最新英美报刊选读-Unit 1

1、 Unit 1Focus最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus Preserving Languages Is About More Than Words最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusBackground InformationLanguage FeaturesDetailed ReadingPost-ReadingPassage 1Organization Analysis Warming-up Questions最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusLanguage Features新闻英语中动词的生动性 通常情况下，在报刊新闻中，为使主要事实更为醒目，恰到好处地使用动

2、词，能增强报道的新鲜感、现实感和直接感。诸多生动的动词会让读者有一种切实的感受，如同在现场一般，能够亲自听到、闻到、看到、感觉到当时所发生的一切。这样的生动报道在选词和措词上都十分谨慎严格，动词使用准确具体， 既传神达意又具有时间感，语言的表述因此也更为生动形象。 本文作者在描述传统的爱尔兰语现如今随处可见，十分醒目地绘制在绿色T 恤衫时用了emblazoned (on green T-shirts ) 同时用了echoing (through pubs) 来描写爱尔兰语在酒吧中回响着。作者在讲述联合国教科文组织首次推出了濒危语言在线地图册时用了launched (an online atla

3、s of endangered languages），在上面标注了2，400多种濒临消失的语言作者用了labeling (more than 2,400 at risk of extinction)。 作者在讲述活语言研究所这一非赢利机构与国家地理杂志联手时用了partnering （with National Geographic）。作者讲述当采猎者转向农业时用了(when hunter-gatherers) transitioned (to agriculture)。作者在讲述使用数码设备来记录其长辈的声音时用了（using digital equipment to）document( t

4、heir elders voices)。 词的生动性在新闻报道中不乏其例，给读者以形象生动、跃然纸上的感觉。下面列举一些较为常见的且使用较好的动词： dive from the car -纵身跳下 （强调动作之利落）rocket down a side street -飞驰 （形容速度之快，犹如火箭一般）A 4-foot Santa Claus doll towers over the cash register. -远远高过（强调高大程度）Vans of well-meaning doctors regularly barrel down from San Antonio and Houst

5、on 飞奔（形容行驶速度极高且无法控制）The central bus station lay in ruins, still choked with the wrecks of several buses. 塞满 （强调废墟中残骸之众多和凌乱）以上这些动词都以不同的表达方式很好地展现了动词极其生动活跃的特性，使读者既有直面的感官享受又有切实的五官刺激，从而能够进一步被吸引和打动。最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusBackground InformationExtinct Language and Language Preservation濒临灭绝语言和语言保存目前世界上总共有大约7,

6、000种语言，但许多包含着当地人文历史和风俗习惯的语言正在迅速消失。在美国旧金山举行的美国科学促进会年会上，美国宾夕法尼亚州斯沃斯摩尔学院的学者大卫哈瑞森提供的一份报告显示，目前世界上3586种稀有语言的使用总人数只占全世界人口的0.2%，而83种比较普遍的语言的使用者却占到了总人口的79.4%，世界上超过40%的语言濒临消亡。美国语言学会濒危语言委员会主席克劳赫斯特说，语言正以惊人的速度消失，几乎每两个星期就有一种语言消失。最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus现时几种最濒危的语言包括西伯利亚的乌迪内语（Udihe）、亚马逊森林的厄里克普语（Arikapu）和美国阿拉斯加的埃亚克语（Ey

7、ak），分别只有100个、6个和一个人懂得说。一种语言的消失，使得有关社群受到影响，由于语言学家和人类学家无法使用这种语言记录的材料，于是将无法得知该社群的历史。语言消失并不是新事物，专家相信至今已有几千种语言已经消失，例如爱尔兰海马恩岛流传的马恩语（Manx），1974年随着最后一个懂得此语言的人死去而湮没；而高加索地区的尤比克语（Ubykh），多达180个辅音，辅音冠绝世上所有已知语言，但该语言也在1992年消失。消失的语言没有留下任何字典和课本，而原先掌握这些语言的人群所积累的知识以及历史文化缺乏书面记载。 最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus目前世界上有5个地区（澳大利亚北部、南

