老托福听力93篇-You'll recall简介

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　　You'll recall that in last week's class I talked about how the sound made by most animals, though sometimes complex, are different from human language. Only in humans do these sounds represent objects and events. Keep in mind that most animals can only repeat their limited utterances over and over again, while humans can say things that have never been said before. Today I want to focus on human language and how it developed. I doubt you'll be surprised when I say that the evolution of language was slow and laborious. There's some reliable evidence that language began with early humans a million and a half years ago. Through the study of the size and shape of brain fossils, scientists have determined that early human brains, like modern brains, had a left hemisphere slightly larger than the right hemisphere. We know that in modern humans, the left hemisphere's the seat of language. We also know that early human brains had a well-developed frontal section, known as Broca's area, which coordinates the muscles of the mouth and throat. It's clear, then, that early humans had a speech apparatus. They could produce any sound that we can. What we don't know is whether early humans used what they had. Since scholars know virtually nothing about prehistoric speech patterns, all they can do is speculate about how language actually originated. Let me give you a brief summary of some of these theories.

　　【生词摘录】

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　　1. utterance: n. [C]发音，说话，意见，言辞，言论

　　2. laborious: adj. 费力的，艰辛的

　　3. reliable: adj. 可靠的，可信赖的

　　4. fossil: n. [C]化石

　　5. hemisphere: n. [C]大脑半球

　　6. seat: n. [C]位置，场所，中心

　　7. frontal: adj. 前面的，前部的，前额的

　　8. coordinate: v. 协调，调整

　　9. apparatus: n. [C]仪器，设备，器械

　　10. prehistoric: adj. 史前的

　　11. speculate: v. 推测，思索

　　86

　　At last month's meeting you asked me to draw up a report about the possibility of keeping the student center open twenty-four hours a day. I decided that the best way to assess the need for expanded hours was to talk to the people who were still in the student center at closing time. First, over the course of the two weeks, I interviewed more than fifty students as they left the student center at its regular closing time of twelve midnight. About eighty percent of them said they would prefer that the center stay open later. Of the three main uses of the center—eating in the snack bar, recreation in the game room or watching TV, and studying by far the most popular late night activity is—and this may surprise you—studying. Almost all of the people I talked to said that their main reason for being in the center after ten p.m. was to study in groups or to find a quiet place to study because their dorm was too noisy. Of course, many of these people used the snack bar or TV room for breaks. My recommendation is that we ask the administration to keep the center open after midnight for studying. The recreation room and snack bar can still close at the usual time. This should meet the objection that it costs too much to staff the center from midnight to eight a.m., which I'm sure will be the first response.

　　【生词摘录】

　　1. assess: v. 评估，评定

　　2. snack bar: 快餐店，小吃店

　　3. recreation: n. [C]消遣，娱乐

　　4. break: n. [C]休息

　　5. recommendation: n. [C]推荐，劝告，建议

　　6. administration: n. [C]行政机关，管理部门

　　7. objection: n. [C]反对，反对的理由

　　8. staff: v. 供给职员，为…配置工人或助手等职工

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