There is widespread consensus among scholars that second language acquisition（MB1SLA)emerg

In the United States, there's a widespread belief that statistics don't lie. Perhaps that's why surveys are such an important part of American life. For many years, politicians, businesspeople, and scholars have used surveys to find out more about that mysterious and complicated creature, the human being.

American newspapers and magazines have been taking public opinion polls since the 1800s. In the 1930s, poll experts such as Elmo Poper and George Gallup began using scientific methods to select and interview participants in political surveys. Since the 1940s, American businesspeople have been developing, naming, packaging, and promoting products with the help of surveys. And also since the 1940s,surveys have been a major research tool among scholars in the social sciences. Psychologists and sociologists have asked people about everything from their religious beliefs to their sexual behavior. The mass media have frequently reported the results of these surveys, and the American public has always been quite interested in the responses.

However, the most complete and most important survey for Americans is the national census. A census is the official count of the number of people living in a city, state, or country. The idea of a census has existed for more than two thousand years. In ancient Rome, the government counted its citizens for purposes of taxation and military service. But the first modern census began here in the United States in 1790. In that year, the population of the new nation was 3 929 214. Since 1790, the American government has taken a census every ten years, and the population has been growing steadily every decade. The 1980 census reported a population of 226 504 825.

In addition to statistics on the total population, the 1980 census has given us a great deal of information about recent changes in American life. One of the many important changes concerns where people live. Americans are still a mainly urban people with about 75 percent of the population living in or near large cities. But, since 1970, the small communities have been gaining population at a faster rate then the cities or suburbs. American have been moving hack to the small towns and the rural areas. This is a dramatic change from the trend in preceding decades. Americans have always done a great deal of moving from one part of the country to enother, but, in recent years, the moves have been mostly to the South and West. States in the "Sun Belt" have been gaining population, and states in the Northeast and the Midwest have been losing population.

Marriage and family life have been changing, too. Americans have been marrying later, having fewer children, getting more divorces, and living more often as singles or as unmarried couples. The actual number of married couples has risen in recent years, but the percentage of married people has declined. Similarly, the number of actual births has gone up, but the size of the average family has gone down. The average young woman of today plans to have only two children.

Along with many other surveys, the national census gives Americans a statistical picture of a changing society. It allows the government and the people to see what's happening and to adjust to the new picture.

The main idea of the passage is that ______.

A．the census gives an accurate count of the number of people in the United States

B．the United States government has taken a census every ten years

C．the census gives a lot of information about population and changes in American life and society

D．according to the latest census, the average American is happier than ever before

The scholars who put forward interaction hypothesis hold ( ) .

A.language acquisition is a process of “stimulus- response”

B.humans are predisposed to acquire a language

C.human?s linguistic potentiality must be combined with the environment.

D.human?s linguistic environment can be ignored as long as humans have language acquisition device.

Scholars often seem to operate on the assumption that any analysis with a rosy outlook simply does not adequately understand the matter at hand. Ecotourism researchers have not been derelict in this regard, as the literature review earlier showed. All the researchers who have looked at Capirona's project, however, have been impressed by its grassroots nature and are optimistic about its potential as eco-development (Colvin 1994; Wesche 1993; Silver 1992).

All of these researchers, however, visited the community in its early years of operation. As mentioned previously, recent, non-scholarly reports are less positive. Thus there remains some doubt as to the long-term viability of even such a model of indigenous ecotourism development as Capirona. This study originally proposed to study Capimna's project, but that community was weary of such research visits and refused a request to carry out the study there. Palo Blanco, though completing only its first year of ecotourism developmemt was chosen as an alternate site. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the prospects for ecotourism in Rio Blanco appear, as they did in Capirona quite bright.

Ecotourism development efforts differ from mainstream development efforts in that, aside from start-up loans, much or all of the continuing financial support comes from tourists rather than from governments or development agencies. As a result, the two main players many ecotourism endeavor—the hosts and the guests—are driven by differing motivations. The local population hopes to improve its own lot by taking advantage of the curiosity, disposable income, and in some cases, perhaps, good intentions of ecotourists. The tourists want to "explore the natural wonders of the world," whether that be a wildebeest migration across the Serengeti or the march of leaf-cutter ants across the jungle floor (Ryan and Grasse 1991: 166).

