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Part Ⅳ Reading Comprehension(Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether the activity is tourism, research, government, policing, business or data dissemination, the lack of a common language can severely impede progress or can halt it altogether.
Although communication problems of this kind must happen thousands of times each day, very few become public knowledge. Publicity comes only when a failure to communicate has major consequences, such as strikes, lost orders, legal problems or fatal accidents--even, at times, war. One reported instance of communication failure took place in 1970, when several Americans ate a species of poisonous mushroom. No remedy was known, and two of the people died within days. A radio report of the case was heard by a chemist who knew of a treatment that had been successfully used in 1959 and published in 1963. Why had the American doctors not heard of it seven years later? Presumably because the report of the treatment had been published only in journals written in European languages other than English.
Several comparable cases have been reported. But isolated examples do not give an impression of the size of the problem--something that can come only from studies of the use or avoidance of foreign-language materials and contacts in different communicative situations. In the English- speaking scientific world, for example, surveys of books and documents consulted in libraries and other information agencies have shown that very little foreign-language material is ever consulted. Library requests in the field of science and technology showed that only 13 percent were for foreign language periodicals.
The language barrier presents itself in stark form to firms who wish to market their products in other countries. British industry, in particular, has in recent decades often been criticized for its linguistic insularity---for its assumption that foreign buyers will be happy to communicate in English, and that awareness of other languages is not therefore s priority. In the 1960s, over two- thirds of British firms dealing with non-English-speaking customers were using English for outgoing correspondence; many had their sales literature only in English; and as many as 40 percent employed no-one able to communicate in the customer's languages. A similar problem was identified in other English-speaking countries, notably the USA, Australia and New Zealand. And non-English speaking countries were by no means exempt--although the widespread use of English as an alternative language made them less open to the charge of insularity.
The criticism and publicity given to this problem since the 1960s seems to have greatly improved the situation. Industrial training schemes have promoted an increase in linguistic and cultural awareness. Many firms now have their own translation services. Some firms run part-time language courses in the languages of the countries with which they are most involved; some produce their own technical glossaries, to ensure consistency when material is being translated. It is now much more readily appreciated that marketing efforts can be delayed, damaged or disrupted by a failure to take account of the linguistic needs of the customer.
47. Language problems may come to the attention of the public when they have ______ such as fatal accidents or social problems.
48. What can we infer about American doctors from the case of the poisonous mushrooms?
49. Evidence of the extent of the language barrier can be gained from ______ of materials used by scientists such as books and periodicals.
50. An example of British linguistic insularity is the use of English for materials such as ______.
51. What ways have been used by the British companies to solve the problem of language barrier since the 1960s?
