2006年12月英语六级听力真题 短文(2)
日期:2013-04-07 17:28

(单词翻译:单击)

Passage two
According to David Grattle,a British language expert,the idea that English will become the world language is outdated.
And people are more likely to switch between two or more languages for routine communication in the future.
The share of the world’s population that speaks English as a native language is falling.
Instead,English will play a growing role as a second language.
A population speaking more than one language is already the case in much of the world and is becoming more common in the United States.
Indeed,the census bureau reported last year that nearly one American in five speaks a language other than English at home,with Spanish taking the lead,followed by Chinese.
Grattle works for British consulting and publishing business.
He anticipates a world with the share of people who are native English speakers slips from 9% in the mid 1990s to 5% in 2050.
Grattle says,“Up until 1995,English was the second most common native tongue in the world,trailing only Chinese.
By 2050,Chinese will continue its predominance with Hindi Woodoo of India and Arabic climbing past English and Spanish nearly equal to it.”
In contrast,an American language expert,David Harrison noted that the global share of English is much larger if you count second language speakers,and will continue to rise even as the proportion of native speakers declines.
Harrison disputed listing Arabic in top three languages because varieties of Arabic spoken in such countries as Egypt and Morocco are mutually incomprehensible.

Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 14.What does David Grattle say about the use of languages for daily communication in the future?
Question 15.Why doesn’t David Harrison include Arabic as one of the top three languages?
Question 16.What can we infer from the passage?

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重点单词
  • switchn. 开关,转换,鞭子 v. 转换,改变,交换,鞭打
  • routinen. 例行公事,常规,无聊 adj. 常规的,例行的,乏
  • proportionn. 比例,均衡,部份,(复)体积,规模 vt. 使成比
  • censusn. 户口普查
  • communicationn. 沟通,交流,通讯,传达,通信
  • infervt. 推断,推论,猜测,暗示 vi. 作出推论
  • contrastn. 差别,对比,对照物 v. 对比,成对照 [计算机]
  • populationn. 人口 ,(全体)居民,人数
  • globaladj. 全球性的,全世界的,球状的,全局的
  • outdatedadj. 旧式的,落伍的,过时的