2015年12月第1套 长对话 第1题

Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. What does the man say about Chinese?
A ) It is used by more people than English.
B ) It is more difficult to learn than English.
C ) It will be as commonly used as English.
D ) It will eventually become a world language.
10. What made English a widely used language?
A ) Its popularity with the common people.
B ) The effect of the Industrial Revolution.
C ) The influence of the British Empire.
D ) Its loan words from many languages.
11. What is said to be special about English vocabulary?
A ) It has a growing number of newly coined words.
B ) It includes a lot of words from other languages.
C ) It is the largest among all languages in the world.
D ) It can be easily picked up by overseas travellers.

听力文本：

W: Hi Leo, why do you say English would become the world language?
M: Well, for one thing, it's so commonly used. The only language that is used by more people is Chinese.
W: Why is English spoken by so many people?
M: It's spoken in many countries of the world because of the British Empire. And now of course there is the influence of America as well.
W: Many students find English a difficult language to learn.
M: Oh, all languages are difficult to learn. But English does have two great advantages.
W: What are they?
M: Well, first of all, it has a very international vocabulary. It has many German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian words in it, so speakers of those languages will find many familiar words in English. In fact, English has words from many other languages as well.
W: Why is that?
M: Well, partly because English speakers have travelled a lot, they bring back words with them. So English really does have an international vocabulary.
W: And what is the other advantage of English?
M: It's that English grammar is really quite easy. For example, it doesn't have dozens of different endings for its nouns, adjectives and verbs, not like Latin, Russian and German for example.
W: Why is that?
M: Well, it's quite interesting actually. It's because of the French. When the French ruled England, French was the official language, and only the common people spoke English. They tried to make their language as simple as possible. So they made the grammar easier.

参考答案：

9-11 A C B