Is it possible that the people of the world today could agree upon a single international language that everyone would be able to speak and understand?

　　In the United Nations there are five official languages-English, Chinese, Russian, French and Spanish. How about making one of them into an international language? English has been worked on for this purpose. A basic list of 850 English words named Basic English was made. These are the verbs in the entire (整个的)list:"come, go, give, keep, let, do, put, make, say, be, seem, may, will, have, send". Writing in Basic English may require you to use a greater number of words-as in having to say "It came to my ears" instead of "I heard"-but you can still say anything you want to with just 850 different words and a few suffixes (后缀)and prefixes (前缀). This is a much smaller number of words to have to be remembered than the ordinary number offered to the students of a foreign language.

　　But people have always had a need to do more than simply "tell it as it is". Language is for reporting not only one's work. For this, a language needs idioms, needs all kinds of grammar and style (文体)that show its history and development just as a person needs eyebrows (眉毛). Is there some special reason why our lips should be a different colour from the rest of our face? Perhaps not, but this is how people-real people-are. For communication between people, languages of all kinds will remain to reflect (反映)the growth and soul of the societies that speak them.

1If we write a composition in Basic English, it will be 　　　.

A. longer than usual

B. shorter than usual

C. hard for us to express what we want to do

D. able to express ourselves in different styles

答案A

解析推理判断题。由第二段第六句可知, 想表达"I heard"需要用"It came to my ears"来代替, 这表明用Basic English写出来的作文应该比通常的情况要长。

2Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. Basic English is easier for students to learn.

B. Languages can reflect the growth of the mankind.

C. Grammar and idioms are still necessary for us.

D. Basic English will take the place of other languages.

答案D

解析细节理解题。由第二段最后一句可知A项的叙述是正确的;由第三段可知B项和C项的叙述正确。只有D项的内容没有被提到。

3We can learn from the text that 　　　.

A. the words used in Basic English are strictly limited to 850 words

B. Basic English is not a natural development of the English language

C. Basic English can be used to express our thoughts easily

D. Basic English seems not so easy to learn

答案B

解析推理判断题。由第二段第四句可知Basic English并非英语语言自然发展的产物。

4In the author's opinion, different societies' languages are used to 　　　.