Having no language, infants cannot be told what th... - 搜题云问答

第1题

Read the following advertisements（广告), then choose the right answer.Driver wanteda) Clea

Read the following advertisements(广告), then choose the right answer.

Driver wanted

a) Clean driving license (驾照).

b) Must be of smart appearance.

c) Aged over 25.

Apply to: Capes Taxi, 17 Palace Road, Roston.

Air hostesses(空姐) for International Flights Wanted

a) Must be between 20 and 33 years old.

b) Height 1.6 to 1.75.

c) Education to GCSE standard(标准), two languages, must be able to swim.

Apply to: Recruitment office, Southern Airlines, Heathrow Airport West, HR 39.

Teachers Needed

For private language school.

Teaching experience unnecessary.

Apply to: The director of Studies, Instant Language Ltd. , 289 Canal Street, Roston.

What prevents Jack, an experienced taxi driver, working for Capes Taxi？

A．Fond of beer and wine.

B．Punished for speeding and wrong parking.

C．Not having college education.

D．Unable to speak a foreign language.

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第2题

FULLTIME DRIVERS WANTEDClean driving licence.Must be of smart appearance.Aged over 25. App

FULLTIME DRIVERS WANTED

Clean driving licence.

Must be of smart appearance.

Aged over 25. Apply to: Capes Taxis, 17 Palace Road, Roston.

AIR HOSTESSES

Southern Airlines

Require air hostesses for international flights.

Applicants must be between 20 and 33 years old, height 1.60m to 1.75m, education to GCSE standard, two languages, must be able to swim. Apply to: Recruitment Officer, Southern Airlines, Heathrow Airport West, HR 37KK.

FEACHERS NEEDED

For private language school.

Teaching experience unnecessary.

Apply to: The Director of Studies. Instant Languages. Ltd. 279 Canal Street, Roston.

The following refers to Jack, an experienced taxi driver. What prevents him working for Capes Taxis？

A．Fond of beer and wine.

B．Punished and fined because of speeding and wrong parking.

C．Unable to speak a foreign language.

D．Not having college education.

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第3题

Today the study of language in our schools is somewhat confused. It is the most traditiona

l of scholastic subjects being taught in a time when many of our traditions no longer fit our needs. You to whom these pages are addressed speak English and are therefore in a worse case than any other literate people.

People pondering the origin of language for the first time usually arrive at the conclusion that it developed gradually as a system of conventionalised grunts, hisses, and cries and must have been a very simple affair in the beginning. But when we observe the language behavior. of what we regard as primitive cultures, we find it strikingly elaborate and complicated. Stefansson, the explorer, said that "In order to get along reasonably well an Eskimo must have at the tip of his tongue a vocabulary of more than 10,000 words, much larger than the active vocabulary of an average businessman who speaks English. Moreover these Eskimo words are far more highly inflected than those of any of the well-known European languages, for a single noun can be spoken or written in several hundred different forms, each having a precise meaning different from that of any other. The forms of the verbs are even more numerous. The Eskimo language is, therefore, one of the most difficult in the world to learn, with the result that almost no traders or explorers have even tried to learn it. Consequently there has grown up, an intercourse between Eskimos and whites, a jargon similar to the pidgin English used in China, with a vocabulary of from 300 to 600 uninflected words, most of them derived from Eskimo but some derived from English, Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian and other languages. It is this jargon which is usually referred to by travelers as 'the Eskimo language'. And Professor Thalbitzer of Copenhagen, who did take the trouble to learn Eskimo, seems to endorse the explorer's view when he writes: "The language is polysynthetic. The grammar is extremely rich in flexional forms, the conjugation of a common verb ending. For the declension of a noun there are 150 suffixes (for dual and plural, local cases, and possessive flexion). The derivative endings effective in the vocabulary and the construction of sentences or sentence-like words a mount to at least 250. Not withstanding all these constructive peculiarities, the grammatical and synthetic system is remarkably concise and, in its own way, logical."

The size of the Eskimo language spoken by most whites is ______.

