Name
READING
Mark
Read the text and answer the questions that follow.
CHINESE FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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II
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1
You may be learning English, but will your children? The number of people who speak English as their
native language is declining, while the number of native Chinese speakers is growing. By the year 2050,
experts estimate that more young people will speak Chinese as their first language than any other. They
also say that Hindi-Urdu (spoken in India), Arabic and Spanish will also be even more widely spoken.
As the Chinese economy grows, many people in the West believe that it is important to learn Chinese. As
a result, approximately 100 schools in Britain are now offering lessons in Mandarin Chinese to their
pupils. One school, Brighton College, has even made the language compulsory, in addition to Spanish,
French and Latin.
Chinese is a difficult language to learn – especially for those who are used to Western languages. The
grammar is relatively simple; for example, the verbs do not have tenses and there is no difference between
singular and plural. But other differences between Chinese and Western languages can cause difficulties.
In spoken Mandarin, words have got four tones plus half tones, and the meaning of each word depends on
the tone used. Westerners generally use the fourth tone, even when it is incorrect, and so they are often
misunderstood.
Written Mandarin uses about 60,000 individual characters instead of an alphabet, making it difficult for
Westerners to become literate. In order to make learning Mandarin easier, a system known as Pinyin is
often used. This transliterates Mandarin into Roman letters, allowing students to read the Mandarin
characters in their own phonetic language. It is very beneficial, but eventually most learners start to use
real characters. Fortunately, people only need to know about 5,000 characters for most purposes.
Today, more people in Britain are studying Chinese than ever before. Many children enjoy memorising
the characters and find that the tonal pronunciation is like singing. Present-day business executives realise
that speaking Chinese, along with English, will be necessary to their success in the future. As they say in
Pinyin, “hao (third tone), yun (fourth tone)” – Good luck!
Are the following statements true (T) or false
(F)? Find evidence in the text to support your
answers. (2 points each = 6 points)
...... 1. Students at Brighton College must study French.
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...... 2. Children often like learning spoken Chinese.
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...... 3. Successful business executives will one day
learn Chinese instead of English.
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2
Answer the question. (4 points)
What is causing Westerners to want to learn Chinese?
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3
Choose the best answer. (3 points each = 9 points)
1. In 2050, the most common native language of young
people will be …
a. Hindi-Urdu.
b. Chinese.
c. English.
2. When learning Chinese, speakers of Western
languages find it easiest to …
a. read the characters.
b. pronounce the tones.
c. understand the grammar.
3. Pinyin …
a. is a Mandarin Chinese character.
b. allows Chinese to be written in Roman letters.
c. helps Westerners to read 5,000 Chinese characters.
4
Find words or expressions in the text that mean:
(1 point each = 6 points)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
becoming less (paragraph I)
gets bigger (paragraph II)
think (paragraph II)
definition (paragraph III)
helpful (paragraph IV)
uses (paragraph IV)
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