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
At some point in your life, you have likely heard a character on TV or in a book say something along the lines of, "The thing th
At some point in your life, you have likely heard a character on TV or in a book say something along the lines of, "The thing th
admin
2017-06-11
82
问题
At some point in your life, you have likely heard a character on TV or in a book say something along the lines of, "The thing that separates humans from the animals is..." You may have even heard such a sentiment completed in more than one way—some say it is our large brains, others our opposable thumbs, and still others claim it is our ability to use tools. While all of these attributes sound reasonable enough, none of them is truly unique to the human species. There are plenty of large mammals that have bigger brains than human beings, and we share our opposable thumbs and tool-using capabilities with several of our fellow primates. No, I would argue instead that the true thing that makes humans qualitatively different from other animals is our ability to use language.
Though there are people who claim that various phenomena from dolphin sounds to bird songs are " language" these arguments are typically confusions in terminology at best. There is no doubt that these noises serve to communicate ideas from animal to animal, but to most linguists the idea of language involves a means of communicating that is more complex, rule-based, and extensible—able to capture complicated ideas even with a relatively limited vocabulary.
Now, it seems reasonable to suppose that if human beings are several times more intelligent than these other creatures, our communications would be correspondingly more complex.
However, I believe that the converse is actually the case that the appearance of great intelligence in human beings is partly a product of our natural affinity for language. Language acquisition is not merely a function of our general reasoning capabilities; it is accomplished by particular and unique regions of our brains during the first seven or so years of childhood. Anyone studying a second language knows how difficult it really is to achieve fluency in a foreign tongue using only our general cognitive abilities, after this "language acquisition device" has shut itself off.
As much as we’d like to believe it, language is not mankind’s ingenious invention; it is our genetic birthright, and its acquisition is as instinctive and unconscious as salmon swimming upriver to spawn or geese flying south for the winter. Knowing this leads me to wonder: If other primates or dolphins could speak as we do, enabling them to share ideas and pass on their accumulated knowledge rather than learning it anew with each successive generation, would they really be so different from us?
The word "birthright"(Paragraph 5)suggests that language is______.
选项
A、inherited rather than earned
B、common rather than unique
C、artificial rather than natural
D、cultural rather than universal
答案
A
解析
细节推断题。第五段第一句话的后半部分“语言习得如大雁南飞,是出于本能的,潜意识的”,其中instinct和unconscious实际上与前面的genetic birthright相照应,三个词所要表达的信息一致,即语言习得并非刻意行为。A选项的意思与原文相符,B、C和D所表现的特点在文中均未提到,故选A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Z8FO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
AftertheviolentearthquakethatshookLosAngelesin1994,earthquakescientistshadgoodnewstoreport;Thedamageanddeath
Itisfutiletodiscussthematterfurther,because_____goingtoagreeuponanythingtoday.
Thegreatchariotofsociety,whichforsolonghadrundownthegentleslopeoftradition,nowfounditselfpoweredbyaninterna
Ahundredyearsagoitwasassumedandscientifically"proved"byeconomiststhatthelawsofsocietymakeitnecessarytohave
Thisdistinguisheddirector_____theplotfortheprizewinningfilmwhilehewasstillacollegestudent.
Somepeoplewanttomakeasmuchmoneyastheycanbecausetheybelievethatmoneycanbringthemfameand____.
Howmenfirstlearnttoinventwordsisunknown;inotherwords,theoriginoflanguageisamystery.Allwereallyknowisthat
In1993,amallsecuritycameracapturedashakyimageoftwo10-year-oldboysleadingamuchsmallerboyoutofaLiverpool,En
Weare______ourholidaypicturesontoascreensothatlotsofpeoplecanseethematthesametime.
Smugglingisa______activitywhichmightbringdestructiontooureconomy,therefore,itmustbebanned.(2004年中国科学院考博试题)
随机试题
下述外毒素的性质错误的是
一名女性患者,58岁,近几天口渴,多尿,随机血糖值为18.25mmol/L。如果想了解患者在这之前2—3个月的血糖值,应查
患者,男,28岁。疣状新生物20天。曾有两个性伴侣,无保护性性接触。查体:包皮、包皮系带、冠状沟处直径2~3mm大小丘疹,呈乳头状,触之易出血。活检:表皮角化不全,棘层增生肥厚,棘层上部细胞胞体较大,胞质淡染,中央有大而圆深染的核,细胞无异形性及排列紊乱。
不得作为医疗机构制剂申报的有()
患者,男性,、经扩容治疗后,测中心静脉压13mH2O,血压正常,尿量10ml/h,尿比重低1.010,应考虑患者出现
按预测模式的模拟形式大气污染源分为()类。
当在使用中对水泥质量有怀疑或水泥出厂超过( )个月(快硬硅酸盐水泥超过一个月)时,应进行复验,并按复验结果使用。
某家电企业决定进军房地产业,该企业的这项战略属于()。
甲在长途汽车站窃得他人挎包一个,事后发现包内有现金2000元、海洛因200克、手枪一把,遂将海洛因和手枪藏在家中。甲的行为构成()。(2014一法专一23)
Latelyithasbecomepopulartorejecttheadviceofdrinkingeightglassesofwateradayasamedicalmyth.Booksandmedical-
最新回复
(
0
)