II. Fill in the blanks in the sentences below with one of these words taken from the reading

I. Answer these multiple-choice questions to see how well you understood the reading.

Exercises

1. What percentage of the world’s people speak one of six leading languages?

(A) 5%

(B) 50%

(C) 60%

(D) 95%

2. What does the author say about the list of languages that appears in the technology?

(A) It is considered the most accurate and up-to-date list of languages.

(B) It does not list any languages that linguists consider to be dialects.

(C) It is longer than the list most linguists would probably provide.

(D) It is quite long because it includes languages that are already extinct.

3. According to Michael Krauss, about how many languages will at best be spoken in the year 2100?

(A) 600

(B) 3,000

(C) 5,000

(D) 6,000

4. Using the UNESCO system for classifying languages, how would the Bidyara language be categorized?

(A) As healthy

(B) As endangered

(C) As moribund

(D) As extinct

5. Using the UNESCO system for classifying languages, how would the Manx language be categorized?

(A) As healthy

(B) As endangered

(C) As moribund

(D) As extinct

6. What do Ned Maddrell, Jack Butler, and Red Thundercloud have in common?

(A) They were all the last surviving speakers of now-extinct languages.

(B) They all spoke Australian aboriginal languages.

(C) They were all linguists who studied endangered languages.

(D) They were all spotlighted in Time International.

7. The Internatcamps of the Soviet Union in the 1950s were most
comparable to which of these?

(A) The boarding schools for tribal people in the United States, Canada, and Australia

(B) The Kohanga Reo, or language nests of New Zealand

(C) A UNESCO conference

(D) Elementary schools in the Cameroon

8. What factor was most important in the disappearance of the Trumai language of Venezuela?

(A) War

(B) Disease

(C) Natural disaster

(D) Economic pressure

9. Which of these is given as an example of a language that was entirely extinct but later came back to life?

(A) Maori

(B) Dschang

(C) Hocak

(D) Cornish

10. Which of these statements best expresses the idea of Mario Pei's quote?

(A) In reality, all languages are equally complex.

(B) All languages have common elements.

(C) Every language looks at the world somewhat differently.

(D) Learning another language is a piece of cake.

keystone

collapsing

elderly

immersed

immunity

proverb

common

bind

rebounded

inevitability

dialects

extinct

diversity

reflects

slices

hostile

predominate

moribund

peril

retain

wise

disasters

chronicled

1. Portuguese and Spanish are considered different languages, while Mandarin and Cantonese are considered _______________ of Chinese. However, a Portuguese speaker may understand a Spanish speaker better than a Mandarin speaker understands a Cantonese speaker.

2. Whole cities have been destroyed by natural _______________ such as earthquakes, tidal waves, or volcanic eruptions.

3. Laura, I think you need a new knife. This one you have is so dull that it barely _______________ bread.

4. Vaccinations provide _______________ to diseases such as polio.

5. Sometimes old sayings are contradictory. For example, one _______________ says, «Look before you leap», which means that one should not act too quickly. Another one says, «He who hesitates is lost», which means that one must act quickly to be successful.

6. My grandfather and grandmother just moved into a retirement community for the _______________.

7. Some people believe that the dinosaurs became _______________ when an asteroid or comet crashed into Earth.

8. The Greek poet Homer the Trojan War in his epic poem, The Iliad.

9. In the third quarter, profits for International Brands were down by almost 25%. However, in the fourth quarter, profits _______________ and were up by 20%.

10. Some bacteria can form spores that can survive in even the most _______________ conditions.

III. These statements come from the reading «Vanishing Languages». Read each statement and then answer the questions that follow.

Language is the keystone of culture. A common language serves to bind the people in a society together, and a language reflects the history and dreams of its speakers.

1. A keystone is…

(A) a critical part.

(B) an ancestor.

(C) a record.

2. In the context of this statement, the word common means...

(A) ordinary.

(B) shared.

(C) informal.

A Welsh proverb says that "A nation without a language is a nation without a heart".

3. A proverb is…

(A) a song.

(B) a wise person.

(C) an old saying.

Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native Language Center, believes that by 2100, 90% of the languages spoken today may be extinct. «If people become wise and turn it around», says Krauss, «that number could be reduced to 50%». This is about the best-case scenario.

4. A best-case scenario is…

(A) a prediction that everything will turn out well.

(B) the most optimistic prediction.

(C) the most likely outcome.

Steven Bird, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, tried to make sense of the situation for English-speakers: «Imagine you are the last surviving speaker of English in a hostile world that has no interest in English. That's what it must feel like».

5. A hostile world is…

(A) unfriendly.

(B) curious.

(C) respectful.

An entire language group, the Marie family in Queensland, Australia, which consists of 12 languages, is in danger. Only one of these languages, Bidyara, has as many as twenty speakers, and they are all elderly. Most have fewer than five. In 1997, Time International spotlighted a number of languages in peril....

6. Find the word or phrase that is a synonym for peril.

Languages have always evolved into other languages. For example, Latin turned into Italian, and Anglo-Saxon into English.

7. Find the word or phrase that has the same meaning as evolved.

In the United States, Canada, and Australia, young speakers of native languages were once forced to attend boarding schools where the use of their mother tongues was prohibited.

8. Write down the word or phrase that has the same meaning as mother tongues.

Also, some extinct languages have been resurrected. The Celtic language Cornish died out in 1777. However, by using written documents, several thousands of people in Cornwall, U.K., have studied the language and taught it to their children.

9. Another way to say resurrected is…

(A) completely forgotten.

(B) brought back to life.

(C) well documented.

«We'll continue to lose languages», Douglas Whalen says. «There's inevitability about it».

10. Douglas Whalen speaks about the inevitability of losing languages. He believes that the process of language disappearance…

(A) is tragic.

(B) can perhaps be reversed.

(C) cannot be stopped.

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