評論
打印
【真題再現】
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born With, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.
When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.
Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混雜英語). But Stokoe believed the “hand talk” his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually: have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as “substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy (異端邪說).
It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (調節) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff—it’s brain stuff.”
21. The study of sign language is thought to be ________.
A) a new way to look at the learning of language
B) a challenge to traditional, views on the nature of language
C) an approach: to simplifying the grammatical structure of a language
D) an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language(C)
22. The, present growing interest in sign language was stimulated by ________.
A) a famous scholar in the study of the human brain
B) a leading specialist in the study of liberal arts
C) an English teacher in a university for the deaf
D) some senior experts in American Sign Language(C)
23. According to Stokoe, sign language is ________.
A) a Substandard language
B) a genuine language
C) an artificial language
D) an international language(B)
24. Most educators objected to Stokoe’s idea because they thought ________.
A) sign language was not extensively used even by deaf people
B) sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted
C) a language should be easy to use and understand
D) a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds(D)
25. Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that ________.
A) sign language is as efficient as any other language
B) sign language is derived from natural language
C) language is a system of meaningful codes
D) language is a product of the brain(D)
【精講】
這篇文章內容核心是手語，以一位手語專家的研究歷程為線索，粗略介紹了手語研究的新觀點：手語是獨立于語音的另一種語言。材料一共四段。開頭介紹了手語研究的進展以及意義，“進展”指過去的20年研究人員發現了手語的獨特性(realized that signed languages are unique)，意義是指手語的這一發現為研究大腦如何應用與理解語言開辟了新的方向(a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language)，同時為一個古老的科學論題帶來了新的希望：語言到底是天生的還是后天習得的(whether language……is something that we are born With, or whether it is a learned behavior)。之后，文章簡單介紹了這一研究發現的先驅人物，以后的內容全部都是圍繞這位先驅的研究經歷展開的。
第一段末介紹了這位先驅人物Stokoe的基*考試&大本信息：華盛頓特區一所聾人大學的教師。第二段便從他的教學經歷講起，談到他被安排教授手語后發現了一個奇怪的現象：學生們的動作與教他的老師所講的并不一樣(students signed differently from his classroom teacher)。這就是新發現的契機。
接下來，文章先是簡單說明一下當時的手語教育狀況，以和他的新發現作為對比。首先是承接上文所說，講他從老師那里學來的手語的基本特點：每個手勢代表英語里的一個單詞(each movement of the hands representing a word in English)，這可以理解為手語實際上是語言的附庸。其次是人們普遍認為美國手語不過是一種混雜英語(thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English)，這里也在強調手語從屬于語言。之后是Stokoe自己的發現與思考：他認為學生們使用的手語意義比人們的普遍觀點要更為豐富(the “hand talk” his students used looked richer)，同時受到了啟發：或許聾人確實擁有一種真正的語言。
上一段最末一句說Stokoe的觀點在當時過于超前，被視為學術異端，最后一段時空一下跳轉到了37年以后，此時的Stokoe忙于寫作、編輯、出品美國手語方面的書籍報刊和視頻(writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials)，同時饒有興致地為人講述這場“革命”是如何開始的。從這里的信息可以看出，Stokoe的觀點的地位已經是今非昔比了，否則如此多的出版物不會有市場需求，其稱呼也不會從“異端”變為“革命”。不過，反對觀點依然十分強大，這一派認為語言必須以語音為基礎，是聲音的變體(language must be based on speech, the modulation of sound)，而Stokoe則反駁手語恰恰以手的動作為基礎(sign language is based on the movement of hands)，譏諷道“語言不是嘴巴層次的東西，而是大腦層次的東西(brain stuff)。
