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400 words/
Unit 7-Language -
1 All over the world, there are hundreds of languages that will soon disappear, some of
them spoken only by a single person. "Languages are now dying at a faster rate than ever
before," said David Harrison, a professor of language studies. Harrison has traveled the
world to interview the last speakers of languages that are in danger of disappearing.
5 2 Bolivia* has a far greater variety of languages than all the countries of Europe combined.
but they are increasingly threatened by dominant languages such as Spanish. In Bolivia,
Harrison met with people who have used certain plants as medicine since the time of the Inca
Empire*. Besides a common local language, they also maintain a secret language to name
thousands of plants used as medicines, some unknown to science.
10 3
(1) When a language is lost, centuries of human thinking about such things as animals and
plants may be lost with it. Eighty percent of existing species have not yet been discovered
by science. However, (2) this does not mean that they are unknown to humans, because
the people who live close to them know those species (3)intimately. They often have more
detailed ways of classifying them than science does.
15 4
In Micronesia*, there are a handful of people who can sail across thousands of kilometers
of ocean without any modern instruments of navigation. Their languages have a special set of
terms for these skills. If their languages are lost, (4)their navigational skills will be lost, too.
5 Children are often the ones who decide to abandon a native tongue. "(5)It's actually
the children, not the parents, who have the power to make the decision that will affect the
20 community and the future of their language," Harrison said. He was encouraged by an
experience he had in Australia, when he watched a woman in her eighties teaching her
language to schoolchildren. She was one of only three speakers of an aboriginal* language.
The lesson was about plants which are used as medicine in aboriginal culture.
6 "The children had chosen to learn the language - no one forced them. When we
25 asked why they were learning it, they said, 'This is a dying language. We need to learn it.'
The woman waved the plants in front of the children and said something in her language
about them, which they repeated. It was an amazing thing to watch her communicate that
knowledge to the children. That inspired us greatly."
quor
左の英文を読み、下の各問いに答えなさい。
ごとの
SPONS
1.
下線部 (1) を日本語に直しなさい。 ただし, it が何を指すのかわかるようにすること。
下線部 (3) の意味として最も適切なものを選びなさい。
[3.
with a deep knowledge
3 in one's private life
2. 下線部 (2) を日本語に直しなさい。 ただし, this が何を指すのかわかるようにすること｡
5. 下線部 (5) を日本語に直しなさい。
3050
in a friendly manner
4 in secret
4. 下線部 (4) はどのような技術か, 日本語で説明しなさい。
2x030
D
6. 本文の内容に合うものを2つ選びなさい。
Harrison has traveled even in dangerous places to interview the last speakers of
disappearing languages.
The total number of languages in Bolivia alone is larger than that of all the languages
used in Europe.
From a scientific point of view, the medical plants used in Bolivia have little value.
An old woman in Australia was teaching her language to children, but they did not
want to learn it.
The old woman was teaching not only her language, but also her knowledge about
medical plants in her aboriginal culture.
istory
Culture
anguage
ociety
Health
Science
Nature
