Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier time. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.
There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.
Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even die out completely. About 1,000 years ago English was a little-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.
If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so GREat that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.
Words: 271
Total Reading Time: _________
Words per minute: _________
Note: dialect 方言, family 系, 科 ( 指分类 )
I. True or False:
1. The first paragraph mainly tells us that man has much knowledge about languages.
2. Most European and Indian languages come from the same family.
3. About 1,000 years ago English was as well-known as it is today.
II. Answer the Questions:
4. How many languages are there in the world now?
______________________________________________________
5. How long have the languages of Europe and India been?
______________________________________________________
III. Multiple Choice:
6. ________ seems to have changed a lot.
A. Chinese B. English C. Spanish D. German
7. The word "dialect" in the last paragraph means ________ .
A. a special language spoken by Chinese
B. the sign used by the Chinese people in a special area
C. the difference between the old and today's Chinese
D. the form of a language used in one part of the country
8. It is considered the most difficult thing for one to learn to speak Chinese ________ .
A. because of the GREat differences between the dialects
B. because Chinese and many foreign languages are not of the same family
C. because Chinese is a very old language
D. because of the GREat differences between the old Chinese and the present-day Chinese
% Comprehension: ________
参考答案：
1．T。本题关键句是：However，we do know a lot about...
2．T。第二段。
3．F。第三段第三行。
4．About three thousand languages．
5．There have been 4，500 years．
6．B。第三段着重叙述英语的变化。
7．D。一个地区说一种方言。
8．A。文章最后三行。
