Read the following passage and answer questions.

Passage:
Although languages have comeinto existence and died away throughout human history, it was only in the 1990s, following the publication of a series of worldwide surveys, that people began to notice that the rate of disappearance was significantly increasing. The thrust of these facts is easy to summarise: of the 6,000 or so languages in the world, it seems probable that abouthalf ofthese will disappear in the courseof the present century. It is a rate of loss unprecedented in recorded history.

The impact of dominant languages on minority languagesis a matter of universal concern, and the role of English is specially implicated. The growth of English as a global language is not the sole factor in explaining language endangerment. Although it is English that hasbeen the critical factor in the disappearance of languages in suc parts of the world as Australia and North America, this language is oflittle relevance when we consider the corresponding losses that have taken place in South Americaor in many parts of Asia, where suchlananses as Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Chinese have replaced local languages.

Languagesdie. A language lives on,after the last native speaker dies, only if it has been written down or recorded in some way. At the turn of the millennium, some 2000 languages hadstill not been documented. When oneof these languages disappears, the consequencesare truly catastrophic. When peopledie, they leavesigns of their presence in this world, in the form of their dwelling places, burial mounds and artifacts - in a word, their archaeology. But, spoken language leaves no archaeology. When a language dies which has néver been documented, it is asif it has never been.