剑桥雅思阅读4(test2)原文翻译及答案解析.docx

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1、剑桥雅思阅读4(test2)原文翻译及答案解析 雅思阅读是块难啃的硬骨头，须要我们做更多的题目才能得心应手。下面我给大家共享一下剑桥雅思阅读4test2原文翻译及答案解析，希望可以帮助到大家。 剑桥雅思阅读4原文(test2) READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Lost for words Many minority languages are on the danger list In the Nat

2、ive American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. 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 ne

3、wspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years time. Navajo is far from alone. Half the worlds 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations thats one language lost every ten days. Never before has the pla

4、nets linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world, says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. Its a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know.

5、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 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is con

6、sidered endangered despite having 150,000 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 Kr

7、auss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in Fairbanks. Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of Britains Foundation for Endangered Languag

8、es, in Bath. People lose faith in their culture, he says. When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions. The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discoura

9、ging its use in schools, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics department at the University of Chicago, argues th

10、at the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures, he says. They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English. But are languages worth

11、 saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science. Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so

12、it may be difficult to preserve one without the other. If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something, Mufwene says. Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world, says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces

13、 physiological changes in the brain. Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French, for instance, Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of

14、our community. So despite linguists best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true. The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominan

15、t language, says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism, he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the

16、 language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8,000 new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, apprentice programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer apprentices pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native

17、 American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language. After about 300 hours of training they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying o

18、ut is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day. Preserving a language is more like preserving fruits in a jar, he says. However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later gen

19、erations. But a written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before. Questions 1-4 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Writ

20、e your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet. There are currently approximately 6,800 languages in the world. This great variety of languages came about largely as a result of geographical 1 . But in todays world, factors such as government initiatives and 2 are contributing to a huge decrease i

21、n the number of languages. One factor which may help to ensure that some endangered languages do not die out completely is peoples increasing appreciation of their 3 . This has been encouraged through programmes of language classes for children and through apprentice schemes, in which the endangered

22、 language is used as the medium of instruction to teach people a 4 . Some speakers of endangered languages have even produced writing systems in order to help secure the survival of their mother tongue. Questions 5-9 Look at the following statements (Questions 5-9) and the list of people in the box

23、below. Match each statement with the correct person A-E. Write the appropriate letter A-E in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 5 Endangered languages cannot be saved unless people learn to speak more than one language. 6 Saving languages from extinction is not

24、 in itself a satisfactory goal. 7 The way we think may be determined by our language. 8 Young people often reject the established way of life in their community. 9 A change of language may mean a loss of traditional culture. A Michael Krauss B Salikoko Mufwene C Nicholas Ostler D Mark Pagel E Doug W

25、halen Questions 10-13 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet write YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say w

26、hat the writer thinks about this 10 The Navajo Language will die out because it currently has too few speakers. 11 A large number of native speakers fail to guarantee the survival of a language. 12 National governments could do more to protect endangered languages. 13 The loss of linguistic diversit

27、y is inevitable. READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA The first students to study alternative medicine at university level in Australia began their four-year, full-time course at the Unive

28、rsity of Technology, Sydney, in early 1994. Their course covered, among other therapies, acupuncture. The theory they learnt is based on the traditional Chinese explanation of this ancient healing art: that it can regulate the flow of Qi or energy through pathways in the body. This course reflects h

29、ow far some alternative therapies have come in their struggle for acceptance by the medical establishment. Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural or alternative therapies, according to Dr Paul Laver, a lecturer in Public Health at the Univer

30、sity of Sydney. Weve had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath to allow any pretenders to their position to come into it. In many other industrialised countries, orthodox and alternative medicine have worked hand in glove for years. In Europe, only orthodox d

31、octors can prescribe herbal medicine. In Germany, plant remedies account for 10% of the national turnover of pharmaceuticals. Americans made more visits to alternative therapists than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spend about $US 12 billion on therapies that have not been scientifi

32、cally tested. Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years. In a 1983 national health survey, 1.9% of people said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the

33、 two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to 2.6% of the population. The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the 1990 survey represented about an eighth of the total number of consultations with medically qualified personnel covered by the survey, accor

34、ding to Dr Laver and colleagues writing in the Australian Journal of Public Health in 1993. A better educated and less accepting public has become disillusioned with the experts in general, and increasingly sceptical about science and empirically based knowledge, they said. The high standing of prof

35、essionals, including doctors, has been eroded as a consequence. Rather than resisting or criticising this trend, increasing numbers of Australian doctors, particularly younger ones, are forming group practices with alternative therapists or taking courses themselves, particularly in acupuncture and

36、herbalism. Part of the incentive was financial, Dr Laver said. The bottom line is that most general practitioners are business people. If they see potential clientele going elsewhere, they might want to be able to offer a similar service. In 1993, Dr Laver and his colleagues published a survey of 28

37、9 Sydney people who attended eight alternative therapists practices in Sydney. These practices offered a wide range of alternative therapies from 25 therapists. Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief. They commented that t

38、hey liked the holistic approach of their alternative therapists and the friendly, concerned and detailed attention they had received. The cold, impersonal manner of orthodox doctors featured in the survey. An increasing exodus from their clinics, coupled with this and a number of other relevant surv

39、eys carried out in Australia, all pointing to orthodox doctors inadequacies, have led mainstream doctors themselves to begin to admit they could learn from the personal style of alternative therapists. Dr Patrick Store, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, concurs that orthodox d

40、octors could learn a lot about bedside manner and advising patients on preventative health from alternative therapists. According to the Australian Journal of Public Health, 18% of patients visiting alternative therapists do so because they suffer from musculo-skeletal complaints; 12% suffer from di

41、gestive problems, which is only 1% more than those suffering from emotional problems. Those suffering from respiratory complaints represent 7% of their patients, and candida sufferers represent an equal percentage. Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6% and 5% of

42、 patients respectively, and a further 4% see therapists for general health maintenance. The survey suggested that complementary medicine is probably a better term than alternative medicine. Alternative medicine appears to be an adjunct, sought in times of disenchantment when conventional medicine se

43、ems not to offer the answer. Questions 14 and 15 Choose the correct letter, A, B C or D. Write your answers in boxes 14 and 15 on your answer sheet. 14 Traditionally, how have Australian doctors differed from doctors in many Western countries? A They have worked closely with pharmaceutical companies

44、. B They have often worked alongside other therapists. C They have been reluctant to accept alternative therapists. D They have regularly prescribed alternative remedies. 15 In 1990, Americans A were prescribed more herbal medicines than in previous years. B consulted alternative therapists more oft

45、en than doctors. C spent more on natural therapies than orthodox medicines. D made more complaints about doctors than in previous years. Questions 16-23 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 16-23 on your answer sheet write YES if the statement

46、 agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 16 Australians have been turning to alternative therapies in increasing numbers over the past 20 years. 17 Between 1983 and 1990 the num

47、bers of patients visiting alternative therapists rose to include a further 8% of the population. 18 The 1990 survey related to 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists. 19 In the past, Australians had a higher opinion of doctors than they do today. 20 Some Australian doctors are retraining in alternative therapies. 21 Alternative therapists earn higher salaries than doctors. 22 The 1993 Sydney survey involved 289 patients who visited alternative therapists for acupuncture treatment.