專家解析大學英語四級考試歷年閱讀真題(十三)

　　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)

　　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(fā)現了手語的獨特性(realized that signed languages are unique)，意義是指手語的這一發(fā)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(fā)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的基本信息：華盛頓特區(qū)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(fā)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(fā)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(fā)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(fā)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(fā)：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?yōu)椤案锩�”。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)。

　　Passage Four

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

　　It came as something of a surprise when Diana, Princess of Wales, made a trip to Angola in 1997, to support the Red Cross’s campaign for a total ban on all anti-personnel landmines. Within hours of arriving in Angola, television screens around the World were filled with images of her comforting victims injured in explosions caused by landmines. “I knew the statistics,” she said. “But putting a face to those figures brought the reality home to me; like When I met Sandra, a 13-year-old girl who had lost her leg, and people like her.”