单选题 English as a Foreign Language Who taught you to speak English? Your parents, while you were a young child? Your teachers at school? Perhaps even the BBC as a grown-up. Whoever it was, somehow you have developed an understanding of what is rapidly becoming a truly global language. There are now about 376 million people who speak English as their first language, and about the same number who have learnt it in addition to their mother tongue. There are said to be one billion people learning English now and about 80% of the information on the Internet is in English. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Should we celebrate the fact that more and more of us can communicate, using a common language, across countries and cultures (文化)? Or should we worry about the dangers of "mono-culturalism", a world in which we all speak the same language, eat the same food and listen to the same music? Does it matter if an increasing number of people speak the same language? On the contrary (相反), I would have thought—although I have never accepted the argument that if only we all understood each other better, there would be fewer wars. Ask the people of India (where many of them speak at least some English) and Pakistan (the same situation with India)… If we all speak English, will we then all start eating McDonalds hamburgers? Surely not. If English becomes more dominant(占主导地位的) ,will it kill other languages? I doubt it. When I travel in Africa or Asia, I am always surprised by how many people can speak not only their own language but often one or more other related languages, as well as English and perhaps some French or German as well. When we discussed this on Talking Point a couple of years ago, we received a wonderfully poetic email from a listener in Ireland. "The English language is a beautiful language. Maybe it's like a rose," he said. "But who would ever want their garden just full of roses?" Well, I love roses, and I think they make a beautiful addition to any garden. But the way I see it, just by planting a few roses, you don't necessarily need to pull out everything else. If more and more people want to plant English roses, that's fine by me.
单选题
By saying "Ask the people of India… and Pakistan" (Paragraph 4), the author is trying to show that______. A. speaking the same language doesn't necessarily bring peace B. wars can destroy the relationship between two countries C. English doesn't kill other languages D. English is widely used in the world
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 这道题问作者在第四段中提到“Ask the people of India… and Pakistan”暗含的意思是什么。这要看这一段的前两句话的意思。第一句话提出问题：“如果越来越多的人都说相同语言的话，有什么要紧吗?”接下来，作者表示了自己的观点，“正相反，我原来会那么想——虽然我从来也没有赞成过这样的观点，即：如果我们相互更加了解，就不会有那么多战争了。”下面作者说“Ask the people of India… and Pakistan”(并在括号中注明在这两个国家中，许多人都不同程度地会说英语)，作者举例是为了支持自己前面的观点的。这里我们还要借助我们所掌握的国际常识，因为这两个国家一直处于敌对和战争的状态。由此，我们可以看出作者的观点，即A选项speaking the same language doesn't necessarily bring peace所表达的意思：说相同的语言并不一定会带来和平。Not necessarily意思是“并不一定”。
单选题
The author would probably agree that______. A. it's very hard to plant many kinds of flowers in a garden B. it's good for people from other countries to learn English C. more and more people like to plant roses in their gardens D. English is easier to learn than other languages
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 这道题问作者可能会同意A、B、C、D中哪一种说法。可以先排除选项A和选项C，因为这篇文章讨论的并不是种玫瑰的问题，作者只是在文中把英语比喻成玫瑰。在最后一段中，作者说I think they make a beautiful addition to any garden“我认为对任何花园来说玫瑰花都会为它们增色”，意思是说人们学英语是件好事。全文最后一句是If more and more people want to plant English roses，that's fine by me.“如果越来越多的人想种英国玫瑰(意即想学英语)，我认为没有什么不妥。”由此断定，B选项it's good for people from other countries to learn English是作者可能会同意的说法。
单选题
This passage is mainly about______. A. why English has become a global language B. how many people in the world speak English C. how people in the world learn English as a foreign language D. whether we need to worry about English being a world language
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 这道题考查学生抓住文章主旨大意的能力。文章的第一、二段提供了本文讨论的话题的背景，即英语正在变为世界性的语言并且作为人们的母语或第二语言或外语被广泛应用。第三段提出了问题Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Should we celebrate the fact that more and more of us can communicate, using a common language, across countries and cultures(文化)? Or should we worry about the dangers of“mono-culturalism”，a world in which we all speak the same language, eat the same food and listen to the same music?我们应该为这个事实感到高兴呢，还是应当为出现“一元文化主义”的危险而担忧呢?作者在以下各段就这个问题发表了自己的意见。因此应该选D选项 whether we need to worry about English being a world language.“是否有必要为英语变为世界语言而担忧”。选项B为枝节问题，而选项A和C在文中没有详细讨论，不是主题，故排除。