雅思4.4 reading.doc

Lost for words Many minority languages are on the danger list In the native american navajo nation，which sprawls across four states in the american south-west，thenative language is dying 在里本土的n国民，which延伸跨越四个州在里美国西南部 T语言是正在死亡 Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly。Although many students take classes in navajo，the schools are run in english。Street signs supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in english。Not surprisingly， linguists doubt that any native speakers of navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time 很多的它的说话者是中年或者老人的。虽然很多学生取学校在里n，这学校是跑在里英语。街道 Navajo is far from alone。Half the world，s 6800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations—that，s one language lost every ten days。Never before had the planet，s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace。 N不是唯一一个 。一半这地球的6800 语言是很可能去消失在里两个代 that是一个语言丢失每十天。从未有过星球的语言的多样性缩减在入一个步伐 ‘at the moment，we are heading for about three or four language dominating the world’ says m，an evolutionary biologist at the university of reading。‘it，s a mass extinction，and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know’ 在这时刻 我们是面临为关于3或4语言支配着地球 他是大多消失and 是否我们将回弹从这丢失是很难去知道 Isolation breeds linguistic diversity：as a result，the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people 。 Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers，and at least 3000 have fewer than 2500。it is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear。 孤立产生语言多样性：即一个结果，这地球是被布满用语言口头 通过只有几个人。只有250语言有更多比一百万说话者，and at至少3000有较少比2500。他不是应该的这些小的语言that 是关于去不显示的 N is considered endangered despite having 15000 speakers。What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers，but how old they are。If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe。The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly，according to michael k，director of the alassk n language center in fairbanks N是被考虑危险的 尽管有150000说者。什么造成一个语言变危险不是只是这数目of说者，而是多老他们。如果他是被说通过孩子 他是相对安全的。这危机的濒危的语言是那些that是只有被说通过老的，一致to