大学英语六级阅读题及详解.pdfVIP

Exercise 1 Passage 1 A ctually, though, America, the “landof immigrants ”has, always had people of many different nationalities and languages. The 1990 census ( 人口普查 ) indicates that almost 14% ofAmericans speak a non-English language at home. Yet only 3% reported that they spoke English “not well ” or “not at all ” . That means that slightly more than one out of 10 Americans could be considered bilingual. Besides that, many high school and college students-and even some elementery school students-are required to take a foreign language as a part of their curriculum. In addition to old standbys(受人喜爱的语种 ) like Spanish, German and Franch, more and more students are opting Eastern European and Asian languages. Of course, not all students keep up their foreign language abilities. As the old saying goes, “If you don ’t use it . ” number of Americans are coming to appreciate the benefits of being multilingual. Ethnic enclaves(少数民族聚居地 ), found particularly in major metropolitan centers, have preserved the language and culture of American immigrants. Some local residents can function quite well in their native language, without having to bother learning English. Rogions such as southern Florida and the Southwest have numerous Spanish-speaking neighborhoods. In fact, Spanish speakers-numbering over 17 million-compose the largest non-English linguistic group in America. But Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian,Polish and many other ethnic group add to the linguistic flavor of America. Foreign languages are so commonly used in some ethnic neighborhoods that visitors might think they are in another country! Although some Americans welcome this linguistic and cultural diversit