[解析]
(1)B.推理判断题.根据第一段When the world was still populated by hunter﹣gatherers,small,tightly knit (联系)groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other可知在狩猎的时代,狩猎团队各自形成了自己的语言模式,这会导致大量不同的语言,语言种类的数量是巨大的,故答案为B.
(2)C.词义猜测题.根据常识及and dominant languages such as English,Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over可知现在占据统治地位的语言有英语、西班牙语和汉语,可以猜测dominant意为"统治的,强大的",故答案为C.
(3)B.数字计算题.根据At present,the world has about 6,800 languages及The median number (中位数)of speakers is a mere 6,000,which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that可知世界上的仅仅不到6000人却说的语言占到一半的世界语言,世界所有的语言大约有6800种,可知,6800*1/2=3400,故答案为B.
(4)C.主旨大意题.本文是一篇科教类阅读,文章讲述的是语言已经千百年的历史,不断地出现和消失,但最近新出现的语言越来越少,而消失地越来越多,随着社会和工业化的发展,语言消失地越来越快,由此可以判断人类的发展导致了更少的语言,故答案为C.