首页
登录
职称英语
Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only
Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only
游客
2023-10-20
35
管理
问题
Human beings learnt to talk about half a million years ago. Yet it was only about 5 ,000 years ago that our ancestors learnt to write.
They first wrote by using pictures. These pictures might mean just what they showed — for example, the moon or a tree. Such pictures are called pictographs (象形文字). But sometimes the drawings presented ideas which are suggested by the pictures. That is, three trees might mean a forest. An eye with tears might mean sorrow. These pictures are called ideographs (表意文字). Here is a drawing cut into a rock by North American Indians.
This means: " A brave chief went on a journey with five canoes. The journey took three days. " Showing the chief on a horse suggests " travelling" , for in fact he went in a canoe, not on horseback. The eagle suggests the chiefs courage. Three suns under a curved sky suggest three days.
The ancient Egyptians developed a beautiful form of writing about 5 ,000 years ago. This writing shows objects such as animals, birds and people. These are called hieroglyphs (古埃及用的象形字). Some hieroglyphs represented things, some ideas, and some sounds. For example, if we used this system for English, a picture of a loaf of bread might mean just bread, or maybe food in general, or the sound "b" with which the word "bread" begins. The ancient Egyptians used over 700 different hieroglyphs.
The alphabet was invented by the Phoenicians about 3,500 years ago. The Phoenicians lived where Syria and Israel are now. The alphabet was perhaps the greatest invention of mankind. Like many great inventions, it was extremely simple.
In an alphabet, symbols represent sounds, not objects or ideas. Any symbol can be used for an alphabet. For example, " * π + " could spell "cat" if we all agreed that these symbols represent the sounds "c" , "a" and "t". The 26 letter A—Z alphabet is the most widely used in the world, but there are over fifty alphabets in use. If we use an alphabet, we know how any word that we read sounds. We can also write down any word we hear. Words can be easily arranged in lists "alphabetically". Using a keyboard is also easy, as an alphabet contains only a few symbols (letters), and so few keys are needed.
Most languages use alphabets, but Chinese uses "characters". Characters are like drawings. They represent whole words, not single letters. There are therefore thousands of characters in Chinese, one for each word. You cannot know how a Chinese character sounds simply by looking at it. But if you have seen it before, you will know what it means without knowing how it sounds.
Questions 66—70
Answer the following questions according to the passage. [br] How did North American Indians present "three days" long before?
选项
答案
They drew three suns under a curved sky.
解析
(根据文章第三段最后一句话,北美洲的印第安人在石头上刻弯曲的天空,下面有三个太阳来代表三天。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3114249.html
相关试题推荐
Grainproductionintheworldis________,butstillmillionsgohungry.A、stagge
TheNortheast,with60millionpeople,isthemost________populatedpartofthe
(1)DeltaGoodremsaysshe’slearntalotoverthepastfewyears.Butonel
(1)DeltaGoodremsaysshe’slearntalotoverthepastfewyears.Butonel
(1)Nearly60millionvisitorsflocktothe384nationalparksacrossAmeric
(1)Nearly60millionvisitorsflocktothe384nationalparksacrossAmeric
Singleandlookingforlove?Howaboutadvertisingyourselftomillionsofp
Singleandlookingforlove?Howaboutadvertisingyourselftomillionsofp
Humanbeingslearnttotalkabouthalfamillionyearsago.Yetitwasonly
Humanbeingslearnttotalkabouthalfamillionyearsago.Yetitwasonly
随机试题
TheJointStatementontheFrameworkforCooperationstipulatesthatboththepa
PeoplewhospendalotoftimesurfingtheInternetaremorelikelytoshow
Whatisthepurposeofthefirstparagraph?[br]WhatisnottheroleofFIFA?A、
某市的一个小区里住了很多该市的消防员家属。一个星期前,在一次处理该市的一处工厂爆
初产妇,26岁,妊娠31周,自觉头晕、乏力及食欲不良半个月余。胎位、胎心及骨盆外
可以极为接近被摄体进行聚焦,在胶片上形成的影像可与被摄体自身的真实大小相当,又被
(2017年真题)下列选项中,属于股权投资基金特点的是()。A.投资期限短
国际工程投标中,投标人做出最终报价前应对估算人员算出的暂时标价进行对比分析,其目
汽车消费信贷计划的程序不包括()。A:申请贷款 B:草签协议 C:签订合同
肝硬化患者出现持续性白细胞减少,与哪个选项关系最大A.脾功能亢进 B.营养吸收
最新回复
(
0
)