【推荐2】Five hundred years ago, Europeans arrived on a new continent. They brought new cultures and languages to this place which they called America. However, there were already people living here who had their own cultures and languages, so a terrible part of history began.

As more Europeans arrived, there was a fight with the Native Americans for the land and by the end of the nineteenth century, the native tribes were moved to reservations. A lot of their children were taken away to boarding schools and taught to speak English. By the end of the twentieth century, more than half of Native Americans were living in cities. They gave up speaking their old tribal language and only used English. As a result, many Native American languages disappeared, and with them, their culture.

Some Native American languages are still used today, but they are usually spoken by the older members of the tribes who still live on the reservations. For most of the younger members of the tribe, the everyday language is English.

The good news is that some of these “last speakers” are keeping their culture and language alive. They are also receiving help from the National Geographic Society’s Enduring Voices Project which aims to keep languages around the world from dying out. Linguists and experts meet with these “last speakers”, interview them, and record video, pictures, and audio of them. The “last speakers” tell old stories which are written down in English so people can learn more about the culture.

Recording the language and culture is only part of the project. The next stage is to pass on the language to the next generation. Some children pick it up from their parents or grandparents, but many tribes now offer courses. The Salish tribe is an excellent example. They live on Montana’s Flathead Reservation and their language is spoken by about 50 people over the age of 75 and no one under 50. So the tribe has set up a school. It has 30 students aged two to twelve during the day and offers courses for adults in the evening. Schools and projects like these hopefully will save languages for the future.

1. What’s the purpose of the author by mentioning Europeans’ arrival?

A．To tell a terrible part of history in America.

B．To state the native tribes’ being moved away.

C．To explain a fight with the Native Americans.

D．To introduce Native languages’ disappearance.

2. Why is English common for the young members of tribes?

A．They are forced to speak.	B．They hate native languages.
C．They have a gap with the old.	D．They consider English popular.

3. What’s attitude of the author to keeping tribes’ languages alive?

A．Negative.

B．Objective.

C．Supportive.

D．Uninterested.

4. What directly drives the Salish school founded?

A．The aging situation of “last speakers“.

B．The record of their language and culture.

C．The children and adults’ strong desire.

D．The distance and poverty of their reservation.

【推荐3】The white swan(天鹅) is among the most beautiful of birds.     1    . It floats quietly on the water, unable to sing sweet songs like most other birds.

In ancient times, however, people believed that the swan was given a special gift of song at the end of its life.

    2    .

The story of the swan's last song found a place in the works of other writers, including the early English writers Chaucer and Shakespeare.

    3    . At first, swan song meant the last work of a poet, musician or writer. Now, it means the final effort of any person. Someone's swan song usually is also considered that person's finest work.

    4    . The expression may be used to describe a politician's last campaign, his final attempt to win the cheers and votes of the people. The last hurrah also can mean the last acts of a politician, before his term in office ends.

Writer Edwin O'Connor made the expression popular in 1956. He wrote a book about the final years in the political life of a long-time mayor of Boston, Massachusetts.     5    .

Some language experts say the expression came from a name given to noisy supporters of Andrew Jackson—America's seventh president. They cheered hurrah so loudly for Andy Jackson during his presidential campaign that they became known as the hurrah boys.

A．It is mostly silent through its life.

B．He called his book "The Last Hurrah".

C．It is often a symbol of love in many writers' works.

D．A political expression with a similar meaning is the last hurrah.

E．They believed a swan sings a most beautiful song just before it dies.

F．They believed the story of the swan's last song was lost to the world.

G．The expression swan song has long been a part of the English language.

【推荐1】Alcohol and Language Speaking

Take a quick tipple and you could find yourself speaking a second tongue more naturally, according to new research. The foreign language skills of participants in the study were found to be improved after a drink of alcohol, which suggests the way booze can put us at ease outweighs the negative effects on our brain—at least for the first drink, anyway. The international team of researchers is warning against reading too much into their experiment, but it could reveal some interesting insights into the anxiety associated with speaking another language, and how alcohol can help us overcome it.

“Our study shows that acute alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language in people who recently learned that language,” says one of the team, Inge Kersbergen from the University of Liverpool in the UK. The study involved 50 native German speakers studying Dutch at a Dutch university, who had recently learned to speak, read, and write in the new language. Based on random selections, participants were either given alcohol or water as a control beverage. The amount of alcohol varied based on body size, but was the equivalent of just under a pint(460 milliliters) of 5 percent beer for a 70kg male. They then chatted to a researcher for five minutes, before an audio recording was assessed by two native Dutch speakers who weren’t told whether alcohol had been consumed or not. The participants were also asked to rate their own Dutch language skills over the course of the chat. While the alcohol didn’t affect how the students rated themselves, those people who had been given the alcoholic drink were given better ratings by the observers, especially for their pronunciation.

With only 50 people involved in the research, we should be wary of making too many generalizations on this study alone, but it’s an interesting pointer towards how a little bit of drink could grease the wheels as far as talking in a foreign language is concerned.

“It is important to point out that participants in this study consumed a low dose of alcohol,” adds one of the team, “Higher levels of alcohol consumption might not have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language.” In other words, this effect probably doesn’t get better if you just keep on drinking—eventually no one will be able to understand you at all.

1. What does “outweigh” mean in the first paragraph?

A．The former is heavier than the latter.

B．The former is of greater importance, benefit, or significance than the latter.

C．The former is lighter than the latter.

D．The former is of less importance, benefit, or significance than the latter.

2. Which statement is true of the international team of researchers?

A．Researchers of the team agree to all public interpretations of their experiments.

B．The team finds that alcohol may have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language in people who recently learned that language.

C．Their study involved 50 native Dutch speakers studying German at a German university.

D．Every participant is given the same amount of alcohol.

3. We should be wary of making too many generalizations on this study alone because________

A．The study is not accountable and authoritative.

B．The study hasn’t been carried out yet.

C．The size of participants is too small.

D．The process of the study is flawed.

4. Where might the research be published?

A．The research may be published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

B．The research may be published in the Journal of History.

C．The research may be published in the Journal of Archaeology.

D．The research may be published in the Journal of Arts and Culture.

5. Which of the following statements is right?

A．If you want to improve your pronunciation, you should drink as much as possible.

B．Higher levels of alcohol consumption will have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language.

C．Man needs a great larger dose of alcohol than woman does so as to improve their oral speaking.

D．A low dose of alcohol will be helpful for language speaking.