Every group has a culture, however uncivilized it may seem to us.
Every group has a culture, however 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 undeveloped. While it if 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 languages of uncivilized groups are, by our most severe standards, extremely complex. They differ from 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 reflect the objects and activities known to their speakers. Even in this aspect, two things are to be noted. First, 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. Second, the objects and activities requiring names and distinctions in “backward” languages, while different from the West, are often surprisingly numerous and complicated. A Western language distinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness (“this” and “that”). But 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.
1. Every group of human beings has ____.
A. its own set of ideas, beliefs and ways of life
B. an extremely complex and delicate language
C. its own elegant music, literature, and other arts
D. the process of growing crops or raising animals
2. To the professional linguists, ____.
A. there is no intrinsic superiority of cultures
B. there is no intrinsic hierarchy of languages
C. all languages came from grunts and groans
D. all languages are most severe and standard
3. Most languages of uncivilized groups are ____.
A. adequate
B. numerous
C. ingenious
D. ingenuous
4. “Backward” languages fall behind Western languages in ____.
A. ways to transfer ideas
B. forms to satisfy needs
C. abilities to answer description
D. systems to expand vocabulary
5. All languages, whether civilized or not, have their own ____.
A. ways to transfer ideas
B. forms to satisfy needs
C. abilities to answer description D. systems to expand vocabulary
6. Which of the following statements is implied in the passage?
A. Anthropologists have nothing to do with linguists.
B. Linguists have nothing to do with anthropologists.
C. The study of languages casts light upon the study of cultures.
D. The study of cultures casts no light upon the study of languages.
7. It is implied that all cultures have to be viewed ____.
A. profoundly
B. intrinsically
C. independently
D. professionally
8. According to this passage, to learn a foreign language would require one to ____.
A. do more activities
B. learn about a new culture
C. meet more people
D. need more names
（责任编辑:秩名）
