2014江苏省溧水县高考英语阅读理解巩固训练

(2013·郑州市二模，A)

“Croeso I Gymru！” If you don't know what this means, read on to find out more.

When you cross over the border from England into Wales, you don't have to show

your passport but you do notice a difference immediately. All the road markings and

signs are shown in two languages—English and Welsh (威尔士语). Not all visitors to

Britain know that other languages are spoken here. There's the Gaelic (盖尔语)

language in Scotland and a few people speak Cornish (康沃尔语) in the southwest of

England, but the most widely spoken language in the UK besides English is Welsh.

Perhaps the first Welsh word you'll see on the road into Wales is ARAF. There's

a helpful English translation next to it—SLOW. As you can see, Welsh looks quite

different from English. It sounds very different, too. Welsh looks and sounds so

different from English because it's a Celtic language. Celtic cultures still exist

around the edges of the UK—in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and also in parts of France. For hundreds of years, almost everyone in Wales spoke Welsh, but nowadays

there are about 600 thousand Welsh speakers—around 20% of the population. So is Welsh dying out? Not at all! Nowadays, all school children in Wales study

Welsh and many choose to go to an all Welshspeaking school. You can get public

information in Welsh, speak Welsh in court or take a course at university in Welsh.

People surf the Internet in Welsh, keep up with friends on Facebook and write blogs

in Welsh.

By the way，“Croeso I Gymru！” means “Welcome to Wales！” —I hope you'll be

able to visit it one day.

文章大意：本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了威尔士语，包括威尔士语的特点、使用

的人群、发展前景以及与英语的不同。

1．According to the passage, Welsh ________.

A．has developed from Cornish

B．is still widely used in the UK

C．sounds a little similar to English

D．is more widely spoken than before

答案：B 细节理解题。根据文章第二段最后一句中的“but the most widely spoken

language in the UK besides English is Welsh”可知，威尔士语在英国应用比较广泛。故

答案选B。

2．How does the author feel about the future of Welsh?