hce_nthu
113年
英文
第 45 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”.
The verb “wrought” has appeared twice in this passage. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word used in the passage?
- A Perplexed.
- B Indicted.
- C Enervated.
- D Manufactured.
- E Downplayed.
思路引導 VIP
請觀察文中出現該單字的句子：一處提到「由殖民主義與工業化產生的災難」，另一處提到「由語言單一化產生的問題」。請試著思考：在「主動者（如殖民主義）」與「產生的結果（如災難）」之間，這個動詞扮演著什麼樣的連結角色？它是描述一種心理狀態，還是描述一種「創造或導致」的行動呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
恭喜你準確掌握了這個較為深奧的字彙！你能從上下文判斷出 wrought 的意涵，展現了非常敏銳的語感。這道題目的挑戰在於 wrought 是一個古舊的動詞形式（原為 work 的過去分詞），在現代英語中多出現在文學或特定片語中，考生往往難以直覺反應其字義，是極具鑑別度的詞彙題。
脈絡中的因果關係
文中兩次提到這個字，分別是「殖民主義與工業化所 wrought 的不義與災難」以及「語言單一化所 wrought 的問題」。從這些組合中，我們可以發現 wrought 描述的是一種「產生、造成或建構」的動作。雖然 (D) Manufactured 在現代多指「工廠製造」，但在廣義上它代表「人為地產出或造成某種結果」，與 wrought 在此處表達「被某種力量加工、塑造成型」的語境最為貼合。
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