Text 2
Today the study of language in our schools is somewhat confused. It is the most traditional 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 mean ing different from that of any other. The forms of the verbs are even more numerous. The Eskimo language is, therefore, one of the most dif ficult 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."
A:Eskimo words are full of forms B:Eskimo words are difficult to spell C:Eskimo words are numerous D:Eskimo words are hard to understand
In the passage, the author mentioned:" Eskimo words are highly inflected", this probably means
A:Eskimo words are full of forms B:Eskimo words are difficult to spell C:Eskimo words are numerous D:Eskimo words are hard to understand
In terms of the meaning expressed by words, they can be classified into ().
A:grammatical words and lexical words B:content words and lexical words C:grammatical words and function words
Passage Two
Having no language, infants cannot be told what they need to learn. Yet by the age of three they will have mastered the basic structure of their native language and will be well on their way to communicative competence. Acquiring their language is a most impressive intellectual feat. Students of how children learn language generally agree that the most remarkable aspect of this feat is the rapid acquisition of grammar. Nevertheless, the ability of children to conform to grammatical rules is only slightly more wonderful than their ability to learn words. It has been reckoned that the average high school graduate in the United States has a reading vocabulary of 80,000 words, which includes idiomatic expressions and proper names of people and places. This vocabulary must have been learned over a period of 16 years. From the figures, it can be calculated that the average child learns at a rate of about 13 new words per day. Clearly a learning process of great complexity goes on a rapid rate in children.
A:They learn words before they learn grammar. B:They learn even very long words. C:They learn words very quickly. D:They learn the most words in high school.
The exact number of English words in not known. The large dictionaries have over half a million entries, but many of these are compound words (schoolroom, sugarbowl) or different derivatives of the same word, and a good many are obsolete words to help us read older literature. Dictionaries do not attempt to cover completely words that we can draw on; the informal vocabulary, especially slang, localism, the terms of various occupations and professions, words used only occasionally by scientists and specialists in many fields, foreign words borrowed for use in English, or many new words or new senses of words that come into use every year and that may or may not be used long enough to warrant being included. It would be conservative to say that there are over a millon English words that any of us might meet in our listening and reading and that we may draw on in our speaking and listening.
Professor Seashore concluded that first-graders enter school with at least 24 000 words and add 5 000 each year so that they leave high school with at least 80 000. These figures are for recognition vocabulary, the words we understand when we read or hear them. Our active vocabulary, the words we use in speaking and writing, is considerably smaller.
You cannot always produce a word exactly when you want it. But consciously using the word you recognize in reading will help get them into your active vocabulary. Occasionally in your reading pay particular attention to these words, especially when the subject is one that you might well write or talk about. Underline or make a list of words that you feel a need for and look up the less familiar ones in a dictionary. And then before very long find a way to use some of them. Once you know how they are pronounced and what they stand for, you can safely use them.
A:making a list of words you need and looking up the new ones in a dictionary B:spending half an hour studying the dictionary C:consciously using the words you recognize in reading D:trying to use the words you recognize
The exact number of English words in not known. The large dictionaries have over half a million entries, but many of these are compound words (schoolroom, sugarbowl) or different derivatives of the same word, and a good many are obsolete words to help us read older literature. Dictionaries do not attempt to cover completely words that we can draw on; the informal vocabulary, especially slang, localism, the terms of various occupations and professions, words used only occasionally by scientists and specialists in many fields, foreign words borrowed for use in English, or many new words or new senses of words that come into use every year and that may or may not be used long enough to warrant being included. It would be conservative to say that there are over a millon English words that any of us might meet in our listening and reading and that we may draw on in our speaking and listening.
Professor Seashore concluded that first-graders enter school with at least 24 000 words and add 5 000 each year so that they leave high school with at least 80 000. These figures are for recognition vocabulary, the words we understand when we read or hear them. Our active vocabulary, the words we use in speaking and writing, is considerably smaller.
You cannot always produce a word exactly when you want it. But consciously using the word you recognize in reading will help get them into your active vocabulary. Occasionally in your reading pay particular attention to these words, especially when the subject is one that you might well write or talk about. Underline or make a list of words that you feel a need for and look up the less familiar ones in a dictionary. And then before very long find a way to use some of them. Once you know how they are pronounced and what they stand for, you can safely use them.
A:making a list of words you need and looking up the new ones in a dictionary B:spending half an hour studying the dictionary C:consciously using the words you recognize in reading D:trying to use the words you recognize
Passage Two Having no language, infants cannot be told what they need to learn. Yet by the age of three they will have mastered the basic structure of their native language and will be well on their way to communicative competence. Acquiring their language is a most impressive intellectual feat. Students of how children learn language generally agree that the most remarkable aspect of this feat is the rapid acquisition of grammar. Nevertheless, the ability of children to conform to grammatical rules is only slightly more wonderful than their ability to learn words. It has been reckoned that the average high school graduate in the United States has a reading vocabulary of 80,000 words, which includes idiomatic expressions and proper names of people and places. This vocabulary must have been learned over a period of 16 years. From the figures, it can be calculated that the average child learns at a rate of about 13 new words per day. Clearly a learning process of great complexity goes on a rapid rate in children.
According to the passage, what is impressive about the way children learn vocabulary()A:They learn words before they learn grammar. B:They learn even very long words. C:They learn words very quickly. D:They learn the most words in high school.
{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? Poetry{{/B}} ? ?People seldom feel neutral about poetry(诗). Those who love it sometimes give the impression that it is an adequate substitute for food, shelter, and lobe. It isn’t words, no matter how satisfying, are never an equivalent for life itself and its human experiences. Those who dislike poetry on principle sometimes claim, on the other hand, that poetry is only works and good for nothing. That’s not true either. It is easy to become frustrated by words-in poetry or in life-but when words represent and recreate genuine human feelings, as they often do in poetry, they can be very important. Poetry is, in fact, more than just words. It is an experience of words, and those who know how to read poetry can easily extend their experience of life, their sense of what other people are like, their awareness of themselves, and their range of human feelings. ? ?One reason poetry can be so important is that it is so closely concerned with feelings, poetry is often full of ideas, too, and sometimes poems can be powerful experiences of the mind, but most poems are primarily about how people feel rather than how people think. Poems provide, in fact, a language for feeling, and one of poetry’s most insistent merits involves its at tempt to express the inexpressible. How can anyone, for example, put into words what it means to be in love or what it feels like to lose someone one cares about? Poetry tries, and it often captures exactly the shade of emotion that feels just right to a reader. No single poem can be said to express all the things that love or death feels like, or means, but one of the joys of experiencing poetry occurs when we read a poem and want to say," Yes, that is just what it is like; I know exactly what that line means but I’ve never been able to express it so well." Poetry can be the voice of our feelings even when our minds are speechless with grief or joy. |
A:is more than just words B:is the poets’ feelings about words C:is anything but patterns of lines D:is an experiment on the use of words
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