A．spoken in English, Denmark, Spain, and Hawaii

B．less than the size of the language spoken by Eskimos

C．inestimable

D．irrelevant

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第4题

How can English teachers accelerate the language learning of their students？ One way is to

teach students how to learn more effectively and efficiently. Learning strategies are " Procedures or techniques that learners can use to facilitate a learning task. " Instructing students of English in learning strategies can help them become better learners. In addition, skill in using learning strategies assists students in becoming independent, confident learners. Finally, students become more motivated as they begin to understand the relationship between their use of strategies and success in learning English.

Students need to develop an awareness of the learning process and strategies that lead to success. Students who reflect on their own thinking are more likely to engage in planning how to proceed with a learning task, monitoring their own performance on an ongoing basis, finding solutions to problems encountered, and evaluating themselves upon task completion. These activities may be difficult for students accustomed to having a teacher who solves all their learning problems and is the sole judge of their progress.

Teachers need to encourage students to rely more on themselves. Because learning strategies are mental processes with few observable manifestations, teachers need to find ways to make the strategies as concrete as possible. When students are able to use the strategies their teachers have taught them, and to do so without prompting, then they need to explore new strategies, new applications, and new opportunities for self-regulated learning.

Better learning strategies can make language learning more______.

A．fun

B．interesting

C．efficient

D．exciting

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第5题

Whether to teach young children a second language is disputed among teachers, researchers

and pushy parents. On the one hand, acquiring a new tongue is said to be far easier when young. On the other, teachers complain that children whose parents speak a language at home that is different from the one used in the classroom sometimes struggle in their lessons and are slower to reach linguistic milestones. Would a 15-month-old child, they wonder, not be better off going to music classes？

A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may help resolve this question by getting to the point of what is going on in a bilingual child’s brain, how a second language affects the way he thinks, and thus in what circumstances being bilingual may be helpful. Agnes Kovacs and Jacques Mehler at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste say that some aspects of the cognitive development of infants raised in a bilingual household must be undergoing acceleration in order to manage which of the two languages they are dealing with.

The aspect of cognition in question is part of what is termed the brain’s “executive function”. This allows people to organise, plan, prioritise activity, shift their attention from one thing to another and suppress habitual responses. Bilingualism is common in Trieste which, though Italian, is almost surrounded by Slovenia. So Dr. Kovacs and Dr. Mehler looked at 40 “preverbal” seven-month-olds, half raised in monolingual and half in bilingual households, and compared their performances in a task that needs control of executive function.

First, the babies were trained to expect the appearance of a puppet on a screen after they had heard a set of meaningless words invented by the researchers. Then the words, and the location of the puppet, were changed. When this was done, the babies who speak only one language had difficulty overcoming their learnt response, even when the researchers gave them further clues that a switch had taken place. The bilingual babies, however, found it far easier to switch their attention — counteracting the previously learnt, but no longer useful response.

Monitoring languages and .keeping them separate is part of the brain’s executive function, so these findings suggest that even before a child can speak, a bilingual environment may speed up that function’s development. Before rushing your offspring into bilingual kindergartens, though, there are a few cautions. For one thing, these extraordinary cognitive benefits have been demonstrated so far only in “crib” bilinguals — those living in households where two languages are spoken routinely. The researchers speculate that it might be the fact of having to learn two languages in the same setting that requires greater use of executive function. So whether those benefits apply to children who learn one language at home, and one at school, remains unclear.

Who are probably pushing young children to study a new language？

A．Parents.

B．Teachers.

C．Researchers.

D．Children themselves.

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第6题

26-meter-tall Yao Ming made his NBA debut （初资登台) on October 23, 2002 and got 6 points

26-meter-tall Yao Ming made his NBA debut (初资登台) on October 23, 2002 and got 6 points (得分) for the Houston Rockets in the game. The next day, he got 13 points in another game.

Most people think that Yao Ming is a born basketball player. But Yao said, "When you watch it on TV, it looks very easy. But when you are playing in the NBA, it is really not so easy. ' He said that joining the Houston Rockets was a new start and a new challenge. "I hope that through very hard work, I can make everyone happy and help the Rockets win more games," he said.

