2 . A Fluent Advantage

When schools go through budget cuts, foreign language classes are often placed on the cutting block. School administrators often do not understand how important foreign language study is for their students’ success in the real world. Far from cutting language classes, schools should be demanding them for all students. Studying a foreign language should be required in middle schools.

Language study strengthens students’ minds. Many studies have indicated that multilingual people—people who speak more than one language—are better at certain tasks. Specifically, multilingual people have better executive function than people who speak only one language. Executive function is the way the brain manages all the information it’s given, such as performing different tasks and deciding what to focus on. In brain scans, multilingual people show increased activity in the areas of the brain that control executive function. Researchers have guessed that this advantage exists because multilingual people must constantly decide which words from which language to use. As a result, multilingual people get lots of practice with executive function. Their brains can then apply those skills to other tasks, like paying attention or multitasking. This effect is especially strong for people who grow up speaking more than one language. The earlier students start language classes, the more benefits they may get from language study.

Moreover, language study helps prepare students for their future careers. Today, language skills are in high demand on the job market and more and more businesses work in many countries across the world. As businesses become global, they need people who can communicate easily across national borders. To prepare for their careers, more students should be learning foreign languages. From 2010 to 2015, the demand in the United States for workers who speak a second language doubled. This trend included workers of all skill levels and backgrounds.

Of course, in order to make better use of the advantages of foreign language study, middle school foreign language classes should not just make students memorize new words and sounds.

They must also teach students about new cultures. Foreign language classes should be required to include lessons about history, literature, customs, and government along with the languages themselves. These subjects will help students become better global citizens and support their studies in other subjects.

Requiring middle schoolers to study a foreign language offers them opportunities to sharpen their brains. It also gives them tools that will help them become productive members of today’s global society.

1. How does the author feel about foreign language study in middle schools?

A．More foreign language classes should be offered in middle schools.

B．Taking a foreign language class in middle schools should be a choice.

C．Foreign language classes should be cut because of the limited funds.

D．Studying a foreign language should be a middle school requirement.

2. The author believes ______.

A．people who speak more than one language have better executive function

B．being able to work in another country doubles people’s job opportunities

C．people learn languages better as young people than when they are older

D．people’s executive function improves after foreign language classes

3. What’s the author’s purpose of writing Paragraph 4?

A．To sum up his argument.	B．To put forward a solution.
C．To emphasize his point of view.	D．To introduce an additional suggestion.

4. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage?
I: Introduction P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion

A．	B．
C．	D．

3 . A crucial period for learning the rules and structure of a language lasts up to around age 17 or 18, say psychologist Joshua Hartshorne of MIT and his colleagues.

Previous research had suggested that grammar-learning ability developed in early childhood before hitting a dead end around age 5. However, Hartshorne’s team reports online in Cognition that people who started learning English as a second language in an English-speaking country by age 10 to 12 ultimately mastered the new tongue as well as folks who had learned English and another language at the same time from birth. Both groups, however, fell somewhat short of the grammatical fluency displayed by English-only speakers. After ages 10 to 12, new-to-English learners reached lower levels of fluency than those who started learning English at younger ages because time ran out when their grammar-absorbing ability fell starting around age 17.

Aiming for a sample of tens of thousands of volunteers, Hartshorne began by contacting friends on Facebook to take an online English grammar quiz, which used a person’s responses to guess his or her native language and dialect (方言) of English. Then volunteers filled out a questionnaire asking where they had lived, languages they had spoken from birth, the age at which they began learning English and the number of years they had lived in an English-speaking country.

In the end, the researchers analyzed responses of 669,498 native and nonnative English speakers. Statistical calculations focused on estimating at what ages people with varying amounts of experience peaking English reached peak grammar ability.

Researchers who study language learning regard the new study as fascinating, but exploratory. According to psycholinguist David Barner of the University of California, San Diego, Hartshorne’s team can’t yet say that language skill develops along a single timeline. Different elements of grammar, such as using correct word order or subjects and verbs that agree with one another, might be learned at different rates, Barner says. It’s also unclear whether the responses of volunteers to an online, 132-item grammar test reflect how well of poorly they actually speak English, he says.

