VOA常速英语:Pilot Program Teaches Sarawak Indigenous Children in Mother Tongue

短语讲解：

1. Many groups are afraid of losing their traditional ways, as modern life encroaches.

be afraid of害怕,担忧
例句：She is afraid of snakes.
她怕蛇。

2. They are curious and engage the visitors in animated chatter.

engage in参加; 从事; 忙于
例句：He engaged in a serious study of the problem.
他对这个问题进行了认真的研究。

3. They are not putting on a show.

put on上演, 演出; 展览
例句：We are going to put on an exhibition of cultural relics next Tuesday.
我们下周二要举办一个文物展览。

4. When I come over here once a month or even twice a month, they will be doing the same thing.

come over顺便来访
例句：Why don't you come over to our place one evening?
你何不找个晚上到我们这里来坐坐?

5. He helped set up the pre-school, which conducts lessons in the native Bidayuh language.

set up建立，建造, 创立, 竖立
例句：Plenty of foreign firms have set up factories here.
很多外国公司已在这里开办工厂。

6. “That is the time when SIL officers explained to us that many languages are dying off because the people are not taking an initiative to preserve the languages," Josak said.

die off 相继死去，一个个死掉；绝种；顺次枯死；(声音等)逐渐消失
例句：Those languages are in danger of dying off.
那些语言正处于消亡的危险之中。

7. So, before the Bidayuh language dies off in this world, we have to take this action to develop the curriculum and then we start off with the play schools where we intend to let the children have a strong foundation in their mother tongue before they learn other languages.

start off出发;开始
例句：When shall we start off?
我们什么时候动身?

8. She says young people are leaving the village and migrating to Sarawak’s administrative capital, Kuching, and other cities in search of work.

in search of寻找
例句：He went in search of a doctor for his sick wife.
他去为他生病的妻子找医生。

9. UNICEF’s deputy representative for Malaysia, Victor Karunan, says he is impressed with the results coming out of this three-year project.

impress with把…印在…上; 因…获得好印象
例句：We were most impressed with your efficiency.
你的效率给我们留下很深刻的印象。

10. When the children reach age six, they go through a so-called bridging year, in which they are taught in both the indigenous and Malay languages.

go through经历
例句：The country has gone through too many wars.
这个国家经历了太多的战争。