新大纲大学英语三级考试全真模拟试题与详解

Passage One Questions 33 to 37 are based on the following passage. Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7, 000 languages spoken on earth will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history,culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works. Language defines a culture. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea rarely translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, but no written forms. With the disappearance, an entire culture is lost. Much of what humans know about nature is expressed only in oral languages. Indigenous （ 土著） groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have deep insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems （ 生态环境）. Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding. Studying various languages 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. Throughout human history, the languages of powerful groups have spread while the languages of smaller cultures have become extinct. As a big language spreads, children whose parents speak a small language often grow up learning the big language. Those children or their own children may never learn the small language, or they may forget it as it falls out of use. This has occurred throughout human history, but the rate of language disappearance has quickened dramatically in recent years. 33. When a language dies, what will also disappear together with it？ A） History and wealth of human beings. B） Much of the knowledge of human beings. C） The way the human brain works. D） The natural environment of the world. ……