【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Moderator:
Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our speaker for today"s talk.
Patricia Ryan is a longtime English teacher who asks a thought-provoking question:
Is the world"s focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? In other words: What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL? It"s a passionate defense of translating and sharing ideas. Now, let"s welcome Patricia Ryan.
Patricia Ryan:
Thank you. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes.
And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English.
Today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don"t know. But I do know that I"ve seen a lot of changes.
Now the major change that I"ve seen is how teaching English has shifted from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today.
It has become a current trend for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education—according to the latest World University Rankings—is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you"re not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.
Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who"s a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don"t think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. They can"t pursue their dream any longer, till they get English. But now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society.
Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It"s all in English." So the books are in English, and the journals are done in English, but I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe.
Now don"t get me wrong; I am not against teaching English. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier.
Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas.
Thank you very much.
What is Patricia Ryan"s profession?
[解析] 选项均为关于职业的名词短语，推断本题与人物职业有关。根据主持人的介绍，Patricia Ryan是一位具有多年教学经验的英语教师(a longtime English teacher)。因此A项正确。B项“英语翻译”和C项“托福面试官”分别是根据录音中出现的translation和TOEFL来设置的干扰项；translation是演讲者在阐述不应让英语成为知识和思想传播的障碍时提到的个别信息，TOEFL是主持人在引出演讲者和演讲话题时所举的例子，均与演讲者的职业无关。D项“语言研究者”在录音中未提及。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
What does the speaker say about the change of teaching English?
[解析] 演讲者提到，她看到英语教学已经从一个互惠互利的方式演变成了大规模的国际产业(a massive international business)。由此可知B项正确。A项“这是一个互利的做法”是英语教学之前的状态，目前英语教学已经成为了一项国际产业，故排除A项。C项“它变成最佳的教育方式”是利用录音中出现的education来设置的干扰项，演讲者在解释英语为何如此流行时，提到最优秀的教育资源集中在英美，而不是说英语变成最佳的教育方式。D项“它变得不那么重要了”与录音原文不符，演讲者认为英语仍然很重要。
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[听力原文]
What is the speaker"s attitude towards English?
[解析] 讲座末尾，演讲者指出她不反对英语教学，但她反对将英语作为一项障碍(against using it as a barrier)，结合她在讲座中举的例子——难道我们应该出于语言能力的考虑而拒绝有天分的学生，可知D项“英语不应该成为教育的障碍”为正确答案。A项“她反对英语教学”与原文不符，演讲者明确指出她不反对英语教学。B项“英语不应该成为世界语言”在录音中并未提及。C项“翻译应该取代英语教学”与录音中的信息不符，演讲者是说不应该将英语作为阻碍人类发展的障碍，但并未提及翻译应该取代英语教学。