2014届高考英语考前突破阅读理解能力：《英国号召民众学外语掌握1000外语单词》.docVIP

英国号召民众学外语 掌握1000外语单词 由英国文化协会、英国工业联合会、英国科学院以及多家大使馆和语言教学机构共同发起的“与未来对话”活动向全体英国人发起号召，希望每个人至少掌握1000个外语单词，以免在未来的国际贸易往来和就业市场中被淘汰。 ? Everyone in the UK should learn at least 1,000 words of another language, urges a new campaign. ? The 1,000 Words Campaign stems from concerns that the country is losing out on international trade and jobs because of poor language skills. ? It aims to confront the view that only the brightest can learn a language. ?For too long people from the UK have suffered from a reputation that we are lazy linguists said supporter Vicky Gough of the British Council. ? Speaking another language is crucial to understanding another culture, said Ms Gough. ? So lets overturn our poor record in language learning and show that we are ready to engage with a multilingual world, she urged. ? The group say a vocabulary of 1,000 words would allow a speaker to hold a simple conversation. ? The challenge is part of Speak to the Future, a wider campaign backed by organizations including the British Council, the CBI, the British Academy and a range of embassies and language teaching bodies. ? This years A-level results showed a continued fall in those taking French and German, down by 10% and 11% respectively - though Spanish bucked the trend with a 4% rise in entries. ?By contrast entries at GCSE for French, German and Spanish were up 16.9% on last year, reversing a long-term downward trend. ? This has been put down to the introduction of the EBacc, a league table measure of pupils who achieve GCSE grades A* to C in maths, English, two sciences, a foreign language and history or geography. ? However Teresa Tinsley of Speak to the Future told BBC News that because the EBacc is for pupils who achieve good grades, there is evidence that some schools are focusing their language teaching on more able students, whereas businesses need people with language skills at all levels of the workforce. ? Top managers often have language skills but in fact staff whose jobs involve cha