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2023届阅读理解话题分类专练:语言学习
（共4题）
一、阅读理解题（共4题）
The close relationship between speakers and their speech has led some scholars to suggest that language determines the view we have of the world around us. Different languages segment natural phenomena differently. We name seven colors in the rainbow: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Speakers of other languages may see only four, as did Turkish before our system was introduced, or even as few as two, roughly the lighter shades versus the darker. There is nothing in nature to demonstrate how we should chop up the spectrum of the rainbow, but when we have learned a given language, we distinguish the shades it designates, both in the rainbow and elsewhere students of language assume from such a situation that language determines much of the and patterns we see in the world around us, and that it directs our concepts and actions.
Changes in the choice of language, then, might modify behavior. Today gasoline trucks are generally labeled "flammable (易燃的)". The in-prefix was taken as equivalent to that of words like "inactive", where in-means not". It is actually the in-of words like "intense", where it strengthens the meaning. The word "inflammable", then, means "highly flammable". The faulty interpretation of language, however, determined the attitudes of many speakers, who then adjusted their behavior in relation to the language. Prudent truck owners have taken notice and changed the warning to "flammable".
Such observations led Whorf to a concept with deeper patterns of language, such as the use of tenses in the language of Europe. Tense is the linguistic expression or time. English and other European languages generally require their speakers to identify the time of an event, whether present: It is raining; past: It rained; or future: It will rain. By contrast, many languages, such as the Hopi language of New Mexico, lack expression for tense. Nor do such languages objectify time. In Hopi one cannot count days, minutes, years as though they were objects like stones. Everyday expressions like "Three years went by" are impossible in Hopi.
Comparing such languages, Whorf proposed that "our use of tense or our objectified view of time is favorable to historicity set and to everything connected with the keeping of records." That is to say, because of the patterns for referring to time in English and other languages, their speakers maintain records and emphasize bookkeeping, accounting, and the like. In accordance with it, ones conception of the world is relative to the language one learns.
While the relativity hypothesis (假设) has attracted considerable attention, it has never been experimentally demonstrated to the valid. A large scale attempt to test the outlook of Hopi-speaking children versus English speaking children turned out to be inconclusive. It remains a task of future scholars to determine whether the hypothesis is valid and also whether one should assume a weak or strong position with regard to it. Clearly we are deeply tied to our native language. But whether it regulates our perceptions or our view of the world is still an open question.
(1) The case of the label "flammable" is mentioned to prove that _____.
A．languages can affect our choices of action
B．prefixes can lead to disasters if used improperly
C．some truck drivers can adjust their behavior
D．misunderstanding can happen among speakers
(2) It can be inferred from the passage that the use of tense _____.
A．reflects deeper patterns of European languages
B．transforms abstract ideas into objects
C．helps avoid certain ambiguity in concepts or ideas
D．makes it possible to modern e the Hopi language
scholars
(3) What can we learn from the passage
A．Different languages often have different methods of keeping historical records.
B．We need more studies to find out if we are closely related to our native tongues.
C．Our mother tongues have a great influence on our world views and behavior.
D．It's no easy task to confirm the link between mother tongues and our concepts.
It's a proven fact that the way in which we remember things changes as we get older. Just look at the different ways in which kids and adults learn languages.
They learn best by singing songs, mimicking (模仿) others and playing games. They can learn to repeat words after only hearing them a couple of times.
Adults prefer to analyse a language and find out how it works before they start speaking. It also reflects an ingrained (根深蒂固的) learning strategy developed through years of life experience.
On the surface, it seems that kids learn faster. They start speaking a new language more quickly and find it easier to remember new vocabulary.
Adults are generally able to concentrate for longer periods of time. They aren't distracted by friends wanting to play football or thinking about what they want for Christmas next year.

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