[单项选择]

Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on earth will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works.
Language defines a culture. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea rarely translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, hut no written forms. With the disappearance, an entire culture is lost.
Much of what humans know about nature is expressed only in oral languages. Indigenous (土著) groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have deep insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems (生态环境). Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding.
Studying various languages also increases our understanding o
A. History and wealth of human beings.
B. Much of the knowledge of human beings.
C. The way the human brain works.
D. The natural environment of the world.

[单项选择]

Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on earth will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works.
Language defines a culture. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea rarely translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, hut no written forms. With the disappearance, an entire culture is lost.
Much of what humans know about nature is expressed only in oral languages. Indigenous (土著) groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have deep insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems (生态环境). Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding.
Studying various languages also increases our understanding o
A. translate words from one language into another language
B. say exactly the same thing about culture in two languages
C. pass the rich oral culture from one generation to the next
D. understand the written forms of old stories, songs, and histories

[单项选择]Every year more than half a million American kids have drainage(排泄) tubes surgically implanted in their ears to combat persistent infections. The procedure, known as tympanostomy, may not be as (62) as the tonsillectomy was in the 1940s, but it now (63) as the nation’s leading childhood (64) and a new study suggests it’s being vastly overused. In (65) more than 6,000 scheduled ear tube operations, a team of experts (66) by Harvard pediatrician Lawrence Kleinman found that fewer than half were clearly justified. "Each year", the researchers write in the current Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "several hundred thousand children in the United States may be (67) tympanostomy tubes that offer them no demonstrated (68) ...and may place them at increased (69) ."
Tube placement isn’t a (70) risky procedure, but it costs $1,000 to $1,500 and sometimes scars the eardrum, causing a partial loss of (71)