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【阅读理解】Reading: A Voice That Will Not Outlive Its Owner
Yang Lianzhen, 78, was a retired dairy worker in Shaxi, Yunnan.
A technician from Kunming, Zhou Kai, 29, came to record her dialect, which is spoken only in this valley.
In 1985, there were about 3,200 fluent speakers; by 2019, only 410; now, Zhou believed, perhaps 90.
Zhou had a grant of 240,000 yuan and a basic recording kit as part of a provincial effort to archive languages.
Yang was his fourth attempt that week; two had refused and one had called him a pirate.
Her children left the valley in the 1990s, and more left after the highway opened in 2003.
Her daughter in Shenzhen could not understand a single sentence of the language Yang dreamt in.
A neighbour's boy from the city was first attracted by the melody, then bored by the grammar.
Zhou asked Yang to describe making a fermented tea that her ancestral village had brewed for 300 years.
She spoke of her grandfather's trial, a landslide that damaged three houses, and 12 coins paid for salt.
Zhou recorded for 94 minutes and wondered whether she was still fluent or merely performing a script.
She used a word for 'fragile' that Zhou could not find in any dictionary, but she refused to repeat it.
On the final morning, Zhou found her burning old letters written by her sister, who died in 2011.
He asked to photograph one letter before it burned, but she shook her head and said, 'You have enough.'
Zhou packed his equipment and drove away, leaving the valley quiet and the road still unfinished.
Questions
1. What was Zhou Kai's main purpose in visiting Yang Lianzhen?
A. To interview her about the history of the highway. B. To buy fermented tea that her village had made for centuries. C. To record her dialect as part of a language archiving project. D. To photograph old letters written by her sister.
2. According to the passage, how did the number of fluent speakers of Yang's dialect change between 1985 and 2019?
A. It rose from 410 to 3,200. B. It stayed at about 90. C. It fell from 3,200 to 410. D. It fell from 3,200 to 90.
3. What does the word 'exodus' in the passage most likely mean?
A. A large departure of people. B. A type of fermented tea. C. A celebration in the village. D. A recording device.
4. Why did Yang refuse to repeat the word for 'fragile'?
A. She was angry that Zhou had called her a pirate. B. She had forgotten how to say it. C. She wanted Zhou to pay her more money first. D. She thought Zhou would record it incorrectly and make it permanently wrong.
5. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. How to Record a Dying Language B. The History of Fermented Tea C. The Last 90 Speakers: A Language on the Edge D. A Technician's Travels in Yunnan