文章大意：本文是一篇说明文，主要讲的是威尔士语及其在威尔士社会中的地位和影响的争议。文章通过BBC驻外记者Jeremy Bowen的亲身经历和观点，以及威尔士语发言人Huw Edwards对另一位评论家Jonathan Meades的回应，揭示了威尔士社会中关于威尔士语使用和推广的争议。
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BBC foreign correspondent Jeremy Bowen’s recent assignment — a three-part series on Radio 4 in which he made “a personal journey through Wales”, the country of his birth — must still have left him a little shocked. Bowen, born in Cardiff but living in England and a non-Welsh speaker, did the most dangerous thing — he attacked what he saw as the way the Weish-speaking minority in Wales dominates the cultural conversation. This argument has not gone down well in the land of his fathers.
The Welsh online media has suggested this is the view from Camberwell where Bowen lives, rather than Criccieth — a journalist’s whistle-stop tour of a country he last resided in more than 40 years ago. Fellow BBC journalist Welsh speaker Huw Edwards responded to that criticism: “We are all products of upbringing — this take is 1970s Cardiff.” Edwards was even ruder about an attack on Welsh by Jonathan Meades in The Critic. “So long as it’s a hobby language it is as harmless as a Sunday painter,” wrote Meades. “But in pockets of Snowdonia and mid-Wales it is a tool not only of communication but of identity and exclusivity, thus of self-harm.” To which Edwards responded: “Meades is a brilliant writer and I have enjoyed his work over many years. I can only assume he’s crazy. Nothing else can explain this rubbish.”
Bowen’s argument is that because bilingualism (双语) has become essential for many jobs in Welsh government and media, the English-speaking majority has been disadvantaged. Meades is more concerned with a project to create a million Welsh speakers (a third of the population) by 2050. At present, only a fifth of the population speaks Welsh regularly. Such views are, however, either outdated or exaggerated (夸张的).
Largely rural Welsh-speaking Wales was discovering new confidence, thanks to the start of the Welsh-language channel S4C in 1982 and the growth of Welsh-medium education. But Welsh-speaking Wales is not responsible for the difficulties of English-speaking Wales, and the two have to find a way to coexist. The survival of Welsh is a miracle, and every Welsh person, whether or not they speak it, should celebrate that fact.
1. Why was Bowen recently shocked?
| A．He had a narrow escape in Wales. |
| B．He was refused entry into his fatherland. |
| C．He was assigned to do a series about Wales. |
| D．He was criticized for his Radio program about Wales. |
2. What was Edwards’ attitude toward Meades’ comments?
| A．Disapproving. | B．Supportive. | C．Tolerant. | D．Uncaring. |
3. What put the English-speaking majority at a disadvantage?
| A．They could not speak two languages. |
| B．They held outdated ideas about language. |
| C．A third of the Welsh could speak the native language. |
| D．The government attached less importance to English. |
4. What does the author say about the survival of Welsh?
| A．It establishes Welsh dominance. |
| B．It is unexpected and welcome. |
| C．It occurs at the cost of English-speaking Wales. |
| D．It owes to the efforts of Welsh-speaking Wales. |
