2018高级会计师《职称英语》串讲班：补全短文1 (2)

【译文】学者认为有世界各地有大约6000种语言，但其中超过一半会在未来100年内灭绝。这种情况有很多例子，Araki 是位于太平洋的一个小岛瓦——努阿图岛的语言，只有少数老年人能讲，就像Catawba，Araki 很快将会消失。埃塞俄比亚的许多语言都会有相同的命运，因为每种语言都只有很少的讲述者。 (48)在美国，有100种语言，每一种都仅有不到300人能讲，正面临消亡。

【解析】该段提到语言濒临灭绝的例子，下文承接上文的意思，继续介绍语言灭绝。

【答案】A.Papua New Guinea is an extremely rich source of different languages，but more than 100 of them are in danger of extinction(灭绝).

4.Red Thunder Cloud was one of the first to recognize the threat of language death and to try to do something about it.He was not actually born into the Catawba tribe, and the language was not his mother tongue.( 49 ).The songs he sang for the Smithsonian Institution helped to make Native American music popular.Now he is gone, and the language is dead.

【译文】红雷云是第一批认识到语言消亡危险的人之一，并尝试为此做一些事情。他并非出生于Catawba部落，Catawba不是他的母语。(49)。他为史密森学会唱的歌曲有助于美国本土流行音乐。现在他走了，语言也消逝了。

【解析】此处转折，起到承上启下的作用。下文的he，Catawba可作为线索。

【答案】D.However，he was a frequent visitor to the Catawba reservation in South Carolina where he learned the language.

5.What does it mean when a language disappears ? When a plant or insect or animal species dies, it is easy to understand what we have lost and to appreciate what this means for the balance of the natural word.However, language is only a product of the mind.To be the last remaining speaker of a language，like Red Thunder，must be a lonely destiny, almost as strange and terrible as being the last surviving member of a dying species. ( 50 )

【译文】一门语言消失对我们剩下的人意味着什么呢?当一种植物，昆虫或动物灭亡，很容易理解失去了什么以及对自然平衡的影响。然而，语言只是意识的一种产物。作为一种语言后的讲述者，就像红雷，注定是独有的孤独命运，就像一个垂死种族中后的生者一样陌生而可怕。(50)。

【解析】该段后一句，与本段主旨句What does it mean when a language disappears 要相符。

【答案】E.For the rest of us, when a language dies, we lose the possibility of a unique way of seeing and describing the world.