The Indo-European family of languages is the world’s largest embracing most of the languages of Europe,America,and much of Asia.It includes the two great classical languages of antiquity,Latin and Greek,the Germanic languages such as English,German,Dutch,and Swedish;the Romance languages such as Italian,French,Spanish,and Portuguese;the Celtic languages such as Welsh and Gaelic;the Slavic languages such as Russian,Polish,Czech,and Serbo-Croatian;the Baltic languages,Lithuanian and Latvian;the Iranian languages such as Persian and Pashto;the Indic languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi;and other miscellaneous languages such as Albanian and Armenian.In Europe only Basque,Finnish,Estonian,Hungarian,Turkish,and a few languages of Russia are not of this family,the others have apparently all descended from an original parent tongue.The general consensus is that the original Indo-European civilization developed
somewhere in eastern Europe about 3000 B.C.About 2500 B.C. it broke up;the people left their homeland and migrated in many different directions.Some moved into
Greece,others made their way into Italy,other moved through Central Europe until
they ultimately reached the British Isles.Another division headed northward into Russia,while still another branch crossed Iran and Afghanistan and eventually
reached India.Wherever they settled,the Indo-Europeans appear to have overcome the local inhabitants and imposed their language upon them.One must conclude that
they were a most remarkable people.
The possiblity of so many languages having descended from a common ancestor was
first suggested in 1786,though the similarity of Sanskrit and Italian was noted
as early as the sixteenth century.By 1818 fifty separate languages were established as Indo-European;Albanian was added to the list in 1854 and Armenian in 1875.The total number of Indo-European speakers is about 1,875,000,000 people,approximately half the earth’s total population.
Questions:
1. What is the article mainly concerned?
__________________________________.
2.English is related to Germanic languages in the same way as Persian is related to __________________________________.
3. In Europe all languages have apparently descended from an original parent
tongue except __________________________________.
4. When and where is the original Indo-European civilization believed to have developed?
__________________________________.
5. How many separate languages were established as Indo-European in 1875?
__________________________________.
答案部分
短文大意
本文主要介绍了印欧语系的相关知识。印欧语系是世界上最大的语系，囊括了欧洲，美洲和亚洲的大部分语种。它包括两大古典语言，即拉丁语和希腊语，以及日尔曼语系，凯尔特语系等等。原始印欧语文化在公元前东欧发展起来。大约在公元前2500年，这种文化瓦解，人们向四处迁移。无论印欧人迁移到哪里，他们都能战胜当地居民，并将自己的语言强加给他们。到1818年，50个独立的语种被确定为印欧语。现在说印欧语的人数已达到18亿7千5百万，几乎是地球人口的一半。
1.答案：It’s about Indo-European languages.
【详细解答】此题提问文章主要讨论的话题，通读全文后，不难得出答案。
2.答案：The Iranian languages.
【详细解答】此题在第一段中便可找到答案。
3.答案：Basque,Finnish,Estonian,Hungarian,Turkish,and a few languages of Russia.
【详细解答】此题在第一段的结尾可找到答案。
4.答案：Somewhere in eastern Europe about 3000 B.C.
【详细解答】此题在第二段开头便可找到答案。
5.答案：Fiftytwo.
【详细解答】此题可根据第三段内容，经过简单的推算便可得出答案。
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