每個單詞都很重要

河北邯鄲市第一中學 閆思思

題材文章詞數語言文化341 難度 ★★★體裁建議用時說明文6′

海詞積累

1.designatev.命名；指定

2.indigenousadj.本地的；土生土長的

3.periln.嚴重危險

When a language dies,so does a unique way of seeing the world.Time is running out formany tongues.Experts estimate that of the 6,700 or so languages spoken around the world,40%could disappear by the end of the century.The UN hasdesignated2019 the International Year ofIndigenousLanguages to draw attention to theperil.Slowly,countries are devotingmore resources to the issue.

Canada aims to pass an Indigenous Language Act before its elections in October 2019.The act would givemore than 65 languages spoken by First Nations,Inuit and Métis peoples national recognition and teaching resources.In government-funded boarding schools,which operated from the 1880s to 1996,indigenous children faced beatings or electric shocks if they were caught using their native tongues.“We want to put the same amount of effort to revitalise indigenous languages as Canada put towipe them out,”says Perry Bellegarde,national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Legal recognition for a language is the first step in bringing a native culture back from the brink.Maori is one of the success stories.When it became one of New Zealand's official languages in 1987,less than 20%of the Maori population spoke it well enough to be regarded as native speakers.Today it is off the endangered list.

The second step is to teach a new generation of native speakers.Technology is a big help.Duolingo,a popular language-learning app,recently added Hawaiian and Navajo to its courses.BASAbali,a wiki documenting Balinese,uses Facebook to reach speakers in rural areas.Sayitin Saamiis an online dictionary that translatesmodern lingo into languages spoken by the Sami people in Northern Europe.

Saving rare languages needs people to champion them.Bali now asks officials to use Balinese on Thursdays.The UN yearwill kick-start projects that could save thousands of tongues.The challenge in 2019 will be to get others to listen—and start talking.

——FromTheEconomist

Reading Check

1.Thewriting purposeof the passage is to________.

A.analyze the reasonswhywe should protectindigenous languages

B.explainwhat the UN hasdone to preventnative languagesdisappearing

C.introduce themeasures taken by countries to stop native languagesgoing

D.describewhatCanadahasdone to save languagesspoken by FirstNations

2.Whatdoes theunderlinedwordmean?

A.Destroy. B.Restore. C.Learn. D.Remove.

3.According to the passage,how canwe save rare languages?

A.Namea yearas the Yearof Indigenous Languages.

B.Urge students to learn native languagesby electric shocks.

C.Develop online dictionaries tohelp students to learn English.

D.Peopleneed tomakeefforts to learn orspeak native languages.

4.Whatattitude does the authorhold to the InternationalYearof Indigenous Languages?

A.Supportive. B.Indifferent. C.Objective. D.Neutral.

Language Study

I.Matchthewordsandexpressionsinthetextwithpropermeanings.

1.hang on A.be used up

2.run out B.depend on

3.draw attention to C.give attention/time to

4.devote to D.fight for

5.reach E.to start a projectmore quickly

6.champion F.attract attention to

7.kick-start G.communicatewith sb

Ⅱ.Fill in the follow ing blanks according to the text.

1.力求達到 _______to do

2.寄宿學校 _______school

3.被抓到正在做…… be_______doing sth

4.法律認可 legal_______

5.起死回生 _______back from the brink

6.從瀕臨滅絕的名單上拿掉 _______the endangered list

7.把……加到…… _______...to...

Cultural Background

國際母語日

國際母語日（International Mother Language Day）是1999年11月由聯合國教科文組織的一般性大會宣布的。從2000年起，國際母語日設定在每年的2月21日，旨在促進語言和文化的多樣性，以及多語種化。

語言絕不僅僅是供專家們研究的學科，它是社會生活、經濟生活和文化生活的核心。

中國學者周海中教授指出:“當今處于弱勢的民族語言正面臨著強勢語言、全球化、互聯網等的沖擊，其社會使用功能正處于逐漸弱化或消失的危險境地；因此有關機構和語言學界都應該采取積極而有效的措施，拯救瀕危民族語言；保護民族語言，有利于人類文明的傳承和發展，也有利于民族團結、社會安定。”