In contrast to mass tourism, ecotourism permits tourists to seek educational self-fulfillment in the form. of travel, and tries to transform. that activity into something that benefits the greater good—specifically, to fund environmental preservation, rural development, and even cultural survival. However, in order to satisfy everyone—tourists, environmentalists, tour operators and the local hosts—ecotourism must bring into aliganment a variety of contradictory purposes. Ecotourism promotes feelings among tourists that they are part of the solution when, in fact, the very act of flying a thousand miles or more to their destination consumes resources and pollutes the enviroment (cf. Somerville 1994). The beauty of ecotourism is that it can exploit this egotistic motivation; the flaw is that it is forever limited by it.

Even a brief foray into development literature, however, shows that flawed conceptualizations are the rule, not the exception. As development, ecotourism may be no more inchoate than any other approach, and in some ways it is as progressive as any theory. For example, ecotourism twin development goals—conserving the environment and benefiting local peoples—are increasingly seen, both within and outside of tourism circles, as interdependent. Without economic development, many argue that environmental conservation is neither ethical nor sustainable (Boo 1990: 1; West and Brechin 1992: 14; Brandon and Wells 1992). Such conservation can be achieved only by providing local people with alternative income sources which do not threaten to deplete the plants and amamis within the protected zone (Brandon and Wells 1992: 557). Most research on this issue, however, assumes that the protective regulations have been established by the government or another external ageacy. In Rio Blanco, however, the people themselves are already acting to protect their land.

According to the author, scholars

A．see life through rose-colored glasses.

B．should never give favorable reports.

C．are expected to give only favorable response following their research and analysis.

D．seem to believe a favorable result to research missed the point.

Some scholars have commented on the "devastating" effects that the emphasis on English learning has had on the Chinese education system, and called for more in-depth focus on the studying of Chinese-related subjects. What is your opinion? Write a composition of about 200 words on the following topic: Which Is More Important, Chinese Education or English Learning?

Juliet Schor, a leading scholar on the culture of consumerism in the U.S., recently said that we have reached a critical point in our culture: The average American woman now buys more than 52 items of new clothing each year — more than one per week. Of course, women don ’ t need that many new clothes, yet they buy them anyway. 判断题: Juliet Schor thinks that American women now buy more clothes than they need.（）

The procedures followed by scholars studying literature are often unsatisfactory: the control over a cognitive project as a whole is often lost. The literary scholar seems to be collecting data, which is a preliminary operation, without making use of them. Like a diligent ant gathering food it will never eat, the contemporary literary scholar seems intent upon writing footnotes of a book s/he will never try to read.

I propose that at the outset of a research project it is necessary to render explicitly the questions the scholar will try to answer, what methods will be used and the reason why s/he thinks that it may be worthwhile answering such questions. More over, the work of the people concerned with the study of literature seems casual. For instance, much research is devoted to one author, often on the occasion of an anniversary. Now there is no reason to think that our observations will be more valid, urgent, appropriate, useful, or interesting if the author of the texts we are concerned with was born or died or the texts were written fifty, one hundred, or two hundred years ago. This seems to be celebration and not research producing knowledge. It does not seem to make any sense to determine one's research program by looking at the calendar. The widespread habit of limiting the scope of a research project to a single author often leads to a confined understanding of the author and the texts, which, in turn, offers marginal results. The average literary scholar considers these results satisfactory. But for what purpose are they satisfactory?

Often the research strategies and methods of the literary scholar are repetitive. A new operation that is anologous to previous ones is often considered worthwhile. It is on these premises that many texts concerning literature are produced and accepted. I propose instead that in a concrete project that tries to produce knowledge, any statement needs verification. But there is a point where it is unnecessary to repeat the same operation on new data, because the result has already been established: rather than additional confirmation of what is already known, it is the exploration of what is still unknown that deserves priority. Contemporary literary research seems to be based on habits that originated in the past and that bear little resemblance to research projects as they are intended now in other fields. If our main aim were the proposal of some objects as cultural models, then it would be useful to our purpose to try to attract our society's attention toward these objects and the persons who produced them. It would be reasonable to perform. our actions on the occasion of anniversaries, because we would not be doing research, but celebration and propaganda. Celebration aims at confirming certitudes and strengthening bonds of solidarity among the participants. It does not produce knowledge, but it confirms what is already known. Legitimating by means of the power of words has been for many centuries the main job of the man of letters.

In the view of the writer, scholars studying literature need to ______.

A．research more diligently.

B．establish a clear purpose before commencing research.

C．decrease the number of footnotes.

