リスニング対策②：青山学院大（英米文A方式）

02/04/202402/05/2024

青山学院大　英米文A方式リスニング問題

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1. About (　　 ) languages are in great threat of disappearing.

①6,000 　　②1,000　　 ③3,000　　 ④500

2. In the past 500 years, 1.3 per cent of ( 　　) have died out.

①languages　　②birds　　 ③mammals 　　④lions

3. Languages in the world have an average size of ( 　　) speakers.

①300 　　②ten million 　　③one million 　　④6,000

4. The number of languages disappearing each year is now ( 　　).

①1 or 2　　 ②10　　 ③2,000 　　④many thousands

5. Only one person speaks the language Klamath in ( 　　).

①Oregon 　　②Sweden 　　③Camero on 　　④Norway

6. One reason the Paulohi language lost many speakers is because of (　　 ).

①migration 　　②the search for oil　　 ③disease 　　④an earthquake

7. Up until the 1970s, Aborigines in Australia were (　　 ) to speak their own languages.

①educated 　　②encouraged 　　③forbidden　　 ④perceived

8. Today about (　　 ) Aboriginal languages are commonly spoken in Australia.

①600 　　②400　　 ③25　　 ④10

9. An industry that benefits from the use of only one language is the ( 　　) industry.

①education 　　②oil　　 ③airline 　　④religion

10. When a language is lost many (　　 ) may also disappear.

①ways of life 　　②plants　　 ③animals　　 ④inventions

スクリプト

There are around 6,000 living languages in the world – and about half of those are under serious threat. In every part of the world, languages are in danger. In fact, one scientist has said that languages are facing a bigger risk of disappearing than birds and mammals. Professor Steve Sutherland of the University of East Anglia calculated that the past 500 years have seen 4.5 per cent of languages die out – compared with 1.3 per cent of birds, and 1.9 percent of mammals, such as tigers.
Some 300 languages have more than a million speakers. They’re the healthy ones – Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish are the most widely spoken. Ten major languages are the mother tongues of almost half the world’s population. But the average size for languages in the world is just 6,000 – so half the languages in the world are spoken by that number or fewer.
Languages, like so many other forms of human expression, come and go, and thousands have done exactly that without leaving any trace of ever having existed. Only a very few-Greek, Hebrew, Latin among them-have lasted more than 2,000 years. But it seems that the pace of their disappearance is becoming ever quicker. UNESCO claims that the rate of language disappearance has now reached ten every year.
The Ethnologue, a database of all the languages spoken in the world, claims that 417 languages are spoken by so few people that they are in the final stages of disappearing completely. Spare a thought for the one living speaker of Luo in Cameroon, the single remaining speaker of Klamath in Oregon, the handful of people that speak the Saami Pite language in Sweden and Norway.
Where once there were many languages in small isolated areas, there are now very few that are not in regular contact with the rest of the world. Speaking an internationally recognised language is a clear advantage for people who want to make the most of the opportunities contact brings. Eventually, people may not realise their children are not learning their native tongue.
Languages may also be lost through migration, as people move from small rural communities to urban centres, or when environments are destroyed by the search for oil or timber. Natural disasters can also destroy populations, and along with them, their language – like the speakers of the Paulohi language in Maluku, Indonesia, of whom all but 50 were killed by an earthquake and tidal wave.
Governments also have a case to answer for the danger that many languages face. The perceived need to establish ‘official languages,’ in which a country would educate its children, conduct its political affairs and carry out its business, had a disastrous effect on many small languages. Up until the l970s, Aborigines in Australia were forbidden to speak in their own languages – which once numbered more than 400. Now, according to the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, only about 25 Aboriginal languages are still commonly spoken.
What is lost if a language is lost? There are some who argue that the disappearance of languages is merely a symptom of the gradual evolution of our species, where universal communication is prized. Obviously there could be great benefits if everyone in the world spoke the same language – some industries already reflect this, with English a must for pilots and air traffic controllers. But it’s clear that there is far more at stake than mere convenience. As languages are lost, whole ways of life and sets of knowledge may be lost along with them. Complex religious and social traditions disappear, oral histories die through lack of telling. Information about plants, animals and environments gathered through generations may never be passed on. And the richness of human invention, our unique gift of talking about what we see around us, would be much the poorer.