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 Piraha are an isolated Amazonian tribe of hunter-gatherers who live deep in the Brazilian
A World Without Time or Number The Piraha are an isolated Amazonian tribe of hunter-gatherers who live deep in the Brazilian
admin
2019-08-04
33
问题
A World Without Time or Number
The Piraha 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 a maximum of three words from the passage.
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
(文章第一段第三句提到“The Piraha,who communicate mainly through hums and whistles…”,即Piraha人主要通过哼哼和吹口哨来交流。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QvjK777K
本试题收录于:
D类竞赛(专科)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
D类竞赛(专科)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
A.fightingB.subjectsC.certainlyD.questionE.resultinF.furtherG.appearance
A.equippingB.exploreC.presentD.realisticE.noticeablyF.growingupG.interacting
A.equippingB.exploreC.presentD.realisticE.noticeablyF.growingupG.interacting
(1)Ifyou’dliketoaddasliceofyourheritagetoyourweddingceremony,you’renotalone.Millionsofcouplesareembracingt
AccordingtoIanPearson,afuturologist,theseareamongthedevelopmentsscheduledforthefirstfewdecadesofthenewmillen
PASSAGETWOHowdoVitaminC,limonoidsandphenolshelpcancerpatients?
(1)RemembertheStoneAgedaysofresearchbackinelementaryschoolandmiddleschool?Wewouldspendcountlesshoursdigesting
Formanyyearslargesupermarketshavebeenencouragingustospendmoneybypumpingthesmelloffreshly-bakedbreadintotheir
随机试题
根据我国《专利法》,申请专利的发明创造在申请日之前6个月内具有下列情况之一的不丧失新颖性,这些情况包括()
特许连锁商店
吾不以一日辍汝而就也。辍:
溶血性黄疸时假性黄疸(皮肤黄染,进食超量胡萝卜)时
A、乳糜微粒B、极低密度脂蛋白C、低密度脂蛋白D、中间密度脂蛋白E、高密度脂蛋白运输外源性甘油三酯的脂蛋白
在个案工作中认知行为治疗模式不同于行为治疗模式和认知治疗模式。下列表述中,能体现认知行为治疗模式特点的是()。
知照性公文包括()。
(),是管理发展的一种新趋势。
下列全是短篇小说中的人物的一组是:
What’sthemostpossiblerelationshipbetweenthetwospeakers?
最新回复
(
0
)