Task 1 Read the text Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a
mobile phone or the internet to
communicate. Instead, he whistles. Cabello
is a silbador. He knows 'Silbo Gomero', a
language that is whistled, not spoken, and
can be heard more than two miles away.
This unusual way of communicating is said
to have arrived with early African settlers
2,500 years ago. Now, educators are
working hard to save it from extinction by
making schoolchildren study the language
up to the age of fourteen.
Silbo features four'vowels' and four
'consonants' that can be used to form
more than 4,000 words. 'I use it for
everything. ' Cabello says. In fact, he makes
a living from Silbo, performing daily
exhibitions at a restaurant on this island of
220 square kilometres and 19,000 people.
People throughout La Gomera are known
to have used Silbo in the past as a way of
communicating over long distances.
A strong whistle saved farmers from
trekking over the hills to give messages or
news to neighbours. Then came the
phone. In 1999, it was introduced as a
compulsory subject in La Gomera's
primary schools, in an effort to prevent the
language from becoming extinct. Now
3,000 students are studying it, but only afew people are believed to be able to
communicate fully in the whistling
language. 'Silbo is said to be the most
important cultural heritage we have, said
Moises Plasencia, the director of the
Canary Islands' government's historical
heritage department.
It might seem appropriate for a language
that sounds like birdsong to exist in the
Canary Islands, but there is thought to be
no connection between the islands' name
and the birdsong-like way of
communicating.
In fact, little is known about Silbo's origins.
One study is looking for signs of Silbo in
Venezuela, Cuba and Texas, all places to
which Gomerans have emigrated in the
past during hard economic times.
Now, Plasencia is heading an effort to get
UNESCO to declare it a 'cultural heritage'
and to support efforts to save it. Cabello
also explains, 'It's good for just about
anything except for romance: everyone on
the island could hear what you're saying!"
Task 2. Read the text again and mark
the statements below as True or False.
1. Only a few people can communicate in
Silbo.
2. Experts think that there is a close
connection between Silbo and the name
'Canary Islands'.
3. Silbo was introduced in La Gomera's
schools in order to save it for
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