本世纪末，全世界6000多种语言将有一半将消失。在非洲西部，多哥的学者正努力保护这个小国丰富的文化和语言遗产。
洛美大学教授N'bueke Adovi Goeh-Akue向一位游客展示了格恩族文化礼制的一些视频，这位教授是文化遗产专家，他本人也是格恩人，格恩族是多哥诸多少数民族的一支。
在美国的财政支持下，他正在制作有关格恩文化传统的影片，他说格恩在多哥历史文化上占有重要地位。格恩礼制展示人们如何看世界，生与死、可见与非可见之间的互动。
格恩族信奉诸多伏都神，但今天Goeh-Akue教授说，越来越少的格恩儿童履行伏都教的入教仪式，他说年轻一代越来越无法意识到自己文化传统的重要性。
他说，正规教育和基督教的传播降低了这些文化传统的影响力。许多年轻人认为传统习俗不文明，尽管首都洛美广泛使用格恩语，教授说学校却没有教这种语言。
格恩是多哥39种语言之一，联合国教科文组织濒危语言项目的一名专家说，截止本世纪末，将有一半以上的非洲语言将消失。
专家Anahit Minasyan，语言需要使用者，最好是作为母语或第一语言来使用的使用者。但她说，一门语言至少还需要将其作为第二语言的使用者。
她说如果使用者很少，那么这种语言就会消失。她说世界日益全球化将会导致语言的消亡。
“人们会转向另一种语言，或者用他们认为能未来带来更好经济机会的语言来教育孩子。”
Minasyan说，比如在非洲，人们通常转向更通用的非洲语言，未必是英语或法语，人们会转而使用豪萨语、斯瓦希里语或沃洛夫语，这些语言的使用者更多，能比自己的母语提供更多的经济机会。
社会语言学家Komlan Essizewa说，如今多哥的许多城市年轻人转向使用其他语言，包括城里说的Mina语。
“作为一名语言学者，我们必须对此非常关注，因为如今，甚至是在人们回到自己村庄后，也不会使用村里的语言。”
这里是教育报道，我是鲍勃·多迪。
