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
46
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 passage, that language influences thought may be related to______.
选项
A、the vocabulary of a second language
B、the grammar of a second language
C、the improved test performance in a second language
D、the slowdown of thinking in a second language
答案
D
解析
推理判断题。根据题干关键词language influences thought定位至文章第四段。在该段中,作者指出语言对思维的影响与词汇和语法并没有关联,随后举例说明,人们在用第二语言进行考试时,反而不容易落入一些出题人设置的陷阱,在本段第六句中,作者指出使用第二语言会让人们放缓思维速度,故[D]为答案。关于语言对思维的影响,作者在第四段开头就明确指出,这未必与第二语言的词汇和语法相关,故排除[A]和[B];使用第二语言进行的考试表现是否有进步,原文并没有提及,故排除[C]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TEbK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Becauseoldpeopleknowwhentheyshouldgotothehospital.B、Becauseoldpeoplearehealthyfromtheirchildhoodtomiddlea
A、Lessrecoursetothetargetlanguage.B、Lessimmersioninthefirstlanguage.C、Highersecond-languageproficiency.D、Motivati
Part-timejobsarebeneficialtocollegestudentsinmanyaspects,andsomepeoplebelievethatseniorhighschoolstudentsshou
DuetothesoaringlivingcostinChina,youngloversnowareoptingfornakedmarriages—thosewithouttheonce-requiredtrappin
HowtoWriteaCollegeTermPaper?I.Tip1:Figureoutexactlywhattheprofessorwants.Read【T1】_____verycarefully.【T1】_
HowtoWriteaCollegeTermPaper?I.Tip1:Figureoutexactlywhattheprofessorwants.Read【T1】_____verycarefully.【T1】_
HowtoWriteaCollegeTermPaper?I.Tip1:Figureoutexactlywhattheprofessorwants.Read【T1】_____verycarefully.【T1】_
ThreeConceptsinArtHistoryI.Commonalities-Certainchunkof【T1】_____,【T1】______withinwhich【T2】_____wereshared【T2】_____
A、Herpassionabouttechnology.B、Herfrustratingpersonalexperience.C、Herdevotiontodigitaldevices.D、Herloveforherfam
随机试题
Itisoftendifficultforamantobequitesurewhattaxheoughttopaytothegovernmentbe-causeitdependsonsomanydiffe
A、耳后淋巴结B、颈前淋巴结C、颈后淋巴结D、锁骨上淋巴结左侧E、锁骨上淋巴结右侧 以下各区域淋巴液为哪组淋巴结收集食管、胃等器官的淋巴液
A.四肢硬瘫B.四肢软瘫C.上肢软瘫,下肢硬瘫D.上肢完好,下肢软瘫E.上肢完好,下肢硬瘫(2006年第127题)脊柱胸2水平损伤可引起
在景点导游的过程中,地陪应保证在计划的时间与费用内,游客能充分地游览、观赏,做到()。
根据窜货的表现形式及其影响程度,可以把窜货分为()。
教学过程的基本阶段有引起学习动机、________、________、运用知识、检查知识。
“80后”作为一个群体最初在社会舞台上甫一亮相,便引发了传统主流文化精英许多惊疑不定的批评。而这些批评,明显渗透出上一辈对新一代青年文化意识的忧虑情绪。产生这种普遍的忧虑情绪并非没有理由。因为“80后”这一标示时代年龄的概念,本身便偏向于对一个社会群体特殊
亚太经合组织(APEC)第十八次领导人非正式会议2010年11月14日在日本横滨闭幕。与会各成员领导人表示要促进亚太经济实现()、包容、可持续、创新和安全增长。会后,与会领导人发表《领导人宣言》,表示APEC将加快推进区域经济一体化,切实推动亚太自
【B1】【B12】
BenBuchananmadeabsolutelysurehisschedulewouldbeclearthisweek.LikemillionsofAmericans,theTexasteenisdevouring
最新回复
(
0
)