2018全国卷I阅读C篇外刊原文解析：濒危语言（3）(4)

be close to 几乎 (处于某种状态)melancholy :very sad 忧郁的；令人伤感的；举例：The music suited her melancholy mood. 这音乐很适合她的伤感情绪。在郁达夫的散文《故都的秋》，有一句话描写北平的秋“清、静、悲凉”，这句话构成了文章的基调和底色：“秋天，无论在什么地方的秋天，总是好的；可是啊，北国的秋，却特别地来得清，来得静，来得悲凉。”Autumn, wherever it is, always has something to recommend itself. In North China, however, it is particularly limpid, serene and melancholy.
makes melancholy reading 读起来令人伤感的类似的还有make interesting/fascinating/compelling reading，表示to be interesting to read读起来有趣的/吸引人的/令人激动的，例如：Your report made fascinating reading. 你的报告读起来引人入胜。
pick 举例at random 随机Cameroon n. 喀麦隆（西非国名）question-mark 问号a question mark over sth/a question mark hangs over sth某事还是个大问号，某事尚不确定survival 生存；存活；幸存；词根-viv-生命，sur-在上面，超过，-al形容词或者名词后缀

have much chance of ……的可能性很大添加一个例句：If a disease ravages the population, only the rare few who are immune would have a chance of survival. 如果一种疾病即将毁灭人类，只有少数具有免疫能力的人能够幸免于难。