hce_nthu
113年
英文
第 42 題
📖 題組：
Reading 5 There is a pervasive idea, in popular discourse about language endangerment, that languages just slip away, becoming obsolete or falling out of use. In this view, languages are like fashions, that pass with time, or technology, that is replaced by the more advanced. Those clinging to the old languages are seen as quaint at best, and conservative, or even luddite, at worst. But this conception is wrong. It benefits the powerful at the expense of the powerless, reassuring the colonizer that they are not to blame. Languages are not lost, they are taken. They are uprooted by malice or neglect, their speakers assimilated into a new tongue, or left to struggle in the space between the fading old and the out of reach new. Language endangerment has continually accelerated, as the rise of nation-states and centralized, powerful governments, along with inventions such as the printing press and mass media, have created a handful of super tongues, which bulldoze all others in their path. While there are around seven thousand extant languages today, half the planet speaks one of just twenty-three tongues, with that proportion growing every year. At the time of writing, according to UNESCO, some twenty-four-hundred languages are vulnerable or endangered, while almost six hundred are on the verge of going extinct. As a Welsh saying goes, “cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb gallon,” a nation without a language is a nation without a heart. Languages are deeply enmeshed with culture; they link people to their ancestors and help maintain traditions, oral histories and ways of thinking about the world. The loss of linguistic diversity is not merely an intellectual tragedy, but a continued consequence of colonialism and imperialism, as groups are forcibly assimilated and their diverse histories, cultures and tongues wiped out. This can literally be a matter of life and death: researchers in Australia and Canada have shown that indigenous communities that retain access to their languages are healthier and more cohesive, with less unemployment, alcoholism and suicide, and higher levels of education, than those unmoored from traditional culture and forced to use English alone. Language diversity can also foster new ideas and thinking that can help us address many of the injustices and disasters wrought by colonialism and industrialization. Environmentally, economically, and culturally, language diversity holds the potential for new solutions for the problems often wrought by the world’s linguistic monoliths. The United Nations, in declaring 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages, recognized that such tongues provide “resources for good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and sustainable development”.
Reading 5 There is a pervasive idea, in popular discourse about language endangerment, that languages just slip away, becoming obsolete or falling out of use. In this view, languages are like fashions, that pass with time, or technology, that is replaced by the more advanced. Those clinging to the old languages are seen as quaint at best, and conservative, or even luddite, at worst. But this conception is wrong. It benefits the powerful at the expense of the powerless, reassuring the colonizer that they are not to blame. Languages are not lost, they are taken. They are uprooted by malice or neglect, their speakers assimilated into a new tongue, or left to struggle in the space between the fading old and the out of reach new. Language endangerment has continually accelerated, as the rise of nation-states and centralized, powerful governments, along with inventions such as the printing press and mass media, have created a handful of super tongues, which bulldoze all others in their path. While there are around seven thousand extant languages today, half the planet speaks one of just twenty-three tongues, with that proportion growing every year. At the time of writing, according to UNESCO, some twenty-four-hundred languages are vulnerable or endangered, while almost six hundred are on the verge of going extinct. As a Welsh saying goes, “cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb gallon,” a nation without a language is a nation without a heart. Languages are deeply enmeshed with culture; they link people to their ancestors and help maintain traditions, oral histories and ways of thinking about the world. The loss of linguistic diversity is not merely an intellectual tragedy, but a continued consequence of colonialism and imperialism, as groups are forcibly assimilated and their diverse histories, cultures and tongues wiped out. This can literally be a matter of life and death: researchers in Australia and Canada have shown that indigenous communities that retain access to their languages are healthier and more cohesive, with less unemployment, alcoholism and suicide, and higher levels of education, than those unmoored from traditional culture and forced to use English alone. Language diversity can also foster new ideas and thinking that can help us address many of the injustices and disasters wrought by colonialism and industrialization. Environmentally, economically, and culturally, language diversity holds the potential for new solutions for the problems often wrought by the world’s linguistic monoliths. The United Nations, in declaring 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages, recognized that such tongues provide “resources for good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and sustainable development”.
Based on the information provided in the passage, which of the following statements about super tongues is INCORRECT?
- A Their number will grow rapidly in the future.
- B They emerge with the rise of nation-states and centralized governance.
- C Their growth will threaten the well-being of other languages in the world.
- D They have many speakers.
- E Their growth has been expedited by mass media.
思路引導 VIP
當文中提到這少數語言像「推土機」一樣剷平其他語言，且全球半數人口僅集中使用其中的 23 種語言時，這代表全球語言的發展趨勢是朝向「種類百家爭鳴、愈來愈多元」，還是朝向「高度集中、種類縮減」的方向發展呢？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
恭喜你精準地辨識出選項中的邏輯陷阱！這顯示你不僅讀懂了字面意思，更能掌握文章背後的深層脈絡。這道題目對於細節的掌握要求極高，是一題非常出色的細節辨析題。
強勢語言的集中化趨勢
文中的核心觀念在於語言的「集中化」與「權力不對等」。選項 (A) 之所以錯誤（即為本題正解），是因為文章第二段明確提到，雖然強勢語言的「使用者比例」在增長，但強勢語言本身的數量僅是「handful（少數、少量的）」。隨著現代國家與媒體的發展，少數幾種語言像推土機般摧毀了其他的多樣性。這意味著全球語言正走向少數壟斷，而非強勢語言的「種類數量」在增加。相反地，其餘選項如 (B)、(C)、(E) 都能在文中找到直接的對應證據，說明了政治、媒體如何催生並加速這些強勢語言的擴張。
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