Unit 2 Section Ⅰ Starting out & Understanding ideas-【精讲精练】2023-2024学年高中英语必修第一册外研版（课时作业）

Ⅰ.阅读理解

A

English has surely become the global language.Whenever we turn on the news to find out what's happening in South Asia, or Africa, or anywhere, people are being interviewed and telling us about it in English.

If people look at the facts about the amazing reach of the English language, many would be surprised.English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi­official language.English is the working language of many international institutes (研究所) as well as of most international research scientists.It is also the language that Indian parents and black parents wish their children to learn.It is believed that over one billion people worldwide are now learning English.

One of the most important causes of the spread of English around the world is that Europeans are willing to accept it as their language.English is spreading from northern Europe to the south and is now the second language in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark.If one visits any of them, it would seem that almost everyone there can talk in English.

Recently, a report said that at the beginning of 2001, English was the most widely known foreign language with 43% of Europeans saying they spoke it.The report also said that with over 89% of the population speaking English, Sweden now has the highest percentage of English speakers.What's more, English is the language rated as most useful to know, and over 77% of Europeans who do not speak English as their first language consider it useful.

[语篇解读]　本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了英语在世界上的广泛使用情况。

1．What does the writer mainly want to tell us?

A．The reason why so many people speak English around the world.

B．English has become a language spoken all over the world.

C．The development of English in Europe.

D．Something about the English­speaking countries.

解析　主旨大意题。根据本文的第一句“English has surely become the global language.”以及下文的具体描述可知，作者主要想告诉我们，英语是目前世界上的通用语言。

答案　B

2．According to the passage, what has played an important role in spreading English around the world?

A．Governments have asked their people to learn it in school.

B．English is the most beautiful language in the world.

C．Europeans are willing to accept English as their language.

D．People have to use English in their work.

解析　细节理解题。根据第三段中的“One of the most important causes of the spread...to accept it as their language.”可知，欧洲人愿意接受英语作为他们的语言。

答案　C

3．What does the underlined word “rated” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Stood.　　　　 B．Agreed.

C．Considered.  D．Argued.

解析　词义猜测题。根据语境以及最后一句的“consider it useful”可知，rated在这里意为“认为；看作”。

答案　C

4．What can we learn from the passage?

A．Black parents don't want their children to learn English.

B．English is used in over 90 countries as an official language.

C．Not all international research scientists speak English at work.

D．English has become the most important language in Sweden.

解析　细节理解题。根据第二段中的“English is the working language...as well as of most international research scientists.”可知，并不是所有的国际研究科学人员工作时都使用英语。

答案　C

B

People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are too many factors to take into consideration.Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only makes more sense when learning a second language.

A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language.The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn.Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners.However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet.

Some people seem to learn languages easily, while others find it very difficult.Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each

learner's motivation for learning.If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day­to­day life.

Obviously, British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which uses a similar alphabet to English but has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc)．This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty.However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult.Therefore, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

[语篇解读]　本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍了世界上哪一种语言最难学。

5．What can we infer from the first Paragraph?

A．The question of how hard a language is to learn is only applicable to first language acquisition.

B．The question of how hard a language is to learn is only applicable to second language acquisition.

C．The question of how hard a language is to learn is applicable to both first and second language acquisition.

D．There are too many languages in the world so it's difficult to say which one is the most difficult to learn.

解析　推理判断题。根据第一段内容可知，世界上有太多的语言，所以很难说哪一种语言最难学。

答案　D

6．Which language will a native Portuguese speaker probably find easier to learn?

A．Chinese, because Portuguese use Chinese characters in their own language.

B．Japanese, because it is similar to their own language.

C．Spanish, because it also uses Roman alphabet.

D．Any one but Chinese, because its pronunciation is very difficult.

解析　细节理解题。根据第二段中的“A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish”可知，一个当地的葡萄牙人会发现西班牙语最容易学。