Inventing a universal language

文章大意

讲座讨论人类发明通用语言的尝试：多数语言自然演化而不规则，数百年来人们梦想造出完美通用语。17世纪William Spencer想用数字代替字母、后按植物分类法编词典；Ludwig Zamenhof则创造了世界语，即Esperanto。

题目与答案

1. Inventing a Universal Language

   Introduction

   ·Most languages were not invented - they evolved.

   ·Early invented languages were used for religious purposes or for 31_____

   ·We know of about 900 invented languages, but many have been lost

   答案：trade

   原文定位：The early invented languages that did exist were either created by priests to be used for religious purposes or developed to help establish trade between different nations

   同义替换：「used for」↔「developed to help」

2. William Spencer

   ·He wrote books about 32_____ so he needed an accurate language.

   答案：science

   原文定位：Accuracy was particularly important for Spencer because he wrote books. His subject was science

3. ·At first he tried to base his language on 33_____

   • Later he classified words in the same way that was used for plants

   答案：numbers

   原文定位：At first, he thought the only way to do this was, instead of using the usual letters of the alphabet;he tried to substitute numbers for them

   同义替换：「base」↔「substitute」

4. Ludwig Zamenhof

   ·He mixed together existing European languages.

   ·He wrote 34_____ to help develop his new language.

   答案：songs

   原文定位：Then Zamenhof used an interesting technique to help him develop his new language. He used it to write quite a few different songs, and this made his work more enjoyable

5. ·He wanted simplicity, e.g. one prefix to make words 35_____ .

   答案：negative

   原文定位：He had a single prefix that was used before adjectives or verbs to make them negative

   同义替换：「simplicity」↔「more simple」

6. ·He sent a 36_____ to his friends to publicise his language.

   ·He created the most successful invented language.

   答案：letter

   原文定位：he made a list of everyone he knew and posted a letter to all of them using the new language

   同义替换：「sent」↔「posted」

7. Bruce Goldie

   · Each word of his language was based on a 37_____ .

   答案：picture

   原文定位：Goldie thought that a universal language would be easier to use if the starting point for each word was a picture

   同义替换：「based on」↔「starting point for」

8. · His language did not get academic recognition at first.

   · Children in a Canadian 38_____ learned to read using his language.

   答案：hospital

   原文定位：This was in Canada, in fact, where it was used to teach a group of disabled children in a hospital to read

   同义替换：「learned」↔「used to teach」

9. Conclusion: why have invented languages failed?

   ·They cannot express 39_____ .

   答案：emotion

   原文定位：They are not good at conveying emotion, so they've never been very popular

   同义替换：「express」↔「convey」

10. ·English became the global language.

    ·They are now invented by 40_____ just for entertainment.

    答案：writers

    原文定位：more recently, the languages have often been created by writers, usually for entertainment

    同义替换：「invented」↔「created」