High-Q | בחינה דיאגנוסטית

סימולציה מס' 1

אנגלית – פרק שני

Text II (Questions 18-22)

Of the world’s estimated six thousand languages, between 20% and 50% are no longer spoken by children. “These languages are obviously headed for extinction unless there are radical changes,” says Michael Krauss, director of the Alaska Native Language Center. 5 have so many speakers - a million or more - or because they have strong government support. Krauss predicts that between 90% and 95% of languages may be extinct or headed for extinction by the year 2100. Languages are vanishing not only because of cultural assimilation but also because, in some places, those in power force minorities to give up their native speech. 10 Worldwide, languages are disappearing even faster than animal species. In many places, native cultures and their languages are threatened by the same forces that threaten biodiversity, such as deforestation. “A conservative guess, over the next century, is that 20 languages per year will die,” says Krauss. 15 Leanne Hinton of the University of California at Berkeley estimates that at least one language native to California becomes extinct every year. What’s so bad about losing languages? Some linguists argue that the world is less interesting and beautiful with fewer languages. Others lament the loss of knowledge embedded in language - the medicinal uses of plants, for example. The loss of a 20 language also means the loss of a different way of looking at the world. Krauss even argues that linguistic diversity constitutes an ecosystem of sorts, a “logosphere” within which the human species evolved, and on which it depends. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to preserve diversity: bilingualism. “You never need to lose your own language,” says Krauss, “since anybody can learn a second one.” 25 Only about 300 languages are “safe” from extinction, he says, either because they In the United States, California has the greatest diversity of languages. Linguist

Questions

18. According to the text, a good indication that a language is in danger of extinction is that -

(1) it is spoken only by adults (2) it receives no government support (3) it has not been studied by linguists (4) it is spoken by a minority group

19. The word "they" in line 5 refers to -

(1) the 6000 languages spoken by humans around the world (2) any set of 300 or more languages (3) the languages of groups native to Alaska (4) languages which are not threatened with extinction

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