2020年下半年大学英语四级听力美文第41篇:Is There a Backward Langu

2020-12-06 16:54:00来源：网络

　　新东方在线英语四级频道为备考英语四级的同学们整理了英语四级听力美文，希望可以为大家带来帮助，一起来看看吧。

　　2020年下半年大学英语四级听力美文100篇

　　英语四级听力美文第41篇:Is There a Backward Language

　　Culture is the sum total of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given groupof human beings.In this sense, every group has a culture, however savage, underdeveloped, oruncivilized it may seem to us.To the professional anthropologist, there is no intrinsicsuperiority of one culture over another,just as to the professional linguist there is nointrinsic rank among languages. People once thought of the languages of backward groups assavage, underdeveloped forms of speech, consisting largely of grunts and groans.

　　While it is 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 answersthat description today.Most languages of uncivilized groups are, by our most severestandards, extremely complex, delicate, and ingenious pieces of machinery for thetransfer of ideas.

　　They fall behind our Western languages not in their sound patterns or grammatical structures, which usually are fully adequate for all language needs, but only in their vocabularies, whichreflect the objects and activities known to their speakers.

　　Even in this department, however, two things are to be noted:

　　1. All languages seem to possess the machinery for vocabulary expansion either by puttingtogether words already in existence or by borrowing them from other languages and adaptingthem to their own system.

　　2. The objects and activities requiring names and distinctions in “backward” languages, whiledifferent from ours, are often surprisingly numerous and complicated. A Western language isdistinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness (“this” and “that”); some languagesof the American Indians distinguish between what is close to the speaker, or to the personaddressed, or removed from both, or out of sight, or in the past, or in the future. This study oflanguage, in turn, casts a new light upon the claim of the anthropologists that all cultures areto be viewed independently, and without ideas of rank.

　　2020年下半年大学英语四级听力美文100篇

　　 编辑推荐：

　　2020年12月大学英语四级听力50篇(汇总)

　　2020年12月英语四级听力场景词汇(汇总)

　　2020年12月英语四级听力考试必考习语(汇总)

　　2020年12月英语四级听力高频词汇分类盘点

　　2020年12月大学英语四级听力常考话题盘点

　　2020年下半年大学英语六级考试听力考点句(汇总)

新东方英语四级好课免费听↓↓↓

课程名称	课程亮点	试听
【小班课】英语四六级零基础无忧计划	1V1私教	免费试听
【零基础】四六级全科专项突破	零基础速升	免费试听
【公开课】听力/阅读/写作/翻译提升	名师小课	免费试听
【经典】英语四六级全程班	超高性价比	免费试听
了解更多四六级课程