2017年職稱英語考試備考開始啦，爲了讓大家瞭解職稱英語考試難易程度，下面yjbys網小編爲大家提供了職稱英語歷年考試真題及答案詳解，以下是職稱英語歷年真題《綜合B》閱讀理解真題精選題。
The Day a Language Died
When Carios Westez died at the age of 76, a language died, too. Westez, more commonly
known as Red Thunder Cloud, was the last speaker of the Native American language Catawba.
Anyone who wants to hear the songs of the Catawba can contact the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where, back in the 1940s, Red Thunder Cloud recorded a series of songs for future generations. __________ (46) They are all that is left of the Catawba language. The language that people used to speak is gone forever.
We are all aware of the danger that modem industry can cause the world's ecology (生態).
However, few people are aware of the impact widely spoken languages have on other languages and ways of life. English has spread all over the word. Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and Hindi have become powerful languages as well. __________ (47) When this happens, hundreds of languages that are spoken by only a few die out.
Scholars believe there are around 6,000 languages around the world, but more than half of them could die out within the next 100 years. There are many examples, Araki is a native language of the island of Vanuatu, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is spoken by only a few older adults, so like Catawba, Araki will soon disappear. Many languages of Ethiopia will have the same fate because each one has only a few speakers. __________(48) In the Americas,100 languages, each of which has fewer than 300 speakers, are dying out.
Red Thunder Cloud was one of the first to recognize the danger 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.
What does it mean for the rest of us when a language disappears? When a plant insect or animal species dies, it is easy to understand what has been lost and to 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 peculiarly lonely destiny, almost as strange and terrible as being the last surviving member of a dying species. __________ (50)
A. Some people might want to learn some of these songs by hearts.
B. Papua New Guinea is an extremely rich source of different language, but more than 100of them are in danger of extinction ( 滅絕 ) .
C. However, he was a frequent visitor to the Catawba reservation in South Carcinoma where he learned the language.
D. These languages don't have many native speakers.
E. For the rest of us, when a language dies, we lose the possibility of a unique way of seeing and describing the world.
F. As these languages become more powerful, their use as tools of business and culture increase.
答案與解析
46.A。從原文來看，空白處前面一句講到那些想要聽卡託巴語歌曲的人就需要聯繫Smithsonian機構，因爲早在20世紀40年代，Red Thunder Cloud爲未來的後代灌錄了一系列的歌曲;空白處後一句說的是這些歌曲都是以卡託巴語保留的。由此可知空白處應該討論這些卡託巴語歌曲的事情，所以A(有些人可能想要用心學習這些歌曲)比較合適，符合內容一致的原則。
47.F。從原文來看，空白處前面一句講的是漢語、西班牙語、俄語和印地語已經變成很強大的語言(powerful)，與F項中powerful一致，而且these languages與空白處前的languages“Chinese，Spanish，Russian，and Hindi”指代也比較一致，所以F(當這些語言變得更加強大時，他們作爲商業和文化的工具的使用就會增加)符合原文，符合指代一致的原則。
48.B。從原文來看，空白處之前的句子說的是埃塞俄比亞的許多語言也面臨着消亡的命運，因爲說那些語言的人太少了;空白處之後的句子說的是在美洲有近100種語言因爲說話人少於300人也正在消亡。所以空白處談論的也應該是語言消亡的例子，再結合第三段的首句可知本段主要談論語言的消亡，所以B(新幾內亞有着非常豐富的不同語言的來源，但是有100多種語言正瀕臨滅絕)是正確答案，符合內容與段落主題句一致的原則，其中die out反覆出現。
49.c。從原文來看，空白處前面一句講的是Red Thunder Cloud並非出生在卡託巴，而且卡託巴語也不是其母語;空白處後一句講的是他爲Smithsonian機構所唱的歌曲使得美洲本土的音樂流行起來。因此，空白處談論的還是RedThunderCloud唱歌的問題，所以C(但是，他經常訪問South Carcinoma的wba的保留地，並在那裏學會了這種語言)比較符合原文語義，從邏輯上解釋了爲什麼卡託巴不是Red Thunder Cloud的母語，但是他卻會唱卡託巴語的歌曲，符合上下文邏輯一致的原則。
50.E。從該段的首句來看，本段主要討論語言消亡給我們帶來的後果，從剩餘的兩個選項D和E比較來看，E選項(對我們剩下的人而言，當語言消亡的時候，我們失去了用一種獨特方式觀察和描述這個世界的可能性)符合該段的內容，而且E項中的“for the restofus”與段落首句的“for the rest ofus”也保持了一致。
