2. 外语
  3. Culture is the total sum of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given group of human beings. In this sen

Culture is the total sum of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given group of human beings. In this sen

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问题     Culture is the total sum of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given group of human beings. In this sense, every group has a culture, however savage, undeveloped, or uncivilized it may seem to us.
    To the professional anthropologist(人类学者), there is no intrinsic (本质的) superiority of one culture over another, just as to the professional linguist there is no intrinsic rank among languages.
    People once thought of the languages of backward groups as savage, undeveloped forms of speech, consisting largely of grunts and groans. While it is possible that language in general began as a series of grunts and groans, it is a fact established by the study of" backward" languages that no spoken tongue answers that description today. Most languages of uncivilized groups are, by our most severe standards, extremely complex, delicate, and ingenious pieces of machinery for the transfer of ideas. They fall behind our Western languages not in their sound patterns or grammatical structures, which usually are fully adequate for all language needs, but only in their vocabularies, which reflects the objects and activities known to their speakers. Even in this department, however, two things are to be noted: 1.  All languages seem to possess the machinery for vocabulary expansion, either by putting together words already in existence or by borrowing them from other languages and adapting them to their own system. 2.  The objects and activities requiring names and distinctions in "backward" languages, while different from ours, are often  surprisingly numerous and complicated. A Western language distinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness (" this" and "that" ); some languages or the American Indians distinguish between what is close to the speaker, or to the person addressed, or remote from both, or out of sight, or in the past, or in the future.
    This study of language, in turn, casts a new light upon the claim of the anthropologists: all cultures are to be viewed independently, and without ideas of rank or hierarchy.
According to the author, languages, whether civilized or not, have the characteristics EXCEPT ______.
选项 A、the machinery for vocabulary expansion
B、possessing their own sound patterns
C、machinery for the transfer of ideas
D、surprisingly complicated distinctions in degree of remoteness
答案D
解析 是非题。本题要求考生确认三个语言特征并排除一个非语言特征。所有的语言无论发展多先进或落后，都有一些特点。关于该题的信息从文章的第三段，我们可以知道，每种语言都有增加词汇量的空间、拥有语音体系、能传达意思等共同点，但是在区别距离远近的指代上，有些“落后”的语言在复杂程度和丰富程度上远远高于西方语言，它们之间存在差别。所以该题答案为D。
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