首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A World Without Time or Number The Pirahci are an isolated Amazonian tribe of hunter—gatherers who live deep in the Brazilian
A World Without Time or Number The Pirahci are an isolated Amazonian tribe of hunter—gatherers who live deep in the Brazilian
admin
2019-08-28
39
问题
A World Without Time or Number
The Pirahci are an isolated Amazonian tribe of hunter—gatherers who live deep in the Brazilian rainforest. The tribe has survived for centuries, although there are now only around 200 people left. The Piraha, who communicate mainly through hums and whistles, have fascinated ethnologists for years, mainly because they have almost no words for numbers. They use only three words to count: one, two, and many.
We know about the Piraha thanks to Dan Everett, a Professor of Phonetics, who spent seven years with the tribe in the 1970s and 1980s. Everett discovered a world without numbers, without time, without words for colours, without subordinate clauses and without a past tense. Their language, he found, was not just simple grammatically; it was restricted in its range of sounds and differed between the sexes. For the men, it has just eight consonants and three vowels; for the women, who have the smallest number of speech sounds in the world, to seven consonants and three vowels. To the untutored ear, the language sounds more like humming than speech. The Piraha can also whistle their language, which is how men communicate when hunting.
Their culture is similarly constrained. The Piraha can ’ t write, have little collective memory, and no concept of decorative art. In 1980 Everett tried to teach them to count: he explained basic arithmetic to an enthusiastic group keen to learn the skills needed to trade with other tribes. After eight months, not one could count to ten; even one plus one was beyond them. The experiment seemed to confirm Everett’ s theory: the tribe just couldn’ t conceive the concept of number.
The Piraha’ s inability to count is important because it seems to disprove Noam Chomsky’ s influential Theory of Universal Grammar, which holds that the human mind has a natural capacity for language, and that all languages share a basic rule structure, which enables children to understand abstract concepts such as number.
Questions 71—75
Complete the summary with words from the passage, changing the form where necessary with no more than three words for each blank.
The Piraha is a tribe who has lived in the Brazilian rainforest for hundreds of years. They communicate just:with 【R1】______. This has made many ethnologists interested in them. Their language is very special, not only because it is simple 【R2】______, but also because it is different 【R3】______the sexes. Men and women acquire different 【R4】______. Although a professor of phonetics has tried to teach them 【R5】______, he failed. This seems to disprove Noam Chomsky’ s influential Theory of Universal Grammar.
【R1】
选项
答案
hums and whistles
解析
由第一段第三句“The Piraha,who communicate mainly through hums and whistles…”可知,此处应填hums and whistles。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/0ZNK777K
本试题收录于:
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
C类竞赛(非英语专业本科)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Whenwereturnedfromtheball,wefoundthatourhouse______andmanythings______.
—Doyouthinkwecan______thepackagearrivingtomorrow?—Ihopeso.We’vebeenwaitingforalongtime.
BeforetheConsultantsArriveManagementconsultantsareadvisershiredbyacompanytohelpimproveoveralloperations.The
SupposeyouareLiHua,acollegestudentintheUKYouarerequiredtowritealetterinreplytothefollowingnewspaperadver
Lookatthefollowingcartoonandwriteanarticle,whichshouldmeetthefollowingthreerequirements;(1)Describethepic
In2003,MattHarding,avideogamedesignerworkinginAustralia,decidedtoleavehisjobandtravelaroundSoutheastAsiawi
Inalittle-knownpartofthecounter-terrorismworld,oneofthemosteffectivedetectionsystemsisa600-poundanimal【C1】___
BTWFName:BomThisWayFoundationStarted:in2011byLadyGagaand【D6】_________Aim:tobuildasocietywherepeopleaccepteach
Theoceanshaveabigeffectontheweatherwerelyonforcropsandplants.
随机试题
公共政策执行受到来自________的影响和制约。()
糖皮质激素用于严重细菌感染的目的
在帷幕灌浆中,下列哪些因素与灌浆压力有关().
()负责受理短期融资券的发行注册。
以下不属于会计结果的是()。
刘老师家庭负担重,老人要看病,孩子要读书,于是用假名在培训机构上课,挣钱补贴生活。这种行为()。
国家乒乓球队的健儿团结拼搏,为祖国和人民赢得金牌。这种爱国主义和集体主义情感属于()
1,2,6,15,31,()
求幂级数的收敛域.
下列说法中,错误的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)