ISS-13 范文 摘

13. Many of the world' lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The governments of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct."

Keys: lesser-known languages

范文：
It is always said that where there is a different language, there is unique culture. The origin and growth of each language is accompanied by the beginning, thriving, changing of a culture. As the precious legacy handed down by ancestors, a language is the key to the study and preservation of a culture. Nowadays, unfortunately many minor languages are in danger of extinction since they are used by fewer and fewer people. Such an alarm has caught the notices of scientists and appealing is presented to urge the governments to take some action in order to prevent such irrecollectable treasures from lost in our hands.
There are a lot of factors that bring about the trend. To some extent, it's the aftermath of colonization, in which the colonizers brought their own languages there and set it as the official language. Though many of these once colonized countries got back their own authority dozens of years ago, the impaction on culture and language has lasted till today and the original ones seem to be impossible to be retrieved any more. Even in some countries where there has never been any kind of colonization in its history, the golden days of multi-language have passed. The modernization and industrialization ask for a massive communication and interaction between people from around the country or even from foreign countries. Migration also plays an crucial role in the blending and mixing of different cultures. Therefore people have to turn to a more widely used language, putting aside their own dialect, to make themselves accepted better by the society. On the other hand, youngsters, who are the inheritor of traditional culture and language, are refusing to play the role as the link in the chain. Local languages, such as dialects, are dismissed by them as obsolete. They would like to use some more modern languages to give them sense of fashion, or authority, or even dignity. The traditional languages, on the contrary, are often laughed at as out-of-date and only spoken by grandpa->grandfather.
Since the trend of neglecting many lesser-known languages seems not easily to be stopped or even decelerated by the strength from the language and the culture themselves, it's time for the governments of countries, in which these languages are spoken, to lay a hand to prevent the heirlooms from disappearing. Where a language is on the brink of extinction, the primary task of the government there is to offer sufficient financial support and manpower to make record and study of the losing language as soon as possible. For example, special department aimed at the study and documentation of traditional culture and language should be set up, in which professionals can have enough funds and tools to work efficiently. Such method is rather than passive approach in that it cannot prevent a language from out of use. However, it can at least offer valuable material to our descendants as the necessary history archives for future study of the culture and language.
While the situation is not that bad, the government should employ some more active methods to give life to traditional culture and language. Fore example, the youngsters should be encouraged to learn and use local languages as well as the official languages; they should be taught how to appreciate the values and beauty of their local cultures. The government, which has power in leading the public trend of society, should also incultivate its people to take pride in the uniqueness and preciousness of local history, culture and language, which they used to contempt or even ashamed for.
Every language, every culture is one of the pearl in a beautiful necklace, without which not only the beauty but also the integrity is damaged. It's government's responsibility to prevent any language from extinction, and it's also the obligation for every one of us to engage in the presentation of our culture.