1 . 听下面一段独白,回答以下小题。
1. What do most people think is very important in spoken communication?A.Pronunciation. | B.Vocabulary. | C.Grammar. |
A.To develop your reading fluency. |
B.To improve your note-taking skills. |
C.To find out your mispronunciations. |
A.Spell out the difficult words. |
B.Check the words in a dictionary. |
C.Practice reading the words aloud. |
2 . English is increasingly used as a global language of instruction in higher education, known as English Medium Instruction or EMI. The aim is that a student taking a course in English should learn just as well as a student studying in their first language. But a new study involving 2,263 Swedish students now casts doubt on this assumption.
When these students registered for an introductory course in programming, they were randomly divided into two groups, either an English or a Swedish version of the course. The course was entirely digital and self-paced. Students’ performance was measured based on the number of correctly answered test questions and on how many left the course without completing it. When the researchers compared the number of questions answered correctly, they found that those studying in Swedish gave the correct answers to 73 percent more questions in the test.
“It’s important to remember that the only difference here is the language of instruction. The fact that the students on the Swedish-language course performed significantly better indicates that the use of English as the language of instruction can have a negative impact on learning under certain circumstances,” says Olle Bälter, one of the researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
When the researchers measured the student completion rate on the course, the results were confirmed; 25 percent more students dropped out of the English-language course.
The study now raises issues about the advantages and disadvantages of having such a large proportion (比例) of teaching at universities and higher education institutions in English, something that is common in Sweden as well as in other countries where English is not the first language for the majority of the population.
“It’s important to remember that a single study shouldn’t be used as the basis for a reform of the language or teaching policy in higher education. However, we believe the results from this research can contribute to a more informed discussion about the consequences of using English as the language of instruction,” says Bälter.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?A.How the study is conducted. | B.What courses the students choose. |
C.What information is needed. | D.How the students are grouped. |
A.The questions for students. | B.The content difficulty. |
C.The teaching language. | D.The class size. |
A.It reduces the dropout rate. | B.It changes the focus of teaching. |
C.It leads to poorer learning outcomes. | D.It helps improve the students’ English. |
A.Indifferent. | B.Positive | C.Doubtful. | D.Negative. |
3 . 听下面一段对话,回答以下小题。
1. Where is the father learning English?A.At home. | B.In a college. | C.In an evening school. |
A.He didn’t learn English as a college student. |
B.He is going abroad. |
C.He has found his English is too limited. |
A.German, French and Chinese. |
B.German, English and French. |
C.Japanese, French and English. |
4 . The 7,400 or so languages in use today speak to the fact that our species is born to communicate. But while it is tempting to view language as merely a consequence of our extraordinary cognitive (认知的) powers, Caleb Everett thinks there may be more going on.
In A Myriad of Tongues: How languages reveal differences in how we think, he argues that language itself may shape our understanding of the world and our experience of time and space. To put it another way, the language we speak may influence the way we think.
Such a provocative (挑衅的) idea might have been controversial (有争议的) a few decades ago, says Everett, because language experts restricted themselves to analyzing languages of industrialized, higher-income countries. But we now know they fall short of representing the variety of languages spoken today — and the more we learn about understudied tongues, the more evidence we find for the complicated interplay between language and thinking.
Take Berinmo, a language of Papua New Guinea, as an example. Unlike English speakers, explains Everett, Berinmo speakers struggle to remember whether an object they were shown earlier was blue or green-perhaps because that language doesn’t distinguish between these colours. But it does make a formal distinction between yellowish — greens and other greens, and Berinmo speakers typically find it easy to remember which of these colours an object they saw earlier was painted, while English speakers struggle to do this.
Language also influences how we think about objects. Yucatec Maya, spoken in Mexico, encourages its speakers to classify objects according to their material properties rather than their function. Where an English speaker might group a plastic comb and a wooden comb together and exclude a wooden stick, a Yucatec Maya speaker would usually group the wooden objects together. English-speaking people get the information they need by sight alone.
