2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 48

Unit 48

In 1966 Allen and Beatrice Gardner, two psychologists at the University of Nevada in Reno, had a bright idea. They were interested in the evolution of language and the linguistic capabilities of great apes. Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to talk had ended in failure and the matter was considered by most people to be closed. But the Gardners realised that speech and language are not the same thing. Many deaf people, for example, are unable to speak but are perfectly able to communicate by gestures that have all the attributes and sophistication of spoken language. Given the very different anatomies of the human and chimpanzee larynx, the Gardners suspected that previous experiments had failed because chimps are physically incapable of speech.

They therefore decided to try teaching a chimpanzee to sign in the way that deaf people do. And their chosen subject, a female chimp named Washoe after the county in which the university campus is located, proved an adept pupil. Though there is still debate about whether what Washoe learned was really equivalent to human language, there is no doubt that she learned a lot of words. She now has a vocabulary of about 200. All of this, however, raises a second question. If Washoe and her successors can learn a complex and arbitrary vocabulary of gestures from people, do they have such vocabularies naturally? To examine that possibility Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal, of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have looked at gestures and expressions in chimpanzees and their cousins, bonobos.

Signalling by facial and vocal expression is ubiquitous among primates. Signalling by gesture is confined to the great apes. The researchers’ hypothesis was that the meaning of expressions has been hard-wired by evolution whereas the meaning of gestures is learnt and, at least to some extent, is arbitrary. If that were true, particular sorts of facial and vocal expression would occur only in particular contexts, and that this would be consistent across groups and even species. The same gestures, by contrast, would be used in different contexts.

The researchers found exactly what they expected. Expressions（“silent bared teeth”, “relaxed open mouth”, “pant hoot” and so on） almost always occurred in the same contexts in different groups and different species. Gestures （“hard touch”, “reach outside”, “slap ground” etc） did not. Half of the gestures Dr Pollick and Dr de Waal regularly observed seemed to have completely different meanings in the two species. Moreover, even within a single group, the meaning of a gesture could vary with context, almost as tone of voice can vary the meaning of a human’s spoken word.

It is also worth remembering that gesture is still a crucial part of human language, even for those with normal hearing. The old joke that the way to render an Italian speechless is to tie his hands together has a kernel of truth in it. Evolution does not come up with complicated structures in a single leap. They are built up step by step. This study suggests that the step of speech may have been built on mental attributes that were acquired millions of years ago when the ancestors of apes and men began to wave meaningfully at each other.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2002年真題Text 4。

1. From the first paragraph, we learn that _______.

A) chimpanzees do not have the capability of mastering a language

B) the Gardners found a new idea to develop the chimpanzee experiment

C) previous experiments failed because they merely focused on chimpanzees’ vocal ability

D) chimpanzees can use gestures as well as blind people

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?

A) Washoe was able to develop an entire system of signs and gestures of her own.

B) The vocabulary Washoe learnt is not similar to human language.

C) The Washoe experiment has enlightened further research.

D) The Gardners found that Washoe naturally has her vocabulary of gestures.

3. According to the author, gestures are different from facial and vocal expressions in that _______.

A) gestures are more complicated

B) gestures are limited to a certain type of species

C) facial and vocal expressions are more complicated

D) there is no difference between them

4. Which of the following best defines the word “hard-wired” （Line 3, Paragraph 3）?

A) Fixed.

B) Changed.

C) Taught.

D) Made.

5. The Pollick and de Waal research probably indicates that _______.

A) the apes are the closest species to human being

B) people with normal hearing do not really need to resort to gestures

C) the great apes naturally have the ability to use gestures

D) human language may have developed from signs and gestures

篇章剖析

本文是一篇關于研究大猩猩語言能力的說明文。第一、二段介紹了加德納夫婦的研究成果，并引出后兩位學者對倭黑猩猩的研究；第三、四段分別介紹了研究的假設和結果；最后一段進一步闡述了手勢對于人類腦力思考進化的影響。

詞匯注釋

psychologist /sa??k?l?d??st/ n. 心理學家

chimpanzee /?t??mp?n?zi?/ n. 黑猩猩

attribute /??tr?bj?t/ n. 屬性，品質，特征

sophistication /s??f?st??ke???n/ n. 復雜，精致

anatomy /??n?t?mi/ n. 分解，解剖

larynx /?l?r??ks/ n. 【解】喉

adept /??dept/ adj. 熟練的，拿手的

successor /s?k?ses?/ n. 繼承者，接任者

bonobo /?b?un??b?u/ n. 倭黑猩猩

ubiquitous /ju??b?kw?t?s/ adj. 到處存在的，普遍存在的

primate /?pra?m?t/ n. 靈長類的動物

hard-wired /?ha?d?wa??d/ adj. 天生的

pant /p?nt/ n. 氣喘

hoot /hu?t/ vi. 大聲叫囂，鳴響

render /?rend?/ vt. 致使

難句突破

The researchers’ hypothesis was that the meaning of expressions has been hard-wired by evolution whereas the meaning of gestures is learnt and, at least to some extent, is arbitrary.

主體句式：The researchers’ hypothesis was that...

