2025届高考英语外刊阅读 （2025.3.25）练习（含答案）

外刊阅读 (3.25)
BABIES COME into the world seeking out comfort, so their first word is often “mama”. It is easy to say and reflects the bond of mother and child. Meanwhile those leaving this world often make a philosophical statement, reveal a long-hidden truth or even utter a witticism. “Either those curtains go or I do,” Oscar Wilde supposedly said on his deathbed.
All this, including Wilde’s quip, is dubious, argues Michael Erard, an American journalist who has written several books about language. In “Bye Bye I Love You” he dismantles many long-held beliefs about utterances at both the beginning and end of life. He finds first and last words to be similar in many ways—such as how they are created by expectant listeners as much as by their speakers.
Sounds like mama and dada or papa recur in many of the world’s words for “mother” and “father”. But about as many parental words lack these common sounds; in some languages the word for “mother” features rare consonants that children master only later. “Mama” is what Mr Erard calls a “cultural first word”, fussed over by those who have learned to look out for it or even elicit it from little ones.
Things are very different elsewhere. Among the Beng people of Ivory Coast, a baby is not supposed to utter his first word too precociously. To do so is a bad omen, involving a “cosmic rebalancing”, and a grandparent might die in compensation. Among speakers of Tayap in Papua New Guinea babies are expected to be defiant; people listen out for “oki” and “aiata”, meaning “I’m getting out of here” and “stop it”. A similar belief holds among Samoans, for whom “tae” is expected to be many babies’ first word, short for “ai tae” (“eat shit”).
In industrialised societies early linguistic development is big business. Unusual and varied early words are meant to be a sign of a gifted child who will reap the rewards of being brainy later on. Baby books encouraging parents to report on their children’s first words made their appearance in the late 19th century along with an increasingly professional, managerial approach to parenting—child-rearing as optimisation. Rich-world parents are thus keen to elicit speech from their children as early as they can.
Mr Erard is not the first to point out that industrialisation has changed not only childhood, but old age, too. Medical advances in wealthy countries have led to more protracted declines and deaths at older ages; in earlier centuries, violence, accidents and catastrophic illnesses claimed many young, otherwise healthy people.
That has had an effect on last words. Popular culture has conditioned loved ones to expect some final truth or profundity in the last utterance of the dying. But moments of sudden lucidity, with clear, meaningful and memorable last words, are very much the exception in those who die today (and offer reason to be sceptical of many of the famous last words collected in anthologies). By far the most common process by which people die in the modern rich world is a slow breakdown of physical and mental faculties, “neurochemical commotion” that gradually robs people of the ability to say anything at all.
Indeed, in another link between first and last words, Mr Erard argues that dying people lose their verbal faculties in a way resembling the child’s language learning but in reverse. Though language acquisition is well studied, language attrition is not. Mr Erard is elegiac as he describes glances, hand squeezes and gestures, and the sometimes upsetting cries, moans and delirious talk that are often the final communication of the dying. This is why some cultures—many Hindus and Muslims among them—prepare and practise declarations for the moment of death long before it arrives. (Christians once did so, too.)
A book ending with so much death may sound like a hard read. Instead, it is a beautiful and even strangely comforting one, with Mr Erard as a pensive, patient guide. (He is training to be an end-of-life doula.) The end must come; unrealistic expectations about final messages need not.
语篇分析
文章结构为:
段落大意：
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1. What is the main idea of the passage
