Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.
There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.
Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even die out pletely. About 1,000 years ago English was a little -known relative of German spoken on one of the borders（边界）of Europe.
If a language has a lot of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.
【小题1】The first paragraph mainly tells us that .A．most people in the world speak ChineseB．there are thousands of languages in the world todayC．man has much knowledge about languagesD．some people know several languages【小题2】Many European and Indian languages .A．will soon die out pletelyB．were once a relative of EnglishC．are the same as beforeD．e from the same family【小题3】 seems to have changed a lotA．ChineseB．EnglishC．SpanishD．German【小题4】 The best title of this passage is .A．EnglishB．Changes of EnglishC．ChineseD．Knowledge of LanguageC
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(答案→)C
解析：
【小题1】细节题，从第一段里的：we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times.看出选C，人类对语言了解很多。
【小题2】细节题，从第二段的：There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European.说明D项正确，他们是来自同一个家庭。
【小题3】细节推理题，从第三段的：Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago.看出英语已经改变了很多，选B。
【小题4】主旨题，从第一段的：Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began,还有文章里谈论的语言的知识，所以选D，语言的知识。