Yao Ming speaks some English. Both he and his teammates can understand each other. They don't think there is a language problem. While Yao Ming faces this new challenge, the people of Houston have shown great interest in him and they hope Yao Ming faces this new challenge, the people of Houston have shown great interest in him and they hope Yao Ming will bring new energy (活力) to the Rockets. The team has started having lessons to learn more about China, and many people who work for the Rockets have learned to speak some Chinese.

Yao Ming got 13 points on October______, 2002.

A．22

B．23

C．24

D．26

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第7题

Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by c

Part A

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

It is evident that there is a close connection between the capacity to use language and the capacities covered by the verb" to think". Indeed, me writers have identified thinking with using words: Plato coined the saying, "In thinking the soul is talking to itself"; J. B. Watson reduced thinking to inhibited speech located in the minute movements or tensions of the physiological mechanisms involved in speaking; and although Ryle is careful to point out that there are many senses in which a person is said to think in which words are not in evidence, he has also said that saying something in a specific frame. of mind is thinking a thought.

Is thinking reducible to, or dependent upon, language habits？ It would seem that many thinking situations are hardly distinguishable from the skilful use of language, although there are some others in which language is not involved. Thought cannot be simply identified with running language. It may be the case, of course, that the non-linguistic skills involved in thought can only be acquired and developed if the learner is able to use and understand language. However, this question is one which we cannot hope to answer in this book. Obviously being able to use language makes for a considerable development in all one's capacities but how precisely this comes about we cannot say.

At the common-sense level it appears that there is often a distinction between thought and the words we employ to communicate with other people. We often have to struggle hard to find words to capture what our thinking has already grasped, and when we do find words we sometimes feel that they fail to do their job properly. Again when we report or describe our thinking to other people we do not merely report unspoken words and sentences. Such sentences do not always occur in thinking, and when they do they axe merged with vague imagery and the hint of unconscious or subliminal activities going on just out of range. Thinking, as it happens, is more like struggling, striving, or searching for something than it is like talking or reading. Words do play their part but they are rarely the only feature of thought. This observation is supported by the experiments of the Wurzburg psychologists reported in Chapter Eight who showed that intelligent adaptive responses can occur in problem solving situations without the use of either words or images of any kind; ",Set" and "determining tendencies" operate without the actual use of language in helping us to think purposefully and intelligently.

Again the Study of speech disorders due to brain injury or disease suggest that patients can think without having adequate control over their language, some patients, for example, fail to find the names of objects presented to them and are unable to describe simple events which they witness; they even find it difficult to interpret long written notices. But they succeed in playing games of chess or draughts. They can use the concepts needed for chess playing or draughts playing but are unable to use many of the concepts in ordinary language. How they manage to do this we do not know. Yet animals such as Kohler's chimpanzees can solve problems by working out strategies such as the invention of implements or Climbing aids when such animals have not language beyond a few warning cries. Intelligent or "insightful" behavior. is not dependent in the case of monkeys on language skills: presumably human beings have various capacities for thinking situations which are likewise independent of language.

According to the theory of "thought" devised by J. B. Watson, thinking is______.

A．talking to the soul

B．suppressed speech

C．speaking nonverbally

D．nonlinguistic behavior

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第8题

The increase in global trade means that international companies cannot afford to make cost

ly advertising mistakes if they want to be competitive.

Understanding the language and culture of target markets in foreign countries is one of the keys to successful international marketing. Too many companies, however, have jumped into foreign markets with embarrassing results.

Translation mistakes are at the heart of many blunders in international advertising.

General Motors, the US auto manufacturer, got a costly lesson when it introduced its Chevrolet Nova to the Puerto Rican market. "Nova" is Latin for "new(star)"and means "star" in many languages, but in spoken Spanish it can sound like "nova", meaning "it doesn't go". Few people wanted to buy a car with that cursed meaning. When GM changed the name to Caribe, sales "picked up" dramatically.

Marketing blunders have also been made by food and beverage companies. One American food company's friendly "Jolly Green Giant"(for advertising vegetables)became something quite different when it was translated into Arabic as "Intimidating Green Ogre".

When translated into German, Pepsi's popular slogan, "Come Alive with Pepsi" came out implying "Come Alive from the Grave". No wonder customers in Germany didn't rush out to buy Pepsi.

Successful international marketing doesn't stop with good translations—other aspects of culture must be researched and understood if marketers are to avoid blunders.

