There are about 6,000 languages that people are speaking around the world. But 43 percent of these languages are dying out, according to UNESCO(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization，联合国教科文组织).
This has many reasons. One is that some communities of native(本土的) speakers of the languages are gone, Huff Post reported. These people sometimes leave their communities and move to cities or towns. What's more, to get better education and jobs, young people have to focus their attention on learning dominant (占主导地位的) languages rather than their own languages. Dominant languages are like English, French and Chinese.
Once a language dies, it is hard for it to come back to life. Governments across the world are taking actions to prevent this. In New Zealand, the government has said it wants more than 20 percent of the country’s population to be able to speak Maori (毛利语) by 2040. The country plans to provide Maori lessons in all New Zealand schools by 2025, The New York Times reported.
China is also trying to protect its languages. About 130 languages are spoken in China. In 2015, the government started a project to record all the languages spoken in China, Xinhua reported. Universities like Minzu University of China have created more language majors for their students.
【小题1】About ________languages are disappearing around the world.
【小题2】________is not a dominant language.
| A．English | B．Maori | C．French | D．Chinese |
【小题3】The underlined word "
majors" probably means________ in Chinese in this passage.
【小题4】From this passage, we can know that________.
| A．governments pay no attention to protect their own languages |
| B．about 6,000 languages are widely used in China |
| C．New Zealand is going to offer Maori lessons in all its schools |
| D．even if a language disappears, it will certainly come back |
【小题5】The best title of the passage is________.
| A．Language Loss(遗失) | B．The Reasons for Language Loss |
| C．Language History | D．The Number of Language Loss |
