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南京大学英语专业考研真题 Part A Vocabulary and Reading (50/150) Read the passage below and then complete the tasks that follow: Language and Cultural Identity C. Kramsch para.1 It is widely believed that there is a natural connection between the language spoken by members of a social group and that groups identity. By their accent, their vocabulary, their discourse patterns, speakers identify themselves and are identified as members of this or that speech and discourse community. From this membership, they draw personal strength and pride, as well as a sense of social importance and historical continuity from using the same language as the group they belong to. para.2 But how to define which group one belongs to? In isolated, homogeneous communities like the Trobrianders studied by Malinowski, one may still define group membership according to common cultural practices and daily face-to-face interactions, but in modem, historically complex, open societies it is much more difficult to define the boundaries of any particular social group and the linguistic and cultural identities of its members. para.3 Take ethnicity for example. In their 1982 survey conducted among the highly mixed population of Belize (formerly British Honduras), Le Page and Tabouret-Keller found out that different people ascribed themselves to different ethnicities as either Spanish, Creole, Maya or Belizean, according to which ethnic criterion they focused on — physical features (hair and skin), general appearance, genetic descent, provenance, or nationality. Rarely was language used as an ethnically defining criterion. Interestingly, it was only under the threat of a Guatemalan takeover as soon as British rule would cease, that the sense of a Belizean national identity slowly started emerging from among the multiple ethnic ascriptions that people still give themselves to this day. para.4 Group identity based on race would seem easier to define, and yet there are almost as many genetic differences, say,