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第二篇 Some Things We Know about Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some thingswe 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 backward 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. According to the author, people of underdeveloped cultures can have______ language.

A. complicated
B. uncivilized
C. primitive
D. well-known

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阅读下面这篇短文,短文后列出了7个句子,请根据短文的内容对每个句了作出判断。如果该句提供的是正确信息,请选择A项;如果该句提供的是错误信息,请选择B项;如果该句的信息文章中没有提及,请选择C项。 TV Games Shows One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the "best sellers" list with a sale of fewer than 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well known overnight. This is the principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for the prize and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars just for fun. But all of this money can create problems. For instance, in the 1950s, quiz shows were very popular in the US and almost everyone watched them. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show’s producers, who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand. Why Because if the audience didn’t like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. Based on his story, a movie under the title "Quiz Show" is on 40 years later. Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren’t taken as seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliating them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions. One of the TV personalities, Charles Van Doren was proved to be cheating by persuading the show’s producers to give him the answers beforehand.

A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

第二篇 Some Things We Know about Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some thingswe 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 backward 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 language as an example to show that they are ______.

A. just as old as some well-known languages
B. just as advanced as some well-known languages
C. more developed than some well-known language
D. more complex than some well-known language

下面有3篇短文,每篇短文后有5道题,每道题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题,从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案填在题前的括号内。第一篇 The Street Violinist I got up and dressed, stuck my violin under my jacket, and went out into the streets to try my luck. I wandered about for an hour, looking for a likely spot, feeling as though I were about to commit a crime. Then I stopped at last under a bridge near the station and decided to have a try. I felt tense and nervous. It was the first time, after all. I drew the violin from under my coat like a gun. It was here, in Southampton, with trains rattling overhead, that I was about to declare myself. One morning I was part of the hurrying crowds, the next I stood apart, my back to the wall, my hat on the pavement before me, the violin under my chin. The fist notes I played were loud and raw, like a declaration of protest. Then they settled down and began to run more smoothly and to stay more or less in turn. To my surprise I was neither arrested nor told to shut up. Indeed, nobody took any notice at all. Then an old man, without stopping, surreptitiously tossed a penny into my hat as though getting out of some guilty evidence. I worked the streets of Southampton for several days, gradually acquiring the truths of the trade by trial and error. It was not a good thing, for instance, to let the hat fill up with money—the sightcould discourage the patron. Nor was it wise to empty it completely, which could also confuse him, giving him no hint as to where to drop his money. Placing a couple of pennies in the hat to start the thing going soon became a regular ritual, making sure between tunes, to hide most of the earnings, but always leaving two pennies behind. Old ladies were most generous, and so were women with children, shopgirls, typists and barmaids. As for the man, heavy drinkers were always willing listeners and so were big guys with muscles. But never a man with a gentleman’s hat, briefcase or dog. Respectable types were the meanest of all. Except for retired army officers, who Would yell "Why aren’t you working, young man" and then toss some money into the hat to hide their confusion. According to the author, what is the best way to encourage people to give a street violinist money

A. To wear an attractive hat.
B. To fill up the hat with money.
C. To leave a couple of pennies in the hat.
D. To empty the hat completely.

第二篇 Some Things We Know about Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some thingswe 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 backward 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. In the second paragraph the author thinks that ______.

A. some backward race doesn’t have a language of its own
B. some race in history didn’t possess a language of its own
C. any human race, whether backward or not, has a language
D. some races on earth can communicate without language

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