Question

SECTION B

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

There are between 3000 and 6000 public languages in the world, and we must add approximately 6  __36___  private languages since each one of us necessarily has one.  __37___  these facts, the possibilities for breakdowns in communication seem infinite in number. However, we do  __38___  successfully from time to time. And we do learn to speak languages.                               But learning to speak languages seems to be a very  __39___  process. For a long time, people thought that we learned a language only by imitation and association.  __40___, a baby touches a hot pot and starts to cry. The mother says, “Hot, hot!” And the baby, when it stops crying,  __41___  the mother and says, “Hot, hot!” However, Noam Chomsky, a famous expert in language,  __42___  that although children do learn some  __43___ by imitation and association, they also combine words to make meaningful sentences in ways that are unique, unlearned and creative.

Because young children can make sentences they have never heard before, Chomsky suggested that human infants are born with the  __44___  to learn language. Chomsky meant that underneath all the differences between public and private languages, there is a universal language mechanism that makes it  __45___  for us, as infants, to learn any language in the world. This  __46___  explains the potential that human infants have for learning language. But it does not really explain how children  __47___  use language in particular ways.

36. A. million             B. trillion            C. thousand                D. billion

37. A. Supposing          B. Given             C. Considering           D. Taken

38. A. speak              B. tell               C. learn                     D. communicate

39. A. various            B. mysterious           C. famous                    D. obvious

40. A. For example       B. Such as           C. Like this                D. That is

41. A. understands      B. imitates          C. loves                     D. attaches

42. A. pointed at       B. pointed to         C. pointed out              D. point off

43. A. words            B. sentences               C. paragraphs             D.passages

44. A. right               B. ability            C. power                   D. force

45. A. certain                  B. impossible           C. possible                 D. successful

46. A. imagination               B. fiction            C. invention                      D. theory

47. A. come to           B. become to     C. go to                    D. used to

Answer

36. D   37. C  38. D  39. B  40. A  41. B  42. C 43. A  44. B  45. C  46. D  47. A

【解析】略