hce_nthu
113年
英文
第 43 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”.
Which of the following is NOT a benefit of language diversity mentioned by the author?
- A Promoting a healthier and balanced lifestyle for individuals and communities.
- B Fostering equity and fairness in society.
- C Preserving the wealth of human knowledge.
- D Improving global communication with the use of universal languages.
- E Nurturing innovative thinking to solve global issues.
思路引導 VIP
請你回想一下文章中如何描述那些被大多數人使用的「超級語言（super tongues）」？作者是用讚美新技術或新發明的口吻，還是用「推平一切（bulldoze）」這種帶有破壞性的詞彙來形容它們對其他文化的影響呢？從這個措辭的選擇中，我們可以推論出作者對這類語言普及的真實看法嗎？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
恭喜你精準地鎖定了正確選項！這代表你已經完全掌握了作者在文中的立場。你能從繁瑣的論述中，辨別出作者對「語言多樣性」與「強勢通用語」截然不同的態度，這在閱讀測驗中是非常關鍵的分析能力。
核心觀念：多樣性與單一性的對立
文章中明確提到，語言多樣性是連結祖先、維護傳統、促進社區健康以及解決殖民遺緒的關鍵資源，這些對應了選項 (A)、(B)、(C) 與 (E)。然而，針對選項 (D) 提到的「通用語言（universal languages）」，作者在文中使用了 bulldoze（推平） 與 monoliths（單一巨體） 等具有高度負面意涵的詞彙。作者認為這些少數的「超級語言」加速了文化消失，是權力不對等的結果。因此，改善全球溝通的「通用語」並非作者認可的益處，反而是其批判的對象。
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