What’s more, language learning involves more than a crucial period for acquiring grammar, cautions linguist David Birdsong of the University of Texas at Austin. For instance, growing up speaking two languages at once puts still poorly understood burdens on the ability to grasp grammar, he says.

In the new study, people who were bilinguals from birth fell short of peak English grammar scores achieved by English-only speakers. That’s consistent with evidence that bilinguals cannot easily turn off one language while speaking another, Birdsong says. Interactions between tongues spoken by one person may slightly depress how much can be learned about both languages, even if bilingual communication still reaches high levels, he suggests.

1. Hartshorne and his colleagues found that____ .

A．one reaches a higher level of fluency at age 10

B．one learns a second language fastest at about age 12

C．one gets a good grasp of English grammar before age 5

D．one’s ability to master grammar declines at around age17

2. Hartshorne collected data through ______.

A．social media

B．experiments in the lab

C．literature review

D．face-to-face interviews

3. David Barner believes that ______.

A．language skill develops along a single timeline

B．online volunteers do not cover a wide enough range

C．different grammar items may be acquired at different paces

D．the quiz in the new study does not include enough questions

4. What can we know about bilinguals from the last two paragraphs?

A．They can achieve a perfect grammar score.

B．Grammar learning is the biggest burden for them.

C．They are able to make a swift shift between languages.

D．Speaking two languages affects their language acquisition.

4 . Learning a second language is tricky at any age and it only gets tougher the longer you wait to open that dusty French book. Now, in a new study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.

The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it’s “nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second tongue after 10. But that doesn’t seem to be because language skills go downhill. “It turns out you’re still learning fast. It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,” says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.

Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they’re better able to adapt and respond to new information. “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says, “and children’s brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing.”

Kids may also be more willing to try new things (and to potentially look foolish in the process) than adults are. Their comparatively new grasp on their native tongue may also be advantageous. Unlike adults, who tend to default (默认) to the rules and patterns of their first language, kids may be able to approach a new one with a blank slate (石板).

These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 — when language learning ability starts to drop off — seems relatively old.

“People fared better when they learned by immersion (沉浸), rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that’s not an option, you can mimic an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities,” Hartshorne says. By doing so, it’s possible to become conversationally proficient — even without the advantage of a child’s brain.

1. The underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “__________”.

A．decrease	B．rise
C．end	D．vary

2. What can be inferred from Joshua Hartshorne’s words?

A．Children are too young to grasp a second language.

B．Age 10-18 is the best time to learn a second language.

C．Adults go beyond the critical period for learning a second language.

D．Communicating with native speakers enables you to master all the language skills.

3. Why adults can’t reach native-level fluency in a second language?

A．Adults are less influenced by their mother tongues.

B．Adults spend more time responding to new information.

C．Adults are only too willing to experience something awkward in the process.

D．Adults prefer an immersive environment to a classroom in learning a second language.

4. The passage is mainly about __________.

A．the best age to learn a second language

B．the approaches to learning a second language

C．why kids learn a second language more easily than adults

D．whether adults can learn a second language like their younger selves

5 . Language Learning

Learning a new language can be tricky at any age. But in a recent study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a new language seem to quickly drop off: 10. Does this mean you should quit your French class if you’re older than 10? Non!

    1     It found that it’s “nearly impossible” to reach fluency if you start learning a language after age 10. That’s not because language skills start to go downhill. “You’re still learning fast,” says Joshua Hartshorne, one of the study’s coauthors. “It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old.” People who start learning a new language after age 10 may still become quite good, the authors say.     2    

Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more adaptable than those of adults.     3     “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says. “Children’s brains seem to be a lot more good at changing.” Kids may also be more willing than adults to try new things. And while adults tend to fall back on the rules and patterns of their first language, kids are able to approach a new one with a blank slate.