D．avoid writing special works to celebrate anniversaries.

Scholars holding contrastive linguistic points of view believe that foreign language learning is the same as native language acquisition.

__________

[A] German-born British scholar Max Müller concluded that the Rig-Veda of ancient India-the oldest preserved body of literature written in an Indo-European language-reflected the earliest stages of an Indo-European mythology. M ller attributed all later myths to misunderstandings that arose from the picturesque terms in which early peoples described natural phenomena.

[B] The myth and ritual theory, as this approach came to be called, was developed most fully by British scholar Jane Ellen Harrison. Using insight gained from the work of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, Harrison argued that all myths have their origin in collective rituals of a society.

[C] Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud held that myths—like dreams—condense the material of experience and represent it in symbols.

[D] This approach can be seen in the work of British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor. In Primitive Culture (1871), Tylor organized the religious and philosophical development of humanity into separate and distinct evolutionary stages.

[E] The studies made in this period were consolidated in the work of German scholar Christian Gottolob Heyne, who was the first scholar to use the Latin term myths (instead of fibula, meaning “fable”) to refer to the tales of heroes and gods.

[F] German scholar Karl Otfried M ller followed this line of inquiry in his Prolegomena to a Scientific Mythology, 1825).

__________

[A] German-born British scholar Max Müller concluded that the Rig-Veda of ancient India-the oldest preserved body of literature written in an Indo-European language-reflected the earliest stages of an Indo-European mythology. M ller attributed all later myths to misunderstandings that arose from the picturesque terms in which early peoples described natural phenomena.

[B] The myth and ritual theory, as this approach came to be called, was developed most fully by British scholar Jane Ellen Harrison. Using insight gained from the work of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, Harrison argued that all myths have their origin in collective rituals of a society.

[C] Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud held that myths—like dreams—condense the material of experience and represent it in symbols.

[D] This approach can be seen in the work of British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor. In Primitive Culture (1871), Tylor organized the religious and philosophical development of humanity into separate and distinct evolutionary stages.

[E] The studies made in this period were consolidated in the work of German scholar Christian Gottolob Heyne, who was the first scholar to use the Latin term myths (instead of fibula, meaning “fable”) to refer to the tales of heroes and gods.

[F] German scholar Karl Otfried M ller followed this line of inquiry in his Prolegomena to a Scientific Mythology, 1825).

The languages spoken by early Europeans are still shrouded in mystery. There is no

linguistic continuity between the languages of Old Europe (a term sometimes used for

Europe between 7000 and 3000 B.C.) and the languages of the modem world, and we

cannot yet translate the Old European script, Scholars have deciphered other ancient

5 languages, such as Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian, which used the cuneiform

script, because of the fortuitous discovery of bilingual inscriptions, When cuneiform

tablets were first discovered in the eighteenth century, scholars could not decipher them.

Then inscriptions found in baa at the end of the eighteenth century provided a link: these

inscriptions were written in cuneiform. and in two other ancient languages, Old Persian

10 and New Elamite--languages that had already been deciphered. It took several decades,

but scholars eventually translated the ancient cuneiform. script. via the more familiar

Old Persian language:

Similarly, the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians remained a mystery until French

troops unearthed the famous Rosetta stone in the late eighteenth century. The stone carried

15 the same message written in ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Egyptian hieratic,

a simplified form. of hieroglyphs. The Rosetta stone thwarted scholars' efforts for several

decades until the early nineteenth century when several key hieroglyphic phrases were

decoded using the Greek inscriptions. Unfortunately, we have no Old European Rosetta

stone to chart correspondences between Old European script. and the languages that

20 replaced it.

Tim incursions of Indo-European tribes into Old Europe from the late fifth to the

early third millennia B.C. caused a linguistic and cultural discontinuity. These incursions

disrupted the Old European sedentary farming lifestyle. that had existed for 3,000 years

As the Indo-Europeans encroached on Old Europe from the east, the continent underwent

25 upheavals. These severely affected the Balkans, where the Old European cultures

abundantly employed script. The Old European way of life deteriorated rapidly, although

pockets of Old European culture remained for several millennia, ~ new peoples spoke

completely different languages belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family. The

Old European language or languages, and the script. used to write them, declined and

eventually vanished.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．Reasons for the failure to understand the written records of Old European culture

B．Influences on the development of Old European script

C．Similarities between Old European script. and other ancient writing systems

D．Events leading to the discovery of Old European script