What does the author mean by 'in a vacuum'?
Linguists estimate that many of the world's languages will fall silent within a century. The loss is often described as a loss of knowledge, and with reason: a language holds a community's names for plants, its stories and its way of reasoning. Yet some commentators say that the loss is the price of progress, as speakers choose languages that offer wider opportunities. It is true that no language survives without speakers who choose it. But the choice is not made in a vacuum. Where a language is excluded from school, courts and the market, parents who choose the dominant language for their children are responding to pressure and not to preference. The question is whether the community would choose differently if its language were given room, and that can be tested only by giving it room.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Without being influenced by the surrounding circumstances
- Step 1: A vacuum is empty space; here it means the choice is made without outside influences.
- Step 2: The author says that is not how the choice is made.
Answer
Without being influenced by the surrounding circumstances.
Why not the others: 'In a vacuum' means free of surrounding influences; it does not mean without speakers, without parents, without any language or without any choice.
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