听力原文2008
Part 1, Listening Comprehension
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
The popularity of English
Good morning, everyone. Today's lecture is about the popularity of English.
As we all know, English is widely used in the world. Althpugh English is not the language with the largest number of native or first language speakers, it has really become a lingua franca. Then what is a lingua franca? The term refers to a language which is widely adopted for communication be?tween two speakers whose native languages are different from each others and where one or both speakers are using it as a second language ( Q1). For example, when an Indian talks to a Singapore?an using English, then English is the lingua franca.
Then actually how many people speak English as either a first or a second language? Some re?searches suggested that a few years ago that between 320 , 000 , 000 to 380 , 000 , 000 people spoke English as a first language. And anyway between 250 , 000 , 000 to 350 , 000 , 000 as a second lan?guage ( Q2 ) . And of course , if we include people who are learning English as a foreign language all over the world, that number may increase dramatically. Then we may ask a question, how did Eng?lish get there? That is how did English gain the present status of popularity?
There are in fact a number of interlocking reasons for the popularity of English as a lingua fran?ca. Many of the reasons are historical , but they also include economic and cultural factors that influ?enced and sustained this spread of the language. Let's go through the reasons one by one.
First, it's the historical reason ( Q3) . This is related to the colonial history. As we know, when' the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the Massachusetts coast in 1620 after their journey from England, they brought with them not just a set of religious beliefs, a pioneering spirit or a desire for colonization, but also their language. Although many years later, the Americans broke away from their colonial master, the language of English remained and still does. It was the same in Australia too. When Commander Philippe planted the British flag in Sydney curve on the 26th of January 1788 , it was not just a bunch of British convicts and their guardians but also a language. In other parts of the former British Empire, English rapidly became a unifying or dominating means of control. For example, it became a lingua franca in India where a variety of indigenous languages made the use of any one of them as a whole country system problematic ( Q4). So the imposition of English as the one language of a ministration helps maintain the colonizers' control and power. Thus English traveled around many parts of the world in those days and long after that colonial empire has faded away. It is too widely used as a main or at least an institutional language in countries as far apart as Jamaica and Pakistan, \ Uganda and New Zealand. That is the first factor.
Now the second major factor. in the spread of English has been the spread of commerce through?out the world. The spread of international commerce has taken English along with it ( Q5 ) . This is the 20111 century phenomenon of globalization. Therefore, one of the first sights many travelers see when arriving in countries as diverse as Brazil, China for example, it's the yellow, twin art sign of a Macdonald's fast food restaurant or some other famous brand's outlets. And without doubt, English is used as the language of communication in the international business community.
And the third factor related to the popular use of English is the boom in international travel ( Q6). And you will find that much travel and tourism is carried on around the world in English. Of course this is not always the case. As the multi-lingualism of many tourism workers in different coun?tries demonstrate. But a visit to most airports on the globe will show signs not only in the language of that country but also in English. Just as many airline announcements are broadcast in English too. Whatever the language of the country the airport is situated in. So far, English is also the preferred language of air-traffic control in many countries and it is used widely in sea travel communication ( Q7 ).
Another factor has something to do with the information exchange around the world. As we all know, a great deal of academic discourse around the world takes place in English. It is often a lingua franca of conferences, for example. And many journal articles in fields as diverse as astronomy, trial psychology and zoology have English as a kind of default language ( Q8).
The last factor I cite here concerns popular culture. In the western world at least, English is a dominating language in popular culture. Pop music in English can be heard on many radios ( Q9). Thus many people who are not English speakers can sing words from their favorite English medium songs. And many people who are regular cinema-goers or TV viewers can frequently hear English in sub-titled films coming out of the USA.
Now, to sum up, in today's lecture, we have reviewed some of the reasons or factors that lie be?hind the popular use of English as the NO. 1 world language. Before we finish, I would like to leave a few questions for you to think about. Is the status of English as the NO. 1 world language assured in the future? Will it split into varieties that become less mutually intelligible? Or some other language or languages take the place of English as the world language in future ( Q1 ). These questions are not easy to answer, I know, but they are definitely worth pondering over after the lecture. OK, let's bring us to the end of today's lecture. Thank you for your attention.
SECTION B CONVERSATION
W Hello! Freddy.
NI: Hello! Marry. How nice to see you again! How is everything going?
W Fine. Busy these days?
M : Yeah. With lots of things to do. Would you like to join me for a drink?
W: Ok! Thanks!
M: Any news recently?
W Oh! Well , I read in the local paper the other day that the government is planning to build an air?port here. You knew that?
M Afraid not.
My real objection to this idea of a new airport is... is that the whole thing is so wasteful. I mean, we know we are currently in a fuel crisis. We know that we've got to conserve oil and fuel and all the rest of it and yet here the government seems quite deliberately to be encouraging people to travel, to use. And these jets use a heck of a lot of oil. I mean it takes a ton of oil, a ton of pet?rol before one of this big jets even takes off (Q1).
