Linguistic(語言學的) Puzzles

How did language begin? What was the world's first language? Do all languages come from one original language?    __71___  .

In the 4th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote this account: Psamtik I，an Egyptian King, wanted to find out what the oldest language in the world was.   __72___  .He told his servant to find two newborn babies.When the servant had found them, the king gave them to a shepherd (牧羊人) and said, “Keep these babies with the goats.Take care of them, but do not talk to them.Listen to any words that they say.” The king wanted to find out what language the children would speak if they were left alone.He said, “The first words they speak will come from the original language of the world.”

 __73___   . He told the king who asked his scholars about this word.They told him that the Phiygians, who lived in an area which is now Turkey, called bread “becos”．The king said, “Then Phiygian is the oldest language.” Today we know that the king's conclusion was wrong.We don't know why the children said “becos”．

 __74___ . Scholars discovered that many European and southern Asian languages belonged to the same “family” and that they started from the same parent language, Proto­Indo­European.Linguists think that it had split into several different languages, including Greek and Sanskrit, between 2000 and 1000 BC.Other languages, such as English and Spanish, developed from later splits.

 __75___ . Two questions that interest linguists are: How does language change? Why does language change? If you like solving mysteries, historical linguistics may be the job for you.

A．Nowadays, we study the origin of language more scientifically

B．He was talking about this problem with his scholars when he had an idea

C．The King was very kind to his servant and his servant remained royal to him

D．Linguists are the scholars who are very interested in categorizing the language families

E．People have been trying to find the answers to these questions for more than 2000 years

F．One day, while the babies were babbling to each other, the shepherd heard them say “becos”

G．Linguists have classified many language families, and they are still trying to categorize others

   

71.E　72.B　73.F　74.A　75.G

   

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【小題2】
A．study B．imitateC．stimulateD．learn
【小題3】
A．matesB．relativesC．membersD．fellows
【小題4】
A．whichB．thatC．thoseD．ones
【小題5】
A．mind B．concernC．careD．involve
【小題6】
A．hireB．a(chǎn)pply C．a(chǎn)dopt D．use
【小題7】
A．in publicB．a(chǎn)t mostC．a(chǎn)t largeD．a(chǎn)t best
【小題8】
A．consistsB．comprisesC．constitutesD．composes
【小題9】
A．seldomB．much C．never D．often
【小題10】
A．prospectB．wayC．reasonD．necessity
【小題11】
A．primaryB．firstC．principalD．prior
【小題12】
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【小題13】
A．formerB．formulaC．formalD．formative
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A．themeB．topic C．ideaD．point
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Hot words on the Internet don’t stay hot for long. “Geili” and “fuyun”, last year’s biggest linguistic innovations, are practically prehistoric in Internet terms. What’s buzzing now is “hold steady”

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D．keep calm

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D．In western culture, holding steady is a quality of well-mannered people.

3.Which of the following is NOT the way to hold steady?

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B．tell funny stories about how to hold steady

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D．give advice on how to keep cool in daily life

 

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Beijing has started a battle to get rid of "Chinglish" (Chinese English). The "Language Mandarins" of Beijing have decided that Chinglish is a disease for China's modernizing claim and must be obliterated before the city hosts the Olympic Games in 2008.

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   A. everyone shares the disdain for the mixed language

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   D. should collect more Chinglish phrases

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