We live through a language extinction event predicted to see the loss of about 30 per cent of today’s tongues by 2100. His book makes it clear this is more than just a tragedy (悲剧) for local communities. Given the insights that languages offer into the human mind, their disappearance is a loss for us all.
1. Why is Everett’s book mentioned?A.To set off a discussion. |
B.To lead in the topic of the text. |
C.To recommend a meaningful book. |
D.To show the importance of languages. |
A.Proof of the complex relationship between language and thinking. |
B.Different means of communication in different regions. |
C.The variety of languages spoken in the world. |
D.The reasons for language extinction. |
A.Their colours. | B.Their function. |
C.Their appearance. | D.Their material characteristics. |
A.Concerned. | B.Doubtful. | C.Uncaring. | D.Shocked. |
5 . “Tie an Italian’s hands behind his back,” runs an old joke, “and he’ll be speechless.” This rests on a national stereotype: Italians are talkative and emotional, and all that arm-waggling supposedly goes to prove it.
Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago has a rather different view. Emotions come out in lots of ways: facial expressions, posture, tone of voice and so on. But people are doing something different when they use gestures with speech, which she sums up in the title of her new book, “Thinking with Your Hands”. It is a masterly tour through a lifetime’s research.
Virtually everyone gestures, not just Italians. Experimental subjects, told after a research session that they were being watched for gestures, apologize for not having made any — but were doing so the entire time. People born blind gesture when they speak, including to each other. A woman born without arms but with “phantom limb syndrome (幻肢综合征)” describes how she uses her phantom arms when she talks — but not when she walks. All this suggests that cognition is, to some extent, “embodied”; thinking is not all done in your head.
In fact, gestures that accompany speech are a second channel of information. Subjects watch a film in which a cat runs but are told to lie and say it jumped. They do so in words — while their hands make a running motion. People who say they believe in sexual equality but gesture with their hands lower when talking about women are not indicating women’s height; they can be shown to have biases of which they may be unaware.
In “The Crown”, a historical drama series, Lady Diana is warned that her hands may betray her real emotions, which could be dangerous; they are tied together so she can learn to speak without gesticulating. No one who reads Susan’s book could ever again think that gesturing shows only a lack of control. It is about thinking and communication, and is a sophisticated aid to both.
1. Why does the author mention the old joke in Paragraph 1?A.To present an argument. | B.To describe a scene. |
C.To lead in the topic. | D.To clarify a doubt. |
A.The disabled seldom use gestures. | B.Gestures literally embody cognition. |
C.Thinking only occurs inside the brain. | D.Gestures are improper in communication. |
A.Gestures may express what the speaker really thinks. |
B.People are unaware of the meanings of their gestures. |
C.Gesturing during speech shows only a lack of control. |
D.Speakers can lie more easily with the help of gestures. |
A.Speech: A Direct Channel of Information | B.Gestures: A Vital Form of Communication |
C.Italian’s Body Language: A National Stereotype | D.Thinking with Your Hands: A Lifetime’s Research |
1. In which century did the important men in Europe begin to wear false hair?
A.16th. | B.17th. | C.18th. |
A.How big his head was. | B.How heavy he was. | C.How important he was. |
A.After World War II. | B.After World War I. | C.Before World War II. |
A.Head of a company. | B.A political leader. | C.Both A and B. |
7 . Early in my time in China, I asked a coworker if she noticed anything Americans do that is strange. “You’re always fighting, even with your best friend.” she said. She had never seen me fight with my friend, so I was surprised, until I realized she was referring to a philosophical debate. Though passionate, my friend and I would hardly have considered it a fight. According to him, many Chinese wouldn’t tell their friend to “shut your mouth when you speak to me” or tell them, “your logic is so dumb — you don’t have object permanence”, which is opposed to social harmony.