M: Hmmm.
W: It seems so completely short-sighted to me, quite apart from all the waste of land and so on. I can't see, I can't see the rational behind really wanting an... an airport at all.
M: Well, surely you must admit the existing airport nearby are becoming swarmed. I mean, why should people...
NV: Well, they are being swarmed.
111: be treated like cattle when there's a chance of a new airport here.
W: But, but really, people shouldn't be traveling as much. That's, that's why most of the journeys, I mean, they are swarmed, because there is far too much unnecessary tourism and so on. It isn't necessary for people to travel so fast, or still, even so often ( Q2).
M: Well. You take the climate here in this country. Now, just before Christmas, there 'was this dreadful cold spell and there was a tremendous increase in the number of people who wanted to leave and spend Christmas and the New Year in a reasonable climate of sun and a certain mild climate. And in summer, the same situation occurs. It is unbearably hot here and people want go somewhere cool.
W: Yes, I can sympathize with that. But it is still not really necessary to do or as it is necessary to conserve fuel and it is necessary to ... well not to waste land, I mean, land for new airport could be used for far more important things which would benefit the people here far more ( Q2). I mean, it could be used for farming, for instance.
M: True.
W: It could also be used for housing, or it could be used for parks, you know. People then, could come and enjoy themselves without having to travel far.
Mi But, airports do bring some local advantages. They bring roads, there's obviously extra employ?ment, for instance, new hotels, shops, restaurants will have to be built, this means, more jobs for the locals and it is good for local economy ( Q3).
W: But, you ask the people, you ask those who are now living near the airports, for instance, whether they reckon that airports are bringing them advantages or the airport is bringing noise and vast motorways and the whole area is desolated, isn't it? ( Q2)
M: But, the airport infrastructure relies on housing and other facilities for the great number of people who would be employed in the airport, the pilot even, the stewardnesses. They have to live somewhere near the airport, right?
W: Yeah, but it's, it's just so damaging to the whole area. I think, airports, from my point of view, the whole concept is outdated really. With modern technology, we're going to make a lot of travel unnecessary, really (Q4). For example, it won't be necessary for businessman to fly out to a foreign country to talk to somebody. They can just lift up telephone in the office, press the but?ton and see the person they want to do business with. You see, business deals can be made with?out having to travel back and forth, right?
M: Yes, you're right. But, for a lot of people, 'personal contact is important. And this means travel, and means quick travel, air 'travel and we just need a new airport (Q5).
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
News Item 1 (for question 6)
The New Moderates Party began forming the new Swedish government on Monday. In Sunday's Elections , the New Moderates Party defeated the Social Democrats. The Social Democratic Party has controlled Sweden for all but nine years since 1932 , building up the country's generous welfare state. But the New Moderates wants to change it. ( Q6 ) Sweden's welfare system is famed around the world, but the system encourages people to be lazy and unemployment is also high in Sweden. One reason is the high tax on companies which makes it difficult to employ new people.
News Item 2 (for questions 7 and 8)
Much of the world was watching on television when the command of the Apollo-11 mission Neal
Armstrong tookthe first steps on the moon in July 1969. The pictures of that historic footstep and ?
everything else about that and subsequent of Apollo moon landings were recorded on magnetic tape at three NASA ground tracking stations around the world. The tapes were then shipped to a NASA operation centre near Washington—the Goddard Space Flight Centre. ( Q7 ) In late 1969 , the space a?gency began transferring them and tens of thousands of tapes from other space missions to a nearby U. S. government archives warehouse: NASA says it asked for them back in the 1970s, but now does not know where they are. "I probably am overly sensitive to the word `lost' . I did not feel they are lost. " said Richard Nafzger, a Goddard Space Flight Centre engineer who was in charge of television processing from all of NASA's ground receiving sites. The Space Agency has authorized him to set a?side his other duties for the foreseeable future and devote his time to the hunt for the tapes. Nafzger says- they are stored somewhere. ( Q8 )
News Item 3 (for questions 9 and 10)
More than 22 million people who live in the Unite State don't speak or understand English very well and that can be deadly. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Doctor Glan Flores highlights some cases where language barriers prevented patients from communicating with health-care providers with serious consequences. ( Q9 ) Doctor Flores records one incident in which English-speaking doctors `thought a Spanish-speaking man was suffering from a drug over-doze. "He was in the hospital basically for two days being worked up for drug abuse " , Flores says. " They finally did a head CT scan and realized he had had a major bleed into his brain. He ended up being paralyzed and he got a 71 million dollars settlement award from the hospital. " Doctor Flores , a pro?fessor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, says that despite examples like that, the majority of US health-care facilities still do not have trained interpreters on sight, but he acknowledges that increas?ing numbers of health care workers are bilingual and that more clinics and hospitals do make sure their staff and patients understand each other. ( Q10)