2. 外语
  3. Some Things We Know About Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so.But some things

Some Things We Know About Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so.But some things

admin2015-04-17  59
问题                         Some Things We Know About Language
    Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so.But some things we do know.
    First, we know that all human beings have a language of some sort.There is no race of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one another.Furthermore, in historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language.
    Second, there is no such thing as a primitive language.There are many people whose cultures are undeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized, but the languages they speak are not primitive.In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing.
    This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated.Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate.Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises.Study has proved this to be nonsense.There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old.They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive than English and Greek.
    A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate.That is, each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language.
    Finally, we know that language changes.It is natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones.This is easy to understand if we look back-ward in time. Change goes on in all aspects of language. Grammatical features change as do speech sounds, and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly. Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language.
The author has used American  Indian languages as an  example  to  show that they are
选项 A、just as old as some well-known languages
B、just as sophisticated as some well-known languages
C、more developed than some well-known languages
D、more complex than some well-known languages
答案B
解析 作者列举美国印第安人的语言的目的是证明这些语言和一些著名的语言一样先进。原句是：They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with,but they are no more primitive than English and Greek.
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/xBUd777K
本试题收录于： 职称英语综合类B级题库职称英语分类
0

职称英语综合类B级

职称英语

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)