Words are metaphors, serving to comprehend abstract ideas or beliefs. Each language possesses an inner logic, influencing how its speakers structure sentences and understand words. This uniqueness extends beyond mere vocabulary; it spreads to the system of expression, shaping thoughts and ideas. Regardless of how skilled one becomes at communicating, or how many dictionaries they’ve read, they can not guarantee that the listener understands them correctly.
Each language barrier exists within speakers of the same language. In 2013, I worked with a British man who had lived in China for a decade and spoke Chinese fluently. It took him about 10 years to fully understand the culture. Either I’m silly, or he was kidding me.
I can confidently say that after all this time, I’m even more confused than I was then...The concepts and ideas I learn about Chinese culture expand endlessly, and I suspect that will always be true. If I’m lucky, I’ll have another 30 years of life, less time than more intelligent men than I have spent studying culture.
Perhaps I’m not meant to understand China. There is acceptance and peace in that. With my foreign friends, I will joke and even tease them and with my Chinese friends, I will ask questions to avoid giving the impression I am fighting with them. I will embrace cross-cultural confusion and persist in understanding my Chinese friends, family, coworkers and neighbors, because that knowledge bears gifts of wisdom and joy. My life is better for it.
1. What impression does the author leave on his Chinese friend?A.He specializes in debating. | B.He is kind of rude to friends. |
C.He argues with others much. | D.He is passionate about philosophy. |
A.Its inner logic | B.Its significant complexity |
C.Its abstract origin | D.Its changing structure |
A.Profound Chinese culture | B.His British friend’s, experience |
C.Little time spent with family | D.Different understanding of humor |
A.He will take China as it is. | B.He will return to his motherland. |
C.He will be more serious in China. | D.He will persist in academic study. |
8 . Cultural intelligence, or cultural quotient (CQ) is the ability to manage cultural diversity.
If you’re unfamiliar with the culture, chances are you’re not going to adapt well to it. So the first practical aspect of CQ you need to improve is your CQ drive.
After you’ve motivated yourself to get a bit more familiar with the culture, it’s time to go one step further.
Lastly, you need to use what you have learned and come up with a strategy that will help you improve your CQ. You can expose yourself to various media. This is a useful and easily accessible way to learn about how culture affects behavior. Again, it helps if you learn the language of the culture. This may open a whole new world for you.
A.You should broaden your CQ knowledge. |
B.There are many benefits of having high CQ. |
C.To be culturally intelligent is no easy matter. |
D.This means your motivation to learn about a different culture. |
E.Seek out opportunities to interact with people from other cultures. |
F.This ability is not limited to your cultural sensitivity and awareness. |
G.It can help you better understand people from other cultures as well. |
9 . 听下面一段独白,回答以下小题。
1. What is the speaker mainly talking about?A.A search engine. | B.A language program. | C.A special business model. |
A.Over one hundred million. | B.A few hundred thousand. | C.Several thousand. |
A.Switzerland. | B.Guatemala. | C.Costa Rica. |
A.By big websites. | B.By an actor. | C.By school. |
10 . A winner of the highest honor in the field of translation, Xu Yuanchong was best known for his translations of ancient Chinese poems into English and French. Xu
His academic
Throughout his academic research, Xu
A.occupied | B.addicted | C.exposed | D.committed |
A.art | B.dream | C.guideline | D.tradition |
A.search | B.career | C.performance | D.procedure |
A.transferred to | B.adapted to | C.returned to | D.traveled to |
A.turn | B.introduce | C.separate | D.force |
A.recommended | B.denied | C.called | D.awarded |
A.accept | B.acquire | C.access | D.abandon |
A.rewards | B.qualifications | C.honors | D.standards |
A.worldwide | B.national | C.everlasting | D.lifelong |
A.shared | B.pictured | C.enhanced | D.pursued |
A.composed | B.absorbed | C.glued | D.stuck |
A.in | B.with | C.as | D.for |
A.enables | B.persuades | C.urges | D.makes |
A.courage | B.poetry | C.discipline | D.wisdom |
A.however | B.meanwhile | C.anyway | D.though |