2. 职称英语
  3. So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally complete and perfect

So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally complete and perfect

游客2024-11-29  22
问题     So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally
complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is,
every language appears to be well equipped as any other to 【M1】______
say the things their speakers want to say. 【M2】______
    There may or may not be appropriate to talk about 【M3】______
primitive peoples or cultures, but that is another matter.
Certainly, not all groups of people are equally competent in
nuclear physics or psychology or the cultivation of rice or the
engraving of Benares brass. Whereas this is not the fault of 【M4】______
their language. The Eskimos can speak about snow with
further more precision and subtlety than we can in English, 【M5】______
but this is not because the Eskimo language(one of those
sometimes miscalled "primitive")is inherently more precise
and subtle than English. This example does not come to light 【M6】______
a defect in English, a show of unexpected "primitiveness".
The position is simply and obviously that the Eskimos and the
English live in similar environments. The English language 【M7】______
will be just as rich in terms for different kinds of snow, 【M8】______
presumably, if the environments in which English was
habitually used made such distinction as important. 【M9】______
    Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo
language could be as precise and subtle on the subject of
motor manufacture or cricket if these topics formed the part 【M10】______
of the Eskimos’ life. For obvious historical reasons,
Englishmen in the nineteenth century could not talk about
motorcars with the minute discrimination which is possible
today: cars were not a part of their culture. But they had a
host of terms for horse-drawn vehicles which send us, puzzled,
to a historical dictionary when we are reading Scott or
Dickens. How many of us could distinguish between a chaise,
a landau, a victoria, a brougham, a coupe, a gig, a diligence,
a whisky, a calash, a tilbury, a carriole, a phaeton, and a
clarence? [br] 【M8】
选项
答案 will—would
解析 时态错误。本句为虚拟语气，因为英国是不可能像北极那样出现各种不同类的雪的，因此不能用will一般现在时。
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