8、美洲中部、北美洲太平洋沿岸、西伯利亚东部以及美国的西南部与俄克拉荷马州）语言消亡速度最快。研究人员发现，这些地区能够讲多种语言的本土人越来越少了。造成语言濒危的外部因素包括使用人口少分布杂、族群分化、民族融合、社会转型等；语言自身因素有弱势语言或是没有书写系统的语言的使用者，往往会发现该语言的词汇和语法功能无法满足社会复杂交流的需要。语言的濒危涉及语言使用者对自己母语的忠诚度等问题，有些族群在母语受到强势语言威胁时会采取强烈的反抗以争取权利，而有些族群则自愿放弃将母语传递给下一代。消失的语言中有些部份被记成文字或录音保存，但绝大多数都未载写下来。没录下声音、没记下文句结构，这些语言就消失了。语

9、言消亡了，通过该语言代代相传的文化、知识就会消失。对于濒危语言，学术界目前已达成共识：在它们还未消失前，去认识和记录它们。保护弱势语言，积极推进世界各种语言的发展，为世界文化多样性做出贡献。最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusWhat can we do to preserve dying language?After centuries of pressure to assimilate into a Spanish-speaking culture, the San Antonio community is now expressing its desire to keep the

10、indigenous culture and language alive.Warming-up Questions最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusWhat can we do to preserve dying language?documenting endangered languages and doing all that can be done to maintain their useThe residents of San Antonio approached the municipal government for help in not only preservi

11、ng their language, but also in revitalizing it. Warming-up Questions最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusWhat can we do to preserve dying language?This desire came to the attention of four graduate students at The University of Texas at AustinLev Michael, Chris Beier, Lynda De Jong and Mark Brown. Michael and Beier

12、 have been conducting humanitarian aid work in another part of Peru for several years. They found that this language revitalization project complemented their work in linguistic anthropology at the university. They in turn recruited linguistic students De Jong and Brown to participate in the first y

13、ear of the project.Warming-up Questions最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusWhat can we do to preserve dying language?Already, after only a few weeks of work, the students are well on their way to reaching their first-year goal to create a dictionary with 1,500 entries and a lesson plan to be used throughout the ye

14、ar.They have also begun teaching classes to many of the communitys children and adults. Beier said that an average of 20 adults and 35 youth, ranging in age from 6 to 16, attend their classesa significant portion of San Antonios total population of about 400 people.Warming-up Questions最新英美报刊选读_Unit

15、1 FocusWhat can we do to preserve dying language?In addition to the documentation and teaching of the language, the team has been busy pairing a group of four lay-linguists, or “linguistas,” to work one-on-one with a set of indigenous speakers of Iquito, known as “especialistas.” These linguistas, w

16、ho include San Antonios schoolteachers, will continue the process of learning the language and carry out the work of teaching throughout the year.The student team received great news earlier this month when they learned the project also received funding from the Endangered Language Fundenough to pay

17、 the salaries of the community workers for the coming year. Additional funding is provided by the Department of Linguistics, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Cabeceras Aid Project.Warming-up QuestionsNow an increasing number of worlds lesser-known languages are bein

18、g lost due to various reasons. Since language plays such a crucial role in the preserving of human culture, it is high time for the government of corresponding countries to take action toward the extinction of their precious heritage.As globalization increases, so does the loss of human languages. P

19、eople find it easier to Conduct business and communicate with those outside their own culture if they speak more widely used languages like Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish or Russian. Children are not being educated in languages spoken by limited number of people and as a result people who speak th

20、ose languages becomes fewer and fewer from one generation to the next. Eyak is one of the examples. No wander the dying-off its native speaker, Marie Smith Jones, became the symbol of the dying of Eyak. Moreover, public education, the Internet and print and television media also speed the rate of la

21、nguage loss. As we surf on the Internet, we can see a large number of websites use the language of English, especially the site of companies for business and some education program. The wide use and popularity of these predominated languages now threaten the lesser-known languages a lot. Many lingui

22、sts predict that by the year 2100, only half of the languages we use today will still be spoken, which hints that one language dies out every 12 days.Now an increasing number of worlds lesser-known languages are being lost due to various reasons. Since language plays such a crucial role in the prese

23、rving of human culture, it is high time for the government of corresponding countries to take action toward the extinction of their precious heritage.As globalization increases, so does the loss of human languages. People find it easier to Conduct business and communicate with those outside their ow

24、n culture if they speak more widely used languages like Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish or Russian. Children are not being educated in languages spoken by limited number of people and as a result people who speak those languages becomes fewer and fewer from one generation to the next. Eyak is one o

