首页
登录
职称英语
A World Without Time or Number The Pirahci are an isolated
A World Without Time or Number The Pirahci are an isolated
游客
2023-10-17
52
管理
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. [br] 【R1】
选项
答案
hums and whistles
解析
由第一段第三句“The Piraha,who communicate mainly through hums and whistles…”可知,此处应填hums and whistles。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3104821.html
相关试题推荐
Wepreferredtoputthemeetingoffratherthan______itwithoutadequateprepara
Wepreferredtoputthemeetingoffratherthan______itwithoutadequateprepara
Thenumberthatshouldcomenextintheseries64,16,4,1,1/4is______.40924
Finallyyou______tonumberthepostcardssothatyourfriendcouldputthemint
Eachnumbershownbelowfollowsacertainrule.Figureouttheruleandworkout
Wewouldliketoexpressour______alargenumberofbusinessesandbusinesspu
8195+1921Ifthesetwonumberstotal6879,whatdothetwonumbersbelowtotal?
Writeaboutthefollowingtopic.Inmanycountries,increasingnumbersofyoung
Whatnumbercomesnext?[img]2012q2/ct_eyyjscz2010a_eyyjsciq_0192_20122[/img]8.
When______inadownpourwithoutanumbrellaoraraincoat,mostpeoplewouldpic
随机试题
Happinessisachoice:youcanchoosetobesadwheneverythingisgoingwel
FromOurDarkestDay,OurBrightestHopeThatawfulSeptemberm
A.(Ⅰ)相关(Ⅱ)相关 B.(Ⅰ)无关(Ⅱ)无关 C.(Ⅰ)无关(Ⅱ
实现共产主义社会的根本条件和基础是( )。A.社会生产力的高度发展 B.人与人
个人商用房贷款属于()。A.个人耐用消费品贷款 B.个人住房贷款 C.个
圣诞节学生送老师礼物怎么看待?
以下关于木结构防火要求的5种观点: I.木结构建筑之间的防火间距不应小于10m
职工代表大会的职权是什么?
单加氧酶系主要存在于 A.线粒体B.胞液C.溶酶体D.微粒体
近期,中国翰园碑林被中国书法家协会命名为全国首家“中国书法名园”,可以说是___
最新回复
(
0
)