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  3. Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school

Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school

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问题     Australia’s foreign language skills are in decline, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13% of high school graduates can speak a foreign language. But four decades ago, 40 percent had foreign language skills.
    Professor Elise Tipton, from the University of Sydney, says increasingly students do not feel the need to learn another language to boost their career. She believes that Australia’s economic boom, which is driven by red-hot demand for its minerals, is helping mask serious deficiencies (缺陷) in its language skills.
    Australia does business very successfully in English with most of its trading partners. But as the world’s economic power shifts to emerging regions such as Asia, its language gap could soon be exposed. According to the new figures, less than 6.5 percent of high school graduates are proficient in an Asian language. Academics worry that this means Australia will increasingly be isolated from its economically important Asian neighbors. Dilip Dutta, from the economics and business faculty at Sydney University, says language skills can enhance trading opportunities. If Australians want to trade with Asian countries, it is very important for them to learn the language that will help them to get closer to the culture.
    But students have different opinions about Asian language learning. Pippa McCowage, a 22-year-old Australian student, says many young Australians have a half-hearted approach to foreign language, and the language curriculum is often weak. "While we’re encouraged in high school to learn another language, it’s not really apparent to me as a realistic expectation that you will have to speak it," said McCowage. "For example, I learned Japanese in high school. When I went on an exchange in Year 10, I found that the Japanese students of my age had a much greater proficiency in English than I did in Japanese. So in that sense, it almost discourages you."
    At present, about 70 percent of Australia’s major exports go to Asia and the Australian government has been keen on developing closer economic and diplomatic ties with Asia. Academics say that, as Asia becomes one of the world’s economic powerhouses (经济体), Australia needs to improve its language skills if it is to take full advantage of the business opportunities on its doorstep.
What can be inferred about Australia from the passage?
选项 A、It has rich deposits of minerals.
B、It is essentially a self-sufficient country.
C、It has no intention to trade with Asian countries.
D、Its students are not required to learn a foreign language.
答案A
解析 根据题干中的Australia将本题出处定位到第二段末句。该句提到，…澳大利亚的经济腾飞是由于对其矿产的热需拉动的…，也就是说，澳大利亚的经济繁荣是靠大量出口矿产推动的，由此可推断出，澳大利亚的矿产资源很丰富，故答案为[A]。根据第三段首句提：到的“澳大利亚能够成功地用英语和大部分贸易伙伴做生意”可知，澳大利亚不是自己自足的国家，故排除[B]；[C]与末段首句提到的“澳大利亚政府一向热衷与亚洲国家建立紧密的经济和外交关系”矛盾，故排除；文中提到the language curriculum is often weak(外语课程通常质量不高)，但这并不代表学生不被要求学外语，故排除[D]。
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