阅读理解

    One of the main challenges facing many countries is how to maintain their identity in the face of globalization and the growing multi-language trend. "One of the main reasons for economic failure in many African countries is the fact that, with a few important exceptions, mother-tongue education is not practiced in any of the independent African states." said Neville Alexander, Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at the University of Cape Town.

    In response to the spread of English and the increased multi-language trends arising from immigration, many countries have introduced language laws in the last decade. In some, the use of languages other than the national language is banned in public spaces such as advertising posters. One of the first such legal provisions(规定) was the 1994 "Toubon law" in France, and the idea has been copied in many countries since then. Such efforts to govern language use are often considered as futile by language experts, who are well aware of the difficulty in controlling fashions in speech and know from research that language switching among bilinguals is a natural process.

    It is especially difficult for native speakers of English to understand the desire to maintain the "purity" of a language by law. Since the time of Shakespeare, English has continually absorbed foreign words into its own language. English is one of the most mixed and rapidly changing languages in the world, but that has not been a barrier to acquiring superiority and power. Another reason for the failure of many native English speakers to understand the role of the state regulation is that it has never been the Anglo-Saxon way of doing things. English has never had a state-controlled authority for the language, similar, for example, to the Academic Francaise in France.

    The need to protect national languages is, for most western Europeans, a recent phenomenon—especially the need to ensure that English does not unnecessarily take over too many fields. Public communication, education and new ways of communication promoted by technology, may be key fields to defend.

while与when的用法

①when的含义是at or during the time that，既可用于指一点时间(从句的谓语动词需用终止性动词)，也可用于指一段时间(从句的谓语动词用延续性动词)，从句与主句里面的谓语动词所表示的动作或状态能同时发生，或一先一后发生。

He wants to help people ____. 他想在人们生病的时候帮助他们。

____， the ship had already set off. 他到达上海时，轮船已经开走了。

②while的含义是during the time that，只能用于指一段时间(从句的谓语动词必须是延续性的)，从句与主句里面的谓语动词所表示的动作只能同时发生，不能一先一后发生。

____， my mother was washing clothes. 我读书时，妈妈在洗衣服。

③这两个词还可以用作并列连词。when表示"在那时"或"这时"，相当于and just at that time的意思，用来连接两个并列分句，有时when分句之前有逗号把前后两个分句分开。

I stayed till sunset, ____. 我一直呆到太阳下山，这时天开始下雨了。

④while意为"而，却"，表示对照关系。

Some like collecting stamps, ____. 有些人喜欢集邮，而有些人却喜欢种花。