《参考消息》2006年6月25日第8版：掌握汉语意味着领先一步
《时代》周刊2006年6月26日（提前出版）文章：来吧，学习汉语
get ahead, learn mandarin
by austin ramzy
posted monday, june 19, 2006; 20:00 hkt time
it's friday night in ikebukuro, a tokyo entertainment district. as the office workers head to their favorite watering holes[1], three salarymen split from the crowd and enter a decrepit[2] building that stands between a karaoke lounge and a tavern[3]. ignoring the sounds of sirens, drunken crooning and breaking glass outside, hidetoshi seki, takashi kudo and yuji yano h________① in a tiny room just big enough for a table for four, and open their chinese textbooks. for the next 50 minutes the trio, all from a small trading company, practice describing their favorite foods and hobbies in mandarin. yano, 39, says. "we sort of unanimously agreed that chinese would be a useful skill to acquire."
no k_______②. the urge that drives those salarymen to pass up[4] karaoke on a friday night is increasingly common. in the past, when people set out to improve themselves by learning another language, those that didn't already speak it usually picked english. but while english may be the only truly international language, millions of tongues are wagging over[5] what is rapidly becoming the world's other lingua franca[6]: mandarin. （1）seen as a key skill for people hitching their futures to china's economic rise, mandarin is becoming common currency, particularly in asia where trade ties with the middle kingdom are supplanting those of the region's longtime primary partner, the u.s. indeed, because english is spoken so u_________③, it no longer offers companies and employees the edge it once did, according to a recent report by british linguist david gaddol. if you want to get ahead, learn mandarin. "in many asian countries, in europe and the usa, mandarin has emerged as the new must-have language," gaddol notes.
to an extent, this is a case of history r________④ itself. just as americans started studying japanese in droves in the 1980s, when japan's economy was ascendant, so today, as china rises, the world is embracing mandarin. in south korea, 160,000 high school and university students are studying the chinese language, an increase of 66% over the past five years._________________________, （从1993年到2005年，开设汉语课的日本中学[secondary schools]增加了3倍以上）and in japan it's now the most taught foreign language after english.
outside asia, the ranks of students studying chinese are small but growing rapidly. from 2000-2004, the number of students in england, wales and northern ireland doing advanced level exams (those normally taken at age 18) in chinese climbed by 57%. in the u.s., chinese still l________⑤ far behind traditional foreign languages like french and spanish, but china is the fastest growing destination for college students studying abroad.
（2）eager to assert itself internationally, the chinese government is itself on a drive to promote mandarin abroad in hopes of putting it on a par with english.
to that e_______⑥, over the past two years beijing has opened language and cultural centers called confucius institutes—modeled on spain's instituto cervantes or germany's goethe-institut—in more than 30 countries, including australia, japan, kenya, the u.s. and sweden. china has also deployed more than 2,000 peace corps-like volunteers to teach mandarin overseas, mostly in asian nations such as thailand, the philippines, indonesia, singapore, malaysia and south korea. （3）meanwhile, back home, china has been rapidly upgrading mandarin-language schools to handle a rising influx of overseas students.
south koreans are the largest group of foreigners studying in china, representing about 40% of the 110,800 total last year. this trend is boosted by cultural ties. （4）as china's economic clout[7] grows, the ability to reduce frictions and misunderstandings in business communications offers a strategic advantage. even enthusiastic promoters of mandarin aren't predicting that it will ever o________⑦ english as the world's common language. but just as knowing english proved a key to getting ahead in the 20th century, learning chinese will provide an edge in the 21st.
notes:
[1]watering holes 酒馆，酒吧
[2]decrepit adj.老朽的，破旧的
[3]tavern n. 酒吧；客栈
[4]pass up 放弃，错过
[5]wag over 摇摇晃晃；辛苦学习、工作
[6]lingua franca 通用语言
[7]clout n.力量；影响
试一试：
1．根据首字母提示和译文，填入适当单词：
①h________ in a tiny room（挤在一个小房间里）
②no k_______（没错）
③english is spoken so u_________（英语是全球通用的语言）
④this is a case of history r________ itself（这是历史在重演）
⑤still l________ far behind traditional foreign languages（仍远远落后于学习传统外语的人数）
⑥to that e_______（为了实现这个目标）
⑦o________ english as the world's common language（超越英语成为全球最流行的语言）
参考答案：
2．翻译划线部分英文：
参考答案：
（1）人们认为，汉语是把他们的未来与中国的经济崛起挂钩的关键技能。汉语正日益成为“通用货币”，尤其是在亚洲，因为这个地区与中央帝国（即中国）的贸易联系正逐渐取代与长期以来的首要伙伴——美国——的联系。
（2）中国政府迫切希望走向世界，所以正着力在国外推广汉语，以期使之达到与英语同等的地位。
（3）与此同时，中国在国内快速提高汉语学校的质量，接纳不断增加的留学生。
（4）随着中国的经济实力不断增强，在商务交流中减少摩擦和误解的能力构成了一种战略优势。