If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably interested in learning English as a second language and think it could be a valuable skill in the future. But these days, fewer college students in the United States are studying foreign languages themselves.
The Modern Language Association (MLA), a group in the US that tracks language studies, found that the number of US college students who were studying a foreign language dropped by 9 percent from 2019 to 2021, Quartz reported.
Most of the drop was due to a decrease (下降) in the number of people learning Spanish, the most popular foreign language among US college students, while many other foreign languages such as German and Italian also lost popularity.
One reason for this could be that studying a foreign language is not seen as practical (实用的). Indeed, the decrease in foreign language studies came just after the global financial crash of 2008.
There are many majors now, such as digital arts, that didn’t exist in earlier years. With more choices than before, students are less likely to study a foreign language.
But failing to master a second language could take away potential job opportunities for US students in the future, experts say.
Luckily, efforts have been made to change the situation. Starting this June, the government in New York City will allow its high school students to choose Spanish as one of the tests they must pass to graduate.
【小题1】Which foreign language was the most popular among US college students?A.Spanish | B.French | C.German | D.Italian |
A.Compared with 2019, there were more US college students studying foreign languages in 2021. |
B.From 2019 to 2021, the number of US college students who were studying Spanish dropped by 9 percent. |
C.There would be fewer job opportunities for US students who don’t master a second language in the future. |
D.The US government will allow high school students to choose Spanish as one of the tests they have to pass for graduation. |
A.very popular among US college students |
B.more practical than studying a foreign language |
C.less practical than studying a foreign language |
D.a new major in US colleges |
A.There is no need to learn a foreign language |
B.It’s necessary to learn a foreign language. |
C.Learning Spanish is more useful than before. |
D.There are fewer US students learning a foreign language. |
For many native English (英语母语) speakers, Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world because of different reasons.
Many people want to study Chinese,
Moreover, because the written forms of Chinese words have nothing to do with the pronunciation, they should be learned separately (独立地). However, because there are more than 67% of the words having two or more characters,
A.and they often spend many years studying. |
B.First, Chinese and English have different writing systems. |
C.they have to learn 3,000 characters (汉字) |
D.you can see why it is one of the most difficult languages to learn. |
E.These characters would make the task very difficult. |
F.First, China and English have nothing different. |
Most English people have three names: a first name, a middle name and a family name. Their family names come last. So they are also called last names. For example, my full name is Kate Kin Hand. Hand is my family name. My parents give me my other two names.
People don’t use their middle names very often. So “John Henry Brown” is always called “John Brown”. People don’t use Mr., Mrs. or Miss before their first names. So, you can say “Mr. Brown”, but you can’t say “Mr. John”. They use Mr., Mrs. or Miss with the family names but not with their first names.
Sometimes people ask me about my name. “Why do your parents call you Kate? Why do they choose that name for you?” The answer is that they don’t call me Kate. They call me Catherine. In England, people always call me Kate for short. That’s because it is short and easy.
【小题1】Most English people have ________ names.A.1 | B.2 | C.3 | D.4 |
A.Kate | B.Kin |
C.Hand | D.Catherine |
A.Miss Mary | B.Miss Joan |
C.Miss Mary Joan | D.Miss Shute |
A.it’s my first name |
B.it’s easy for people to call me by that name |
C.it’s my last name |
D.my parents choose the name for me |
Do you want to speak English fluently (流利地)? Everyone wants to talk with foreigners freely and fluently.
As we all know, a big problem in school is that the students learn English through translation.
By learning English through listening and communicating, you will be able to speak and understand English without thinking.
A.This is why most of the students cannot speak English well and fluently. |
B.Learning English sometimes can be really boring. |
C.And there are so many easy ways to be able to understand and speak English fluently. |
D.You will speak and answer questions quickly without thinking any vocabulary and grammar rule. |
E.You can learn English happily at school. |
F.Students do not speak fluently because they have to think about the meaning in their own language. |
G.However, learning English can be fun. |
组卷网是一个信息分享及获取的平台,不能确保所有知识产权权属清晰,如您发现相关试题侵犯您的合法权益,请联系组卷网