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
2018-11-19
74
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.
【R5】
选项
答案
to count
解析
由第三段第二句“In 1980 Everett tried to teach them to count…”可知,此处应填to count。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/1JNK777K
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
Allowmetogiveyoualittleadviceaboutwriting【D1】______First,makeyourcharacters【D2】______Makesurethattheybehaveand
Determinewhatnumbershouldreplacethequestionmark:16424325612536?
Traditionally,theAmericanfarmerhasalwaysbeenindependentandhard-working.Intheeighteenthcenturyfarmerswerequites
Thiscandidatehasfarmorechancesofwinningtheelectionthan______recommendedbytheorganizer.
Thedetectivethoughttheguiltypartytobe______becauseIhadthestrongestmotive.
Butfortheirgeneroushelp,theexperiment______completedsoquickly.
Whatisrhythminliteratureaccordingtothepassage?
Whatisrhythminliteratureaccordingtothepassage?
Asthesupplyofgeneticallymodified(GM)foodincreases,manypeopleareunawarethatsomefoodtheyareeatingisaproductof
Lazinessisasin,everyoneknowsthat.Wehaveprobablyallhadlecturespointingoutthatlazinessisimmoral,thatitiswast
随机试题
所有爱斯基摩土著人都穿黑衣服;所有北婆罗洲土著人都穿白衣服;没有既穿白衣服又穿黑衣服的人;H穿白衣服。由此可见()
党的十七大提出,加快完善社会保障体制建设的重点是()。
Amoment’sdrillingbythedentistsmaymakeusnervousandupset.Manyofuscannotstandpain.Toavoidthepainofadrillin
对肺泡气分压变化起缓冲作用的肺容量是
肝脏严重受损时,血中蛋白质的主要改变是
酶活性极低,但不变性的温度是酶促反应随温度升高而加快的温度是
会计核算软件中的文字输入、屏幕提示和打印输出必须采用()。
以下各选项中,( )不属于著作财产权。
破釜沉舟:项羽
光纤接入网指的是使用______作为主要传输介质的因特网接入系统,在该传输介质中传输的是光信号。
最新回复
(
0
)