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
(1)Some of the advantages of bilingualism include better performance at tasks involving " executive function"(which involves the
(1)Some of the advantages of bilingualism include better performance at tasks involving " executive function"(which involves the
admin
2019-05-30
38
问题
(1)Some of the advantages of bilingualism include better performance at tasks involving " executive function"(which involves the brain’s ability to plan and prioritize), better defense against dementia in old age and—the obvious—the ability to speak a second language. One purported advantage was not mentioned, though. Many multilinguals report different personalities, or even different worldviews, when they speak their different languages.
(2)It’s an exciting notion, the idea that one’s very self could be broadened by the mastery of two or more languages. In obvious ways(exposure to new friends, literature and so forth)the self really is broadened. Yet it is different to claim—as many people do—to have a different personality when using a different language. A former Economist colleague, for example, reported being ruder in Hebrew than in English. So what is going on here?
(3)Benjamin Lee Whorf, an American linguist who died in 1941, held that each language encodes a worldview that significantly influences its speakers. Often called " Whorfianism" , this idea has its sceptics, but there are still good reasons to believe language shapes thought.
(4)This influence is not necessarily linked to the vocabulary or grammar of a second language. Significantly, most people are not symmetrically bilingual. Many have learned one language at home from parents, and another later in life, usually at school. So bilinguals usually have different strengths and weaknesses in their different languages—and they are not always best in their first language. For example, when tested in a foreign language, people are less likely to fall into a cognitive trap(answering a test question with an obvious-seeming but wrong answer)than when tested in their native language. In part this is because working in a second language slows down the thinking. No wonder people feel different when speaking them. And no wonder they feel looser, more spontaneous, perhaps more assertive or funnier or blunter, in the language they were reared in from childhood.
(5)What of "crib" bilinguals, raised in two languages? Even they do not usually have perfectly symmetrical competence in their two languages. But even for a speaker whose two languages are very nearly the same in ability, there is another big reason that person will feel different in the two languages. This is because there is an important distinction between bilingualism and biculturalism.
(6)Many bilinguals are not bicultural. But some are. And of those bicultural bilinguals, we should be little surprised that they feel different in their two languages. Experiments in psychology have shown the power of "priming"—small unnoticed factors that can affect behavior in big ways. Asking people to tell a happy story, for example, will put them in a better mood. The choice between two languages is a huge prime. Speaking Spanish rather than English, for a bilingual and bicultural Puerto Rican in New York, might conjure feelings of family and home. Switching to English might prime the same person to think of school and work.
(7)So there are two very good reasons(asymmetrical ability, and priming)that make people feel different speaking their different languages. We are still left with a third kind of argument, though. An economist recently interviewed here at Prospero, Athanasia Chalari, said for example that:
Greeks are very loud and they interrupt each other very often. The reason for that is the Greek grammar and syntax. When Greeks talk they begin their sentences with verbs and the form of the verb includes a lot of information so you already know what they are talking about after the first word and can interrupt more easily.
(8)Is there something intrinsic to the Greek language that encourages Greeks to interrupt? People seem to enjoy telling tales about their languages’ inherent properties, and how they influence their speakers. A group of French intellectual worthies once proposed, rather self-flatteringly, that French be the sole legal language of the EU, because of its supposedly unmatchable rigor and precision. Some Germans believe that frequently putting the verb at the end of a sentence makes the language especially logical. But language myths are not always self-flattering: many speakers think their languages are unusually illogical or difficult—witness the plethora of books along the lines of " Only in English do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway: English must be the craziest language in the world!" We also see some unsurprising overlap with national stereotypes and self-stereotypes: French, rigorous: German, logical: English, playful. Of course.
(9)In this case, Ms Chalari, a scholar, at least proposed a specific and plausible line of causation from grammar to personality: in Greek, the verb comes first, and it carries a lot of information, hence easy interrupting. The problem is that many unrelated languages all around the world put the verb at the beginning of sentences. Many languages all around the world are heavily inflected, encoding lots of information in verbs. It would be a striking finding if all of these unrelated languages had speakers more prone to interrupting each other. Welsh, for example, is also both verb-first and about as heavily inflected as Greek, but the Welsh are not known as pushy conversationalists.
According to the author, which of the following advantages of bilingualism is commonly accepted?
选项
A、Personality improvement.
B、Better task performance.
C、Change of worldviews.
D、Avoidance of old-age disease.
答案
B
解析
细节理解题。根据题干关键词advantages和commonly accepted定位至文章第一段首句。作者在该句中列举了三个人们普遍接受的使用双语的益处,包括能够更好地完成某些特定的任务,年老时预防老年痴呆,以及可以讲另一种语言,可见,其中第一点与[B]的表述相一致,故[B]为正确答案。在作者提及的三种公认的优势中,没有涉及性格改善和世界观的改变,且第一段最后一句提及的也只是讲多种语言的人在说不同的语言时展现不同的性格和世界观,而不是会使性格改善或改变世界观,故排除[A]和[C];而关于老年病,原文提到,双语使用可以带来的益处是better defense“更好的预防”,而不可等同于avoidance“避免”,故排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/HEbK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thoseofusinvolvedintheinternationalizationofhighereducationrelyonaseriesofassumptionsthatareoftennotsupport
StudyActivitiesinUniversityInordertohelpcollegeanduniversitystudentsintheprocessoflearning,fourkeystudy
Learningforeignlanguages,bothatschooloraftergraduation,canberewardedinmanyways.Unfortunately,people【S1】______j
Plagiarism,meaningtheundocumenteduseofanotherperson’swork,isthemostseriousoffenseinacademia.Universitiespursue
Theeducationalsystemaroundtheworldhasbeenusingstandardizedteststoevaluatetheperformanceofstudents.However,ther
CrossCulturalBusinessPresentationsWithinthebusinessenvironment,understandingandcopingwithinterculturaldifferencesb
AnalyzingFictionI.【T1】______【T1】______—Arrangementofeventstoa)【T2】_____【T2】______b)Raisethelevelofgeneralityc)【T3
HowtoWriteaCollegeTermPaper?I.Tip1:Figureoutexactlywhattheprofessorwants.Read【T1】_____verycarefully.【T1】_
ThreeConceptsinArtHistoryI.Commonalities-Certainchunkof【T1】_____,【T1】______withinwhich【T2】_____wereshared【T2】_____
CultureAsaBarriertoCommunicationOurculturewillpreventusgettingourmessageacrossandreceivingthefullmessageinte
随机试题
A.烂苹果味B.蒜臭味C.腥臭味D.酒味E.苦杏仁味氰化物中毒时,患者呼吸时可有()
气性坏疽的诊断依据有
关于恶性肿瘤细胞细胞核的改变,下列说法不正确的是
边坡开挖应该满足的条件有()。
本期发生额是一个期间指标,它说明某类经济内容的增减变动情况。()
资产负债表是指反映单位在的()会计报表。
财务报表分析不能解决企业会计报表本身的真实问题。()
在军事上,导弹的发射及飞行轨道的计算控制、先进防空系统等现代化军事设施通常都是()控制的大系统,其中包括雷达、地面设施、海上装备等。
作为调节社会经济运行的一种重要经济杠杆。提高税率通常将()。
下列各句中,表达连贯、表意明确,没有语病的一句是()。
最新回复
(
0
)