Question

No human community has not worked out a language for itself Each language is based on the life of the people who invented it，so it is especially useful to them．For example，Eskimos use a large number of words for different kinds of snow．These would be useless to people living in a hot country．

Languages change all the time．Words that are no longer needed in everyday conversation drop out of use，though they can still be found in books and dictionaries．This is often because the word has been replaced(代替)by another simpler one that most people prefer．For example, 'car' is now used instead of 'automobile'．Words can change their meanings，or have new ones added to them．The development of computers has given new meanings to words like 'programme', 'disc' and 'mouse' and invented new words like 'byte'．

Often words borrowed from other languages are used to create new words．English contains many words that were originally French and were introduced into the language in 1066．'Court', 'beef' and 'vegetable' are a few examples．

At first sight，or at first hearing， ． But when you look more closely, or listen more carefully，it is possible to find links and similarities between some languages．For example，the word brother is like Bruder in German．Language experts have grouped together languages that seem to be connected into language families．

Generally, languages that belong(屬于)to a particular family have similar sounding words which have the same meaning．English belongs to the same language family as French，German，Spanish，and many languages spoken in Europe and Asia．They belong to the Indo—European group and it is the largest language family．The Chinese language belongs to Sino—Tibetan group, while Japanese belongs to yet another family which includes Korean．

But differences in language can make a barrier(障礙)when countries meet to discuss world issues．To smooth away the barrier，the United Nations use Chinese，English，F(xiàn)rench，Russian and Spanish as a few official languages throughout their meetings．In some countries where many languages are spoken，there is an official language for formal(正式的)and business use．For instance，English is the official language in India．

1.The example of the Eskimos mentioned in Para．It shows that ．

A. language is close to the life of the people who invented it

B. the same word has different meanings in cold and hot countries

C. people change the meanings of words in books and dictionaries

D. Eskimos prefer to add new uses to words in everyday conversation

2.People today prefer the word'car'to'automobile'because ．

A. 'car' sounds nice at first hearing B. 'car' is simpler than 'automobile'

C. 'automobile' is harder to pronounce D. 'automobile' has changed its meaning

3.Which of the following is the best sentence to fill in the blank in the passage?

A. languages used in most countries change with the time

B. languages of different places sound difficult to understand

C. languages spoken throughout the world seem very different

D. languages with similar pronunciation make people feel close

4.It can be inferred(推斷)from the passage that ．

A. many words in English，Spanish and German share similar sounds and meaning

B. English and Spanish are used as official languages at business meetings in Europe

C. the Chinese，Japanese and Koreau languages belong to the largest language family

D. some French words were introduced into English in order to better their own culture

Answer 1