Culture is the sum total of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given group of people. In this sense, every group has a culture, however savage, underdeveloped, or uncivilized it may seem to us. To the professional anthropologist, there is no intrinsic superiority of one culture over another, just as to the professional linguist there is no intrinsic hierarchy among languages.
People once thought of the languages of backward groups as savage, undeveloped forms of speech, consisting largely of grunts and groans. While it is possible that language in general began as a series of grunts and groans, it is a fact established by the study of "backward" languages that no spoken tongue answers that description today. Most language of uncivilized groups are, by our most severe standards, extremely complex, delicate, and. ingenious pieces of machinery for the transfer of ideas. They fall behind our Western languages not in their sound patterns or grammatical structures, which usually are fully adequate for all language needs, but only in their vocabularies, which reflects the objects and activities known to their speakers. Even in this department, however, two things are to be noted: 1. All languages seem to possess the machinery for vocabulary expansion, either by putting together words already in existence or by borrowing them from other languages and adapting them to their own system. 2. The objects and activities requiring names and distinctions in "backward" languages, while different from ours, are often surprisingly numerous and complicated. A Western language distinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness ("this" and "that"); some languages of the American Indians distinguish between what is close to the speaker, or to the person addressed, or removed from both, or out of sight, or in the past, or in the future.
This study of language, in turn, casts a new light upon the claim of the anthropologists that all cultures are to be viewed independently and without ideas of rank of hierarchy.
The language of uncivilized groups as compared to Western languages are limited in ______.
A. sound patterns
B. vocabularies
C. grammatical structures
D. both B and C
I regret ______ you that I can't go to Hangzhou for a visit next Sunday with you, because
A. to tell
B. telling
C. tell
D. having told
In 1891, Naismith was an instructor at a training school, which trained 【C4】______ education instructors for the YMCAs. That year the school was trying 【C5】______ up with a physical activity that the men could enjoy 【C6】______ the football and baseball seasons. None of the standard indoor activities 【C7】______ their interest for long. Naismith was asked to solve the problem for the school. He first tried to 【C8】______ some of the popular outdoor sports, but they were all too 【C9】______ . The men were getting bruised from tackling each other and 【C10】______ hit with equipment. So, Naismith decided to invent a game that would incorporate the most common elements of outdoor team sports without having the real physical contact. Most popular sports used a ball, so he chose a soccer ball because it was soft and large enough that it 【C11】______ no equipment, such as a bat or a racket to hit it. Next he decided 【C12】______ an elevated goal, so that scoring would depend on skill and accuracy rather than on 【C13】______ only. His goals were two peach baskets. 【C14】______ to ten-foot-high balconies al each end of the gym. The basic 【C15】______ of the game was to throw the ball into the basket. Naismitb wrote rules for the game, 【C16】______ of which, though with some small changes, are still 【C17】______ effect. Basketball was an immediate success. The students 【C18】______ it to their friends and the new sport quickly 【C19】______ on. Today, basketball is one of the most popular games 【C20】______ the world.
【C1】
A. particular
B. especial
C. special
D. specialty
听力原文: A Boeing 727 aircraft with 51 passengers and 10 crew on board has crashed into a mountain side just outside the Columbia capital, Bogota. Police and rescue workers said everyone was killed when the plane exploded scattering wreckage over a wide area. The crash happened shortly after take-off when the plane was unable to gain enough height to clear the mountains. The aircraft belonged to Ecuador Airline, but it had been chartered by Air France for the route from Bogota to Ecuadorian Capital, Quito.
______ people were killed during the air crash.
A. 61
B. 51
C. 41
D. 10