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TEXT H
First read the question
34. In the passage the author expresses his concern about ____.
A. the survival of small languages
B. globalization in the post-Cold War era
C. present-day technological progress
D. ecological imbalance
Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
During the past century, due to a variety of factors, more than 1 000 of the world's languages have disappeared, and it is possible to foresee a time, perhaps 100 years from now, when about half of today's 6 000 languages will either be dead or dying.
This startling rate of linguistic extinction is possible because 96 per cent of the world's languages are now spoken only by 4 per cent of the world's population.
Globalization in the post-Cold War era has witnessed the coming of the information age, which has played an important role in promoting economic co-operation but which has, at the same time, helped facilitate the assimilation of smaller cultural systems into a larger, mostly English-speaking whole.
Internet and other forms of mass media have succeeded in making English the worldwide standard.? In 1998, the Seminar on Technological Progress & Development of the Present-day World was held in China. At the seminar, many participants expressed concern over the potential risks associated with excessive dependency on information technology. These critics claimed a move from "information monopoly" to "information hegemony" could possibly become just another way for the strong to dominate the weak, culturally as well as economically.
In other words, life in a technology-and information-based global society may lead to a new social stratification, in which linguistic assimilation will lead to cultural assimilation and social injustice will abound.
In the 20th century, human society's over-development caused the deterioration of the environment and ecological imbalance. The extinction of myriad biological species aroused deep concern which led people to an understanding of the special importance of protecting rare animals and plants on the brink of extinction.
Now we face the question, is the maintenance of cultural and linguistic diversity as important as the preservation of pandas and Chinese white-flag dolphins
Given the open society in which we live, or wish to live, this question becomes complicated. A balance must be struck between promoting international exchanges on the one hand, and taking measures to protect "small" languages on the other hand.
Most widely used languages, such as the six working languages-including English and Chiese-used in the United Nations, have little to fear and need no special protection.
But for other, more marginal languages some measures should be taken. Professionals should be trained to study and use them in order to keep them alive. Effective measures such as bilingual or multilingual education should also be implemented to protect them from extinction.
To some, 6 000 may seem like an inexhaustible number of languages. To those same people, it may seem irrelevant if one or two of those languages cease to be used.
But what many fail to realize is that language and culture are linked. Without one, the other dies, and so with the death of different languages we have the death of different cultures. The extinction of languages is equal to animal extinction in this respect. The fading away of a language, no matter how small, causes real damage to the "ecological balance" in the field of culture.
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