A. It explores the similarities and differences between babies' first words and dying people's last words.
B. It mainly introduces Michael Erard's book about language acquisition in babies.
C. It focuses on the influence of industrialization on childhood development.
D. It tells the story of how different cultures view the first words of babies.
2. According to the passage, what can be inferred about “mama” as a baby's first word
A. It is the first word for “mother” in all languages.
B. It is actually a “cultural first word” influenced by adults.
C. Babies around the world always say “mama” first.
D. It is a sign of a gifted child in industrialized societies.
3. Why do some cultures prepare and practise declarations for the moment of death
A. Because they believe in the power of final words.
B. Because dying people usually have clear and profound last words.
C. Because dying people often lose their verbal faculties.
D. Because they want to follow the tradition of Christians.
4. What is the author's attitude towards Michael Erard's book “Bye Bye I Love You”
A. Critical. B. Doubtful. C. Positive. D. Indifferent.
1. What is the main idea of the passage
A. It explores the similarities and differences between babies' first words and dying people's last words.
B. It mainly introduces Michael Erard's book about language acquisition in babies.
C. It focuses on the influence of industrialization on childhood development.
D. It tells the story of how different cultures view the first words of babies.
答案：A。文章整体围绕婴儿的首词和临终者的遗言展开，探讨二者在诸多方面的相似与不同，A选项符合；B选项只提及了书关于婴儿语言习得部分，片面；C选项只强调工业化对童年影响，未涵盖遗言等内容；D选项只涉及不同文化对婴儿首词的看法，不全面。
2. According to the passage, what can be inferred about “mama” as a baby's first word
A. It is the first word for “mother” in all languages.
B. It is actually a “cultural first word” influenced by adults.
C. Babies around the world always say “mama” first.
D. It is a sign of a gifted child in industrialized societies.
答案：B。文中提到“‘Mama’ is what Mr Erard calls a ‘cultural first word’, fussed over by those who have learned to look out for it or even elicit it from little ones”，说明“mama”是受成年人影响的“文化首词”，B正确；A选项“所有语言”过于绝对；C选项“总是”错误；D选项文中未提及“mama”与天才儿童的关系。
3. Why do some cultures prepare and practise declarations for the moment of death
A. Because they believe in the power of final words.
B. Because dying people usually have clear and profound last words.
C. Because dying people often lose their verbal faculties.
D. Because they want to follow the tradition of Christians.
答案：C。从 “dying people lose their verbal faculties...This is why some cultures...prepare and practise declarations for the moment of death long before it arrives”可知，是因为垂死之人常失去语言能力，所以一些文化才提前准备临终宣言，C正确；A选项文中未提及相信临终遗言的力量；B选项与文中临终清醒留遗言少见不符；D选项不是为了遵循基督徒传统。
4. What is the author's attitude towards Michael Erard's book “Bye Bye I Love You”
A. Critical.
B. Doubtful.
C. Positive.
D. Indifferent.
答案：C。根据 “Instead, it is a beautiful and even strangely comforting one, with Mr Erard as a pensive, patient guide”可知，作者认为这本书美好且令人慰藉，对其持积极态度，C正确；A“批判的”、B“怀疑的”、D“冷漠的”均不符。
语篇分析：
文章结构为总分总，先引出婴儿首词和临终者遗言的常见观点，再分述埃拉德对这些观点的质疑及相关研究，最后总结书籍价值，传达对临终遗言应持的态度。段落大意如下：
1. 现象引入（第1段）：阐述婴儿常以“mama”为首个词汇，是出于寻求安慰，同时指出临终者的遗言通常蕴含哲理、揭示真相或诙谐有趣。
2. 核心观点（第2段）：迈克尔·埃拉德对常见观点提出质疑，在其著作《Bye Bye I Love You》中，打破人们对人生初始和临终话语的固有认知，强调说者与听者对这些话语的共同塑造作用。
3. 语言差异（第3段）：世界各国语言中“爸妈”的发音存在异同，“mama”被埃拉德定义为“文化首词”，受到成人关注与引导。
4. 文化差异（第4段）：介绍不同文化下婴儿首词的差异，如科特迪瓦的 Beng 人、巴布亚新几内亚说 Tayap 语的人以及萨摩亚人对婴儿首词的特殊观念与期待。
5. 社会影响（第5段）：在工业化社会，早期语言发展成为商业热点，育儿书籍出现，家长期望孩子尽早开口说话。
6. 工业化影响（第6段）：埃拉德指出工业化改变了童年和老年，医疗进步使老年人的衰老和死亡过程发生变化。
7. 临终遗言现状（第7段）：工业化影响临终遗言，人们期望深刻遗言，但如今临终清醒留遗言的情况很少见，大多临终者因身心机能衰退失去语言能力。
8. 语言能力变化关联（第8段）：垂死之人语言能力丧失的过程类似于儿童语言学习的逆向过程，这解释了部分文化提前准备临终宣言的原因。
9. 书籍评价（第9段）：评价埃拉德的书，虽以死亡为主题，但读起来美好且令人慰藉，埃拉德引导人们摒弃对临终遗言的不切实际期待。