Прочитайте текст. Определите, какие из приведенных ниже утверждений соответствуют содержанию текста (True), какие не соответствуют (False) и о чем в тексте не сказано, т.е. на основании текста нельзя дать ни положительного, ни отрицательного ответа (Not Stated).
The United Kingdom, or UK, is made up of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Wales has two official languages, English and Welsh. Welsh is spoken by slightly fewer than 600,000 people, which is about 20% of the population of Wales. Why don’t more people use the language to communicate?
There are a few reasons which help to explain this. In the past, Welsh schoolchildren were punished for speaking any language other than English at school. The result of this was that Welsh gradually came to be used less and less. It wasn’t until the 1960s that things began to change in its favour.
In 1962, the Welsh Language Society was formed, and fought hard to increase the use of Welsh in Wales. It did a number of things to try to achieve this. Sometimes these were illegal, but they were never violent. They wanted two main things. The first was for Welsh to be taught in schools. The second was to set up a radio station and a television station that would broadcast in Welsh. Eventually, the Welsh radio station Radio Cymru was created. After a few more years, a Welsh-language television channel was started. Then, Welsh children began taking lessons in the language at school, and street signs are now in both English and Welsh. Much of this is due to the Welsh Language Society’s efforts.
In spite of this, however, fewer and fewer people speak Welsh nowadays. It’s a struggle to keep the language alive. While there are more places where Welsh is spoken, its not completely a part of daily life. Private businesses are not required to offer services in Welsh. This means, for example, that Welsh-speaking citizens may not be able to use Welsh when they need to deal with a mobile phone company. They cant always arrange holidays in Wrelsh either, and it isn’t possible for them to use Wrelsh when they shop in certain supermarkets.
Another problem is that Wales has a high unemployment rate, which forces young people to move to another part of the UK in order to find a job, or even to go abroad. When this happens, they generally have no need to speak Welsh at all. They might know the language as a part of their history and culture, but it is of little or no use in their jobs or daily life.
The Welsh Language Society has done a lot to make sure Welsh remains a living language. In fact, Welsh has become a semi-official language of the European Union. This means that people are allowed to speak Welsh if they want to in some EU meetings around Europe.
1) The average person in Wales can speak Welsh.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
2) For a long time, education in Wales was given only in English.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
3) At one point, the Welsh language nearly died out.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
4) The Welsh Language Society sometimes hurt people during its actions.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
5) Traffic police are required to speak both English and Welsh.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
6) Many common activities in Wales today are carried out in English.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
7) People who leave Wales to find work still make good use of Welsh.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
8) People have to speak English in all EU meetings.
1. True
2. False
3. Not stated
1) – False
2) – True
3) – Not Stated
4) – False
5) – Not Stated
6) – True
7) – False
8) – False