25、f the examples. No wander the dying-off its native speaker, Marie Smith Jones, became the symbol of the dying of Eyak. Moreover, public education, the Internet and print and television media also speed the rate of language loss. As we surf on the Internet, we can see a large number of websites use t

26、he language of English, especially the site of companies for business and some education program. The wide use and popularity of these predominated languages now threaten the lesser-known languages a lot. Many linguists predict that by the year 2100, only half of the languages we use today will stil

27、l be spoken, which hints that one language dies out every 12 days.Bingo may help rescue an ancient language from the brink of extinction. Cocopah Indian Tribe elders, educators and cultural authorities are struggling to preserve the tribes dying language.“We dont want to be like those tribes you hea

28、r about where they have no language speakers or recordings,” said Felicia Gutierrez, a language preservation specialist for the tribe. “Today we dont know our language as much. It could be extinct pretty soon, so we just want to revive it.”The Cocopah Museum, which develops cultural programming for

29、the tribe, began offering language classes to children nine years ago.Classes this summer mark the first time the opportunity has been extended to adult tribal members, as well as nonnatives who work for the tribe.Leaders explain that mainstream societys battle to wipe out the Cocopah language began

30、 in the mid-1900s, when school teachers would strike children, like Gutierrez, for speaking their native tongue. She grew up speaking only Cocopah in her familys home and she learned English in school in nearby Somerton.boarding schools, missionaries and public schools all pushed local natives to ab

31、andon their languages and adopt English.“They pushed the tribal community to be involved with town people, and our clothing and food we ate changed,” Wanstall said. “Then in the last two decades, we have seen a lot more television and movies come into play. You have all these distractions taking the

32、m away from their culture, so we have to fight really hard.”The number of fully fluent speakers of Cocopah dipped down to “just a handful” in recent years. But the tribes classes and overall rededication to the language seem to be working when the spoken language can be heard among tribal friends wh

33、en they chat.“A lot of elders speak the language,” Wanstall said. “People in their 30s and 40s do understand and usually speak the language, but the younger ones are where we are losing it You hear the language on a daily basis. There is a native speaker in almost every home Some tribal members do t

34、heir prayers in Cocopah.”Teaching the language presents an impressive challenge, according to tribal officials. The Cocopah language traditionally was never a written language. A university student created the first written form in the 1970s for a dissertation but unfortunately for the tribe, the wo

35、rds presented tended to be too academic and not very applicable to everyday life.“There was some communication with tribal leaders when it was developed, but not much. Its there, but its really not useful,” Wanstall said. “We came in and we changed a lot of it. We had to develop a new alphabet about

36、 four years ago.”Another challenge for leaders has been designing words to describe modern objects and notions.“For us to create new words for microwave or refrigerator we have to ask the elders,” Wanstall said. “Every word, everything we are teaching has to go through the elders. We ask them How ca

37、n we say this? Is this the most appropriate way?”If the leaders recent efforts do fail, they have a safety net to help ensure that their language isnt lost forever. The museum staff has recorded countless examples of the language being spoken. The recordings are archived within the safety of the mus

38、eum repository.Student Miguel Herrera, 25, said the class has revived the language that he used to speak as a child.“I used to know it when my grandparents were around because thats all they spoke,” Herrera said. “I have a son thats 5 who probably knows more than me! His grandma speaks to him, and h

39、es around a lot of the elders more than I am. Hell correct me, too, No daddy, it goes like this.”But for Wanstall, the preservation goes beyond childhood memories.“Our language is so important to us because it was given to us by our creator,” she said. “This is an ancient language. It belongs to us

40、and its special and sacred. Its part of our identity as a culture and the various traditions we do to maintain who we are as Cocopahs.”As people move to the cities, and as they see that their economic and social advancement is tied to the use of Indonesian, and even English, in everyday life, they b

41、ecome much less likely to continue using their ancestral mother tonguesMeanwhile Lambertus L Hurek reports from Sidoarjo, East Java, scene of the famous mudflow, that most school students in the city can no longer speak Javanese, not only the high and polite forms of Javanese but also the colloquial

42、 forms.A Javanese language teacher, Sukrisno, complains:How can I teach? The students cant even speak Javanese.Sukrisno says that within 10 or 20 years the sound of Javanese being spoken in Sidoarjo will be a rarely heard thing.One of Sukrisnos students, Darmaji, says that whenever he goes home to S

