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  3. Passage One English is one of the most important languages of the world

Passage One English is one of the most important languages of the world

游客2024-06-06  20
问题     Passage One
    English is one of the most important languages of the world today spoken by more than 300,000,000 people, end it is the second widely used modem language. Only Chinese is spoken by more people.
    Linguists classify English as a Germanic language. Its closest linguistic "relatives" are Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, and Low German. More distant relatives include Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Modem High German. Its most distant "relatives" include other members of the Indo-European language family of which the Germanic languages are a part.
    The English language as we currently know it is the result of approximately 1500 years of development. Interestingly, the origins of modern English are not in England itself, but in southern Denmark and northern Germany, since the language which eventually developed into modern English was brought by people called the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes when they invaded the British Isles in the fifth Century. The Celtic language spoken by the earliest inhabitants of England were displaced and the Celtic-speaking people were driven by the invaders into what we now know as Wales, Scotland, end Ireland. Celtic languages are still spoken in parts of these countries.
    Linguists divide the development of English him 3 periods; Old English, Middle English, and Modem English. The Modem English period is then further divided into Early Modem English end Late Modem English. The Old English period spanned approximately 500 years--from around 450 to around 1100. The Middle period lasted roughly 400 years--from about 1100 until around 1500. The Modem English period began  around 1500, with Early Modem English lasting until approximately 1750 end Late Modem English from then to the present
    The vocabulary of Modern English is probably more extensive then that of may other languages in the world. It has been estimated that the total number of Modem English words is over 1,000,000, if one includes slang end recent technical and scientific terms.
    The great number of words in the Modem English lexicon is largely due to the fact that English has been always a "word-borrowing" language. In the Old English period, there were borrowings from Latin, Greek, Danish, and, to a small extent, Celtic languages. In the Middle English period, there were further borrowings from Danish, and also—to a large degree--from Norman French. In the Modern English period, there have been more borrowings from Latin, Greek, and a large number of European and other languages. All in all, English has "adopted" words from more than 50 other languages.
    Passage Two
    A very important world problem, if not the most serious of all the great world problems which affect us at the moment, is the increasing number of people who actually inhabit this planet. The limited amount of land and land resources will soon be unable to support the huge population if it continues to grow at the present rate.
    In an early survey conducted in 1888, a billion and a half inhabited the earth. Now, the population exceeds five billion and growing fast--by the staggering figure of 90 million in 1988 alone. This means that the world must accommodate a new population roughly equal to that of the United States and Canada every three years! Even though the rate of growth has begun to slow down, most experts believe the population size will still pass eight billion during the next 50 years.
    If we examine the amount of land available for this ever-increasing population, we begin to see the problem. If everyone on the planet had an equal share of land, we would each have about 50,000 square meters. This figure seems to be quite encouraging until we examine the type of land we would have. Not all land is useful to humans as it cannot produce food. We can cut out about one fifth of it because it is permanently covered by mow and ice. Then we can cut out another fifth because it is desert. Another fifth is too mountainous or is too great a height above sea level. A tenth doesn’t have enough soil for crops to grow--it is hard rock. Now the position begins to look rather more bleak!
    Obviously, with so little land to support us, we should be taking great care not to reduce it further. But are we? Mankind seems to be unable to accept that we live on a finite planet--we act as if its resources were infinite. Because of overpopulation and over-consumption, humanity is incapable of supporting itself on its ’income’—the energy arriving continuously from the son. Instead, we are consuming its ”capital’--its nonrenewable fossil fuels and other mineral deposits that took millions of year to form but which are now being destroyed In decades. We are also doing the same with other vital resources not usually thought of as being nonrenewable such as fertile soils, groundwater and the millions of other species that share earth with us.
    Man is constantly destroying the very resources which keep him alive. He is destroying the balance of nature which regulates climate and the atmosphere, produces and maintains healthy soils, provides food from the seas, etc. In short, by only considering our needs of today, we are ensuring there will be no tomorrow.
    In short then, it is everybody’s duty to safeguard the future of the mankind--not only through population control, but by being more aware of the effect his actions have on nature. Nature is both fragile and powerful. It is very easily destroyed; on the other hand, it can so easily destroy its most aggressive enemy--man.
    Passage Three
    Caffeine is in many foods and drinks. More than 60 plants, including coffee beans, tea leaves, and cocoa beans (the source of chocolate), have caffeine. In addition, companies add it to some drinks. Many kinds of soda have caffeine. But now companies are putting caffeine in more products. For example, new kinds of mineral water and juice have caffeine.
    As a result, caffeine consumption is very high. People in the U.S. are spending more time in cafes and coffee shops. And around the world, 80% of adults eat or drink products with caffeine every day. In one recent year, coffee consumption in the U.S. went up 37%.
    The Effects of Caffeine
    When we eat or drink caffeine, it wakes us up and makes our beams work a little faster. Caffeine also helps aspirin work faster, and it helps stop some headaches.
    However, caffeine has some bad effect. If we have it at night, we may not be able to sleep. Too much caffeine can make use feel angry or upset. Many doctors say that caffeine is not good for children or women who are pregnant. If people eat or drink a large amount of caffeine, their hearts will start working too fast.
    In addition to all these effects, caffeine is habit-forming. Just like cigarettes, after people start drinking caffeine, stopping can be very difficult. Also, after people start drinking, caffeine, they want more and more. A little caffeine is not bad for most adults. But people should cut down on caffeine if they are getting too much.
    Cutting Down on Caffeine
    Cutting down on caffeine is not easy, but these tips can help you:
    * Caffeine is in more and more products. So check labels carefully.
    * Try to drink only two to three cups of coffee, tea, or cola a day.
    * Don’t stop suddenly. Try to cut down by about a half a cup per day.
    * Try decaffeinated coffee or tea. (But keep in mind that even these drinks have a little caffeine.) [br] From the information given in Para. 2, the combined population of the U.S. and Canada is ______.
选项
答案 approximately/about 270 million
解析 从文章的第二段第二句和第三句可以找到答案。This means that the world must accommodate a new population roughly equal to that of the United States and Canada every three years! 1988年—年里全世界人口增长了大约9千万。每三年的新增人口相当于美国和加拿大人口的总和。那么，这两个国家的人口总量大约为二亿七千万。
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