    4     It promised to guess people’s native language, dialect, and home country, based on their responses to English grammar questions. At the end of the quiz, people entered their actual native language. They also reported if and when they had learned any other languages and where they had lived. Nearly 670,000 people took the quiz. Analyzing people’s responses and grammar mistakes allowed them to draw conclusions about language learning.

The findings also offer ideas for adults hoping to pick up a new language.     5     Moving to a place where your chosen language is spoken all the time is the best way for adults to learn. Learners of all ages can search out native speakers in their community to talk with. By creating an immersive environment, it’s possible to become good at speaking a new language.

A．Now that’s worth talking about!

B．But they are unlikely to become fluent.

C．The study appeared in the journal Cognition.

D．For the study, the researchers created an online quiz.

E．This means they’re better able to respond to new information.

F．This gave researchers huge amounts of data from English speakers of many ages and backgrounds.

G．Researchers found that people did better when they learned by immersion rather than only in a classroom.

6 . 假定你是李华，正在教你的英国朋友Leslie学习汉语。请你写封邮件告知下次上课的计划。内容包括：
（1）时间和地点；
（2）内容：学习唐诗；
（3）课前准备：简要了解唐朝的历史。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

7 . Saying “thank you” is probably the first thing most of us learn to do in a foreign language. After all, we’re brought up to be polite, and it is important to make a good impression upon other people — especially across national divides.
So, what exactly are you supposed to say when “thank you” is only the 20th most popular way to express gratitude? According to a recent survey, 19 other ways of expressing appreciation finished ahead of “thank you” in a poll of 3,000 people.
Pollsters(民测调查员) found almost half of those asked preferred the more informal “cheers”, while others liked to use such expressions as “ta”, “great” and “nice one”.
So, just what is the appropriate form of words to express your thanks?
Fortunately, the clue is in the language itself. “Cheers”, despite its popularity, is considered an informal way to say thank you — and this is a definite clue as to when you can best use it.
For instance, when going for a drink with friends, a smile and a “cheers” by way of thanks is not only appropriate to the situation, it is also culturally accurate.
“Ta”, originated from the Danish word “tak”, was the second-most popular expression of thanks, and is also commonly used in informal situations, along with phrases such as “nice one”, and “brilliant”. Interestingly, one word that didn’t make it into the top 20 was “thanks”, Thank you is shorter, more informal cousin.
“Thanks” can be useful, as it is able to bridge the divide between the formality of “thank you” and the downright relaxed “cheers”.
Certain words can double as an expression of thanks as well as delight. Again, the words themselves offer the clue as to when best to use them.
For example, words like “awesome”, “brilliant” and “you star” featured highly in the new poll and they can hint at both your pleasure at someone’s action, as well as serving to express your thanks. If you are on the receiving end of a “new” thank you, you can respond with a simple “no problem”, or “sure”.
Of course, in certain circumstances, a simple wave, nod or smile may be appropriate. For instance, if a car driver slows down to let you cross the road, simply raising your hand in acknowledgement is enough to show that you appreciate the driver’s consideration.
Sometimes, formality is necessary, and “thank you” is still the best choice in such situations. But students should not worry about when exactly to use certain expressions.
Many people in Western countries are worried that good manners are in decline. People are tired of seeing their acts of kindness and service pass without comment. So don’t think your “thank you” is clumsy or awkwardly formal. The chances are, if you said “thank you”, you made someone’s day. You star.
1. We can tell from the results of the poll that __________.

A．people are unconcerned about politeness nowadays.

B．“thank you” remains the best expression of gratitude.

C．there is a variety of expressions of appreciation.

D．there are more formal expressions than informal ones.

2. According to the passage, which is an appropriate response to “awesome” or “brilliant”?

A．Thanks.

B．Sure.

C．Nice one.

D．Cheers. .

3. In the last paragraph the author encourages people to          .

A．show their gratitude to others.	B．behave themselves well.
C．continue their acts of kindness.	D．stop worrying about bad manners.

4. Which of the following can serve as the best title of this passage?

A．How to Appear More Polite .	B．Ways to Show Gratitude.
C．Never hesitate to Say “Thank You”.	D．Good Manners in Decline!