Question

    As an English, I can speak three languages—English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics (数据) from the survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why my people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only an option at school. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude (态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!

1.Which country does the writer come from?

A.America. . B.China. . C.Britain. . D.Egypt.

2.Which of the following about the British people is true?

A.They are good language learners.

B.62% of them speak two or more languages.

C.They are famous for speaking foreign languages.

D.More than half of them only speak English.

3.According to the passage, students in Britain prefer to learn _____.

A.science or German . B.history or German

C.science or history . D.German or French

4.In Paragraph 4, “an option” means _____.

A.a choice . B.a game . C.a mistake . D.a conversation

5.What is the best title of the passage?

A.Speaking English . B.Foreign Language Learning in UK

C.Schools in UK . D.Young English Learners

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.C

4.A

5.B

【解析】

本文是议论文。文章从一份调查结果的分析开始，介绍了英国的学生并不强制学外语；文章最后指出：改变英国人学外语的态度是一项艰巨的任务，但政府决定去尝试了。

1.句意：作者来自哪个国家？细节理解题。 A. America.美国；B. China.中国；C. Britain.英国；D. Egypt.埃及。由文章第一段第一行“As an English”可知作者是一个英国人。故选C。

2.句意：关于英国人下面哪一个是正确的？细节理解题。A. They are good language learners. 他们是好的语言学习者；B. 62% of them speak two or more languages. 他们中的百分之六十二说两种或更多种语言；C. They are famous for speaking foreign languages. 他们以说外语而著名；

D. More than half of them only speak English.他们中超过半数只说英语。根据文章第二段第二行“62% of the British people only speak English”可知超过一半的人只说英语。故选D。

3.句意：根据短文，英国的学生更喜欢学习______________。推理判断题。A. science or German 科学或德语；B. history or German历史或德语；C. science or history科学或历史；D. German or French德语或法语。根据文章第四段中的“Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.”可知他们认为在语言学科上去的好成绩比像科学和历史这样的学科更难，可判断出他们更喜欢科学和历史。故选C。

4.句意：在第四段中，“an option”是什么意思？猜测词义题。A. a choice 选择；B. a game 比赛，游戏；C. a mistake错误；D. a conversation对话。由文章第四段中的“In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only an option at school.”可知在英国，学生并不强制学习外语。这意味着学习外语只是一种选择。故选A。

5.句意：这篇文章最好的题目是什么？主旨大意题。A. Speaking English .说英语；B. Foreign Language Learning in UK英国的外语学习；C. Schools in UK .英国的学校；D. Young English Learners年轻的英语学习者。由文章第一段中的“do you think the British people are very good language learners?”和最后一段中的“Changing the British attitude(态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!”主要围绕英国人学习外语的介绍和态度展开，且每一段中都出现了foreign language的关键词。故选B。