情景英语口语100主题 057languages语言

057 languages
Words
Reading writing speaking listening pronouncing spelling alphabet
Character official second/third bilingual native tongue widely spoken
Accent dialect slang¹ formal informal scientific translation interpretation²
Linguistics³ Anglophone Germanic indo-european basic proficient⁴ fluent native speaker
Phrases
Learn a language
Speak fluently
Write characters
Translation a document
Have an accent
Speak a dialect
Use slang
In everyday use

Beginner
A: which language do you speak?
B; well, I studied French at school, but I’ve forgotten most of it. I learnt some Russian while I was studying there and now I study Spanish in evening classes. Do you speak Japanese at home with your parents?
A; yes, I do. I’m learning Chinese now on the internet.
B; how do you find studying a language on the internet?
A: it’s not easy, particularly with listening and speaking, because sometimes the connection isn’t too good.
B; I bet you find the character difficult to write!
A: actually, many of the characters are the same or very similar in both Chinese and Japanese, so they’re easy for me.
B; so , you can read and write much better than you speak and understand other speakers, right?
A; yes. How are the Spanish classes going?
B; in a way, it’s similar to your experience of learning Chinese. Some Spanish words are very similar to English ones. But I need to practise listening to native speakers and saying the words myself.

Intermediate⁵
A; what are you reading?
B: it’s an article about language. It talks about the idea of having a single global language.
A: it seems that English already is the main global language. Does the article suggest that there should be an artificial language like Esperanto as the world language.
B: actually, it suggest English. The main argument is that English is already being studied as a second language in most countries-china, India, mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and japan – so beginning again with a language like Esperanto would be wasteful⁶. The second argument is that English is used in modern technology far more that any other language. Most emails are sent in English and the vast majority of website use English.
A: does the article say anything about other language? How will they survive in an English-speaking world?
B: the article points out that many languages have been lost and will be lost, but others will continue to be used for generation, even if English continues to be the dominant⁷ language.
A; right. All the people who speak Chinese. Hindi, French and Spanish aren’t suddenly going to stop using those languages.
B; exactly. The article suggests that those languages will be used, but that they will only rarely be used in international communication between non-native speaker.
A; in that case, I shall continue to learning a few basic phrases in other languages.

1 slang   

n.俚语，行话；vt.使用俚语，辱骂；vi.辱骂

参考例句：

• The phrase is labelled as slang in the dictionary.这个短语在这本字典里被注为俚语。
• Slang often goes in and out of fashion quickly.俚语往往很快风行起来又很快不再风行了。

2 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

3 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

4 proficient   

adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家

参考例句：

• She is proficient at swimming.她精通游泳。
• I think I'm quite proficient in both written and spoken English.我认为我在英语读写方面相当熟练。

5 intermediate   

adj.中间的，居间的，中级的；n.中间体，媒介物

参考例句：

• This country is now at an intermediate stage of development.这个国家目前正处于发展的中间阶段。
• Gray is intermediate between black and white.灰色介于黑色和白色之间。

6 wasteful   

adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的

参考例句：

• It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
• Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源，任务已经重新分派。

7 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。