43、olo in Central Java he is unable to speak to his family, because it is necessary to use High Javanese - therefore he just keeps silent.Aming Aminoedin, another teacher, says that it is not only in Sidoarjo and nearby Surabaya that Javanese is dying, but in every city of Java. Children in villages ar

44、e still able to speak Javanese but the townfolk are leaving the old language behind.Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. Many endan

45、gered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, but no written forms. With the extinction of a language, an entire culture is lost.Much of what humans know about nature is encoded only in oral languages. Indigenous groups that have interac

46、ted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have profound insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystemsmany still undocumented by science. Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding and conservation efforts.Studying various languages

47、 also increases our understanding of how humans communicate and store knowledge. Every time a language dies, we lose part of the picture of what our brains can do.最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusPara.1-3 Setting Para.4-15 Development Para.16-19 Significance The Gift of LifeOrganization Analysis最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1

48、FocusPart I (Para.1-3)Main Idea: SettingPara.1 Introduces when and where the story happened: the bombs landed in a small orphanage, causing deaths and injury. Para.2 Introduces one of the main characters, the young girl, who suffered wounds to her legs. Para.3 Brings out another two important charac

49、ters, the young American navy doctor and an equally young navy nurse, and makes the situation urgentOrganization Analysis最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusPart II (Para.4-15) Main Idea: Development Para.4 Highlights the tension. The little girl had to have blood, yet neither Americans had the correct blood type.

50、 Para.5 The doctor and the nurse had language difficulties in communicating with the children, which increased the tension of the situation. Organization Analysis最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus Para.6-8 Introduces the main character of the story Heng, who agreed to offer blood. Para.9-13 Creates a new tension

51、 or crisis by describing Hengs unusual reaction. Para.14-15 Reach the climax: at the critical moment, the Vietnamese nurse arrived to help, clearing up the misunderstanding. Organization Analysis最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus Part III (Para.16-19) Main Idea: Significance Para.16-19. Organization Analysis最新英美

52、报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusDetailed ReadingPassage ReadingUnderstanding SentencesWord Study最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusThe traditional Irish language is everywhere this time of year, emblazoned on green T-shirts and echoing through pubs. But Irish, often called Gaelic in the United States, is one of thousands of “en

53、dangered languages1” worldwide.Translation在可怕的越南战争期间，没有人知道这些炸弹要轰炸什么目标。 Comments“What-clause” is an objective clause introduced by “what”. Other relative pronouns or relative adverbs such as which, when, where, why, how can also introduce an objective clause. Examples1.The children did not understand

54、 what they were asked to do.2.The doctor wanted to test which blood type the children had.3.The nurse could not understand why the little boy was crying.Understanding SentencesBack to the Text最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusThe Living Tongues Institute recruits youth who are not fluent in their traditional ton

55、gue to become “language activists,” using digital equipment to document their elders voices and ，learn the language themselves.Translation活语言研究所招聘那些讲其传统语言不够流利的年轻人，将其培训成为英语保护者，并且能够使用电子设备来记录他们长辈的声音，同时自己学习这种语言。ParaphraseThe Living Tongues Institute gets those young people who could not speak their nati

56、ve language very well to work for them, and trains them to be active language protectionists who could use digital equipment to record those people of greater age in their families or communities and learn to speak that particular language.Understanding SentencesBack to the Text最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus

57、Languages typically die when speakers of a small language group come in contact with a more dominant population. That happened first when hunter-gatherers9 transitioned to agriculture, then during periods of European colonial expansion10, and more recently with global migration11and urbanization.Tra

58、nslationComments“What-clause” is an objective clause introduced by “what”. Other relative pronouns or relative adverbs such as which, when, where, why, how can also introduce an objective clause. Examples1.The children did not understand what they were asked to do.2.The doctor wanted to test which b

59、lood type the children had.3.The nurse could not understand why the little boy was crying.Understanding SentencesBack to the Text最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus“As long as people feel embarrassed, restrained or openly criticized for using a particular language, its only natural for them to want to avoid conti

60、nuing to do whats causing a negative response, whether its something overt like having your mouth washed out or more subtle like discrimination,TranslationParaphraseUnderstanding SentencesBack to the Text最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 FocusWord Study1. emblazon v. emblazon A with B. emblazon B on A decorate sth. w