A
Tom Belt,a native of Oklahoma,didn’t know the English language until he began school.In his home,conversations took place in Cherokee.Belt grew up riding horses,and after college travelled around the country doing the rodeo(牛仔竞技比赛).Finally,he wound up in North Carolina and married a woman he met at school 20 years earlier.
Yet his wife—also Cherokee—did not speak the language.He soon realized that he was a minority(少数)among his own people.At that time,just 400 or so Cherokee speakers were left in the Eastern Band,the tribe(部落)located in the Cherokee’s historic homeland.Children were no longer learning the language either.“I began to realize the seriousness of the situation,” Belt says.
Belt and other concerned Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band decided to do something about it.Belt volunteered to teach Cherokee lessons at a local school,for example,and finally the tribe decided to create a language immersion school for children,where main classes—including science and math—are taught in Cherokee.Cherokee language is now also offered at the local university,where Belt teaches.
“Many Cherokee speakers are using technology to do really interesting things that were not imaginable a generation back,” says Mark Turin,a language expert at Yale University.For example,a Cherokee app allows speakers to text in the language’s 85 letters.Some Cherokee sites bring speakers together and provide multimedia teaching tools.
Thanks to the Eastern Band’s efforts,today around 60 of their children can speak Cherokee.Belt,along with many other Cherokee speakers,is not ready to let his language disappear into history—even if the journey towards revitalisation(振兴) is an uphill one.As an elder told Belt years ago:“It’s all well and good that you all want to do this,but remember,it wasn’t taken away overnight,and you’re not going to revitalize it overnight.”
1.What did Tom Belt find out about the Cherokee language?
A.It is taught at only a few schools.
B.It is disliked by many English speakers.
C.It is difficult for children to learn.
D.It is in danger of dying out.
2.What is paragraph 3 mainly about?
A.Why Cherokee was popular in local schools.
B.How Cherokee speakers saved the language.
C.How Cherokee influenced children’s education.
D.What made Cherokee more well-known to locals.
3.What plays a role in the success the Eastern Band has achieved?
A.Their great imagination.
B.Their special teaching methods.
C.Their use of technology.
D.Their confidence in younger generations.
4.What can we learn from the elder’s words in the last paragraph?
A.Getting Cherokee back is a long journey.
B.Cherokee will disappear slowly.
C.Cherokee might become popular someday.
D.The loss of Cherokee is simply a fact of life.
