Question

    As an English, I can speak threes 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 from the survey done by the European Commission 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.The writer comes from________.

A.America B.China C.Britain D.Germany

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 passages, students in Britain prefer(更喜欢）to learn________.

A.science or German B.history or German

C.science or history D.German or French

4.In Paragraph 5,“this situation" 'refers to the fact that British students________.

A.give up learning a foreign language B.only like science or history

C.take up learning a foreign language D.learn science and history ate

5.What is the best title of the passage?

A.Learning to Speak English B.Foreign Language Learning in UK

C.Junior High Schools in UK D.Young English Learners in Europe

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.C

4.A

5.B

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文。文章从一份调查结果的分析开始，介绍了英国人对于学外语的态度。

1.细节理解题。由文章第一段中的“As an English”可知，作者是一位英国人。故选C。

2.细节理解题。根据“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.”由此你可以看出英国人以不讲外语而闻名，他们在欧洲也不是很好的语言学习者。可知，选项A/C不对；根据“18% speak two or more.”18%的人说两种或两种以上的语言。可知B不对；由文章第二段第一句中的“62% of the British people only speak English.”可知，超过一半的英国人只说英语。故选D。

3.推理判断题。根据“Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.”可知，他们认为在语言方面要取得好成绩比在科学或历史等其他学科上困难得多。由此可判断出他们更喜欢科学或历史。故选C。

4.细节理解题。根据“So why don't students continue learning foreign languages at school?”那么为什么学生们不继续在学校里学习外语呢？可知，this situation是指上文的英国学生放弃学习外语这件事。故选A。

5.最佳标题。根据“…do you think the British people are very good language learners?”和最后一句“Changing the British attitude(态度)to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!”可知，本文主要围绕英国人学习外语的情况展开的，关键信息foreign language在文中多次出现。故选B。