Unit 2　Language

　　当今社会，一个人会讲两种、三种语言已不再是什么稀奇的事。但你有没有思考过这样一个问题：世界上到底有多少种语言？读完下面的短文，会让你大吃一惊。

　　When people are asked how many languages they think there are in the world, the answers vary quite a bit.One random sampling of New Yorkers, for instance, resulted in answers like "probably several hundred"．However we choose to count them，though，this is not close.When we look at reference works, we find estimates that have escalated (上升) over time.The 1911(11th)edition of the Encyclopedia (百科全书) Britannica，for example, implies a figure somewhere around 1,000, a number that climbs steadily over the course of the twentieth century.

　　That is not due to any increase in the number of languages, but rather to our increased understanding of how many languages are actually spoken in areas that had previously been under described.Much pioneering work in proving the languages of the world has been done by missionary organizations(such as the Summer Institute of Linguistics)with an interest in translating the Christian Bible.As of 1997，at least a portion of the Bible had been translated into 2,197 different languages，still a long way short of full coverage.The most extensive catalog (目录) of the world's languages，generally taken to be as authoritative (权威的) as any, is that of the Ethnology (人类学) organization, whose detailed classified list currently includes 6,809 distinct languages.