結構分析：這個句子的難點在于that之后的這個賓語從句。從句以whereas為界可以分為兩個部分，其中后半個句子由whereas引導，與前半個句子為并列結構。此外，at least to some extent是一個插入語，一定程度上干擾和混淆了is learnt和is arbitrary這兩個結構的并列關系。

句子譯文：研究者的假設是，表情的意義在長期的進化過程中已經成為一種天生的能力，而手勢的意義是后天學成的，至少在一定程度上是任意的。

題目分析

1. B 推理題。文章第一段的主要內容就是講述加德納夫婦對于大猩猩語言能力試驗的新想法，因此答案為B。A選項的錯誤原因在于大猩猩沒有說話的能力，但是擁有語言能力，而兩者是不同的。C選項的錯誤原因在于前人的研究雖然確實都把重點放在了大猩猩的說話能力上，但其失敗的關鍵在于沒有區(qū)分語言能力和說話能力這兩個不同的方面。D選項原文中并沒有提及。

2. C 細節(jié)題。文章第二段中指出，Washoe的成就使科學家們提出了新的問題，并進行了進一步的研究，因此C選項正確。A選項的錯誤原因在于Washoe并沒有發(fā)展出她自己的一套手勢系統，而是人類的語言系統。

3. B 細節(jié)題。文章第三段第一句話指出：“通過表情和聲音來發(fā)送信號的現象在靈長類動物中是普遍存在的。但只有大猩猩才能用手勢發(fā)送信號”，并不存在兩者哪個更加復雜的說法。

4. A 語義題。從該詞所在句子的上下文中，可以理解其意思為：動物的表情經過了長期的演化具有了固定的意義，成為了動物一種天生的能力。因此A選項正確，其他幾項都不符合題意。

5. D 推理題。文章最后一段的最后一句話指出，人類祖先在使用手勢的時候很可能促使了腦部的發(fā)展，從而漸漸產生了語言能力，因此答案為D。C選項是該研究證實的結果，而不是其引申意義。

參考譯文

1966年，內華達大學雷諾分校的兩名心理學家阿倫與比特里斯·加德納夫婦產生了一個聰明的想法。他們對于大猩猩語言的進化和語言能力非常感興趣。前人曾試圖教黑猩猩說話，但那些努力最終都以失敗告終，很多人認為這個領域已經沒有什么可以研究的了。但是加德納夫婦意識到說話和語言并不是一件事情。比如說，許多聾啞人不能說話，但是他們卻能夠用手勢進行充分的交流，這些手勢都包含了人類語言的那些特點和復雜性。由于人類和黑猩猩喉嚨的結構不同，加德納夫婦認為前人研究的失敗是因為黑猩猩生理上就無法說話。

因此，他們決定試著教一只黑猩猩如何使用聾啞人的手勢。他們選擇的研究對象是一個名為Washoe的雌性黑猩猩，Washoe是該大學校園所在縣的名稱，而這只猩猩是一個很在行的學生。盡管人們仍在爭論Washoe學會的到底能不能算人類語言，但是毫無疑問她學會了很多詞匯。她現在的詞匯量約為200個單詞。所有這些都使人們提出了第二個問題。如果Washoe和她的繼任者們能夠從人類那里學會復雜和任意詞匯的手勢，那么他們是不是天生就擁有這些詞匯呢？為了驗證這種可能性，亞特蘭大埃默里大學的埃米·波利克和弗朗斯·德瓦爾對一些黑猩猩和他們的近親倭黑猩猩的手勢和表情進行了研究。

通過表情和聲音來發(fā)送信號的現象在靈長類動物中是普遍存在的。但只有大猩猩才能用手勢發(fā)送信號。研究者的假設是，表情的意義在長期的進化過程中已經成為一種天生的能力，而手勢的意義是后天學成的，至少在一定程度上是任意的。如果這個假設成立的話，那么各種特別的面部表情和聲音就只會在特殊的情境下出現，并且在物種群甚至是物種之間都是一致的。相反，同樣的手勢卻能夠在不同的情境下使用。

研究結果與預期的一致。不同的物種群以及物種之間都會在相同的情境下使用一些表情（“不出聲地張嘴露齒”、“放松地張嘴”、“高聲氣促”等），卻不會用相同的手勢（“硬碰”、“向外伸手”、“拍地”等）。波利克和德瓦爾博士規(guī)律性地觀察到的手勢中，有近一半在兩個物種之間具有幾乎完全不同的意義。此外，即使是在同一物種中，某一手勢的意義也可能在不同的情境下有所變化，就像人類說話時用不同的聲調可以表示不同的意義那樣。

我們應記住，手勢仍然是人類語言中一個至關重要的組成部分，特別是那些聽覺正常的人。有一個老笑話說，如果要讓一個意大利人閉嘴，那就把他的手綁起來，這個笑話有其道理所在。進化的過程不會一步就達到復雜的結構，而是一步一步演化過來的。該研究間接地說明，當幾百萬年前猿和人類祖先開始有意義地向彼此揮手的時候，這種腦力思考的特點就在一步步地向語言能力發(fā)展。