When marketers do not understand and appreciate the values, tastes, geography, climate, superstitions, religion, or economy of a culture, they fail to capture their target market.

For example, an American designer tried to introduce a new perfume into the Latin American market but the product aroused little interest. The main reason was that the camellia used in it was traditionally used for funerals in many South American countries.

Having awakened to the special nature of foreign advertising, companies are becoming much more conscientious in their translations and more sensitive to cultural distinctions.

The best way to prevent errors is to hire professional translators who understand the target language and its idiomatic usage, or to use a technique called "back translation" to reduce the possibility of blunders.

The process uses one person to translate a message into the target language and another to translate it back. Effective translators aim to capture the overall message of an advertisement because a word-for-word duplication of the original rarely conveys the intended meaning and often causes misunderstandings.

In designing advertisements for other countries, messages need to be short and simple.

They should also avoid jokes, since what is considered funny in one part of the world may not be so humorous in another.

The best title of this passage might be ______.

A．Culture Is Very Important in Advertising

B．Avoid Cultural Misunderstanding between Nations

C．Overcome Cultural Shock in Different Countries

D．Advertisements Reflect Various Life Styles

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第9题

Lately social scientists have begun to ask if culture is found just in humans, or if some

animals have culture too. When we speak of culture, we mean a way of life a group of people have in common Culture includes the beliefs and attitudes we learn. It is the patterns of behavior. that help people to live together. It is also the patterns of behavior. that make one group of people different from another group.

Our culture lets us make up for having lost our strength, claws, long teeth, and other defenses. Instead, We use tools, cooperate with one another, and communicate in language. But these aspects of human behavior, or "culture", can also be found in the lives of certain animals.

We used to think that the ability to use tools was the dividing line between human beings and other animals. Lately, however, we have found that this is not the case. Chimpanzees can not only use tools but actually make tools themselves. This is a major step up from simply picking up a handy object and using it. For example, chimps have been seen stripping the leaves and twigs off a branch, then putting it into a termite nest. When the termites bite at the stick, the chimp removes it and eats them off the end—not unlike our use of a fork!

For some time we thought that although human beings learned their culture, animals couldn't be taught such behavior. Or even if they could learn, they would not teach one another in the way people do. This too has proven to be untrue. A group of Japanese monkeys was studied at the Kyoto University Monkey Centre in Japan. They were given sweet potatoes by scientists who wanted to attract them to the shore of an island. One day a young female began to wash her sweet potato to get rid of the sand. This practice soon spread through out the group. It became, learned behavior, not 'from humans but from other monkeys. Now almost all monkeys who have not come into contact with this group do not. Thus we have a "cultural" difference among animals.

We have ruled out tool use and invention as ways of telling animal behavior. from human behavior. We have also ruled out learning and sharing of behavior. Yet we still have held out the last feature—language. But even the use of language can no longer separate human culture from animal culture. Attempts to teach apes to speak have failed. However, this is because apes do not have the proper vocal organs. But teaching them language has been very successful if we are willing to accept another forms rather than just the spoken word. Two psychologists trained a chimpanzee named Washoe to use Standard American Sign Language. This is the same language used by deaf people. In this language, "talk" is made through gestures, and not by spelling out words with individual letters. By the time she was five years old, Washoe had a vocabulary of 130 signs. Also, she could put them together in new ways that had not been taught her originally. This means she could create language and not just copy it. She creates her own sentences that have real meaning. This has allowed two-way talk. It permits more than one-way command and response.

Of course, there are limits to the culture of animals. As far as we know, no ape has formed social institutions such as religion, law, or economics. Also, some chimps may be able to learn sign language; but this form. of language is limited in its ability to communicate abstract ideas. Yet with a spoken language we can communicate our entire culture to anyone else who knows that language. Perhaps the most important thing we have learned from studies of other animals is that the line dividing us from them is not as clear as we used to think.

The passage mainly tells us about______.

A．the history of animal learning

B．the difference between animals' culture and that of human beings

C．the various aspects of animals culture

D．the dividing line between animals and human beings

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Having no language, infants cannot be told what they need to learn. Yet by the age of thre