首页
登录
职称英语
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 language
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 language
游客
2025-03-27
5
管理
问题
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 languages. No one was certain of the true figure, but it was a lot. Visitors flocked from all corners of Europe to test him and came away stunned. Two condemned prisoners were due to be executed, but no one knew their language to hear their confession. Mezzofanti learned it in a night, heard their sins the next morning and saved them from hell.
Or so the legend goes. In Babel No More, Michael Erard has written the first serious book about the people who master vast numbers of languages. A journalist with some linguistics training, Mr. Erard is not a
hyperpolyglot
himself, but he approaches his topic with both wonder and a healthy dash of skepticism.
To find out whether anyone could really learn so many languages, Mr. Erard set out to find modern Mezzofantis. The people he meets are certainly interesting. One man with a mental age of nine has a vast memory for foreign words and the use of grammatical endings, but he cannot seem to break free of English word-order. Ken Hale, who was a linguist at MIT and died in 2001, was said to have learned 50 languages. Professional linguists still swear by his talent. But he insisted he spoke only three and could merely "talk" in others. Mr. Erard says that true hyperpolyglottery begins at about 11 languages, and that while legends abound, tried and tested exemplars are few.
Hyperpolyglots are likely to be introverted, which may come as a surprise to some. Hale’s son always said that, in his father’s case, languages were a cloak for a shy man. Emil Krebs, a German diplomat who was also credited with knowing dozens of languages, was rude in all of them. He once refused to speak to his wife for several months because she told him to put on a winter coat.
At the end of his story, however, Erard finds a surprise in Mezzofanti’s archive: flashcards. Stacks of them in twelve tongues. The world’s most celebrated hyperpolyglot relied on the same tools given to first-year language-learners today. The conclusion? Hyperpolyglots may begin with talent, but they aren’t geniuses. They simply enjoy tasks that are tedious to normal people. The talent and enjoyment drive a virtuous cycle that pushes them to feats others simply shake their heads at. [br] The passage is most likely a part of______.
选项
A、a news report
B、a science fiction
C、a research paper
D、a book review
答案
D
解析
参见文章介绍。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/4014214.html
相关试题推荐
CARDINALMEZZOFANTIofBolognawasasaintwhowassaidtospeak72language
CARDINALMEZZOFANTIofBolognawasasaintwhowassaidtospeak72language
CARDINALMEZZOFANTIofBolognawasasaintwhowassaidtospeak72language
CARDINALMEZZOFANTIofBolognawasasaintwhowassaidtospeak72language
CARDINALMEZZOFANTIofBolognawasasaintwhowassaidtospeak72language
ChineseauthorsofSCIpapersareusuallyaskedtohavethelanguage______byan
Languagelearningbeginswithlistening.Individualchildrenvarygreatlyin
Languagelearningbeginswithlistening.Individualchildrenvarygreatlyin
Languagelearningbeginswithlistening.Individualchildrenvarygreatlyin
______evidencethatlanguageacquiringabilitymustbestimulated.A、ItbeingB、
随机试题
[originaltext]W:DoctorLevy,tellusaboutsomeofthemoreunusualservicesh
[originaltext]InBritain,justafterthemaintelevisionnewsprogrammes,a
王某、于某、李某和赵某共同开办了一家房地产经纪公司B公司,王某和于某是房地产经纪
某车间操作平台梁,铰接于柱顶。梁跨度15m,柱距5m,梁上承受均布恒载标准值3k
内部导向战略范畴的有()。A.Y公司调整了新的广告策略 B.A公司成功地获得
基金管理公司内部控制机构包括如下层次()。A:员工自律B:部门各级主管的检查监
甲公司签发了一张银行承兑汇票交付于乙公司,乙公司向付款行提示承兑,付款行拒绝承兌
用于配制普通药物制剂的溶剂或试验用水为A.纯化水 B.灭菌蒸馏水 C.注射用
下列各项说法,符合上市公司股息、红利差别化个人所得税政策的有()。A.当个人转让
工程设备验收前,()应提交设备验收方案,包括验收方法、质量标准、验收的依据
最新回复
(
0
)