苏州大学考博英语2.doc

四川大学2012考博英语真题及答案详解? 阅读?1）Sign?has?become?a?scientific?hot?button.?Only?in?the?past?20?years?have?specialists?in?language?study?realized?that?signed?languages?are?unique—a?speech?of?the?hand.?They?offer?a?new?way?to?probe?how?the?brain?generates?and?understands?language,?and?throw?new?light?on?an?old?scientific?controversy:?whether?language,?complete?with?grammar,?is?something?that?we?are?born?With,?or?whether?it?is?a?learned?behavior.?The?current?interest?in?sign?language?has?roots?in?the?pioneering?work?of?one?rebel?teacher?at?Gallaudet?University?in?Washington,?D.?C.,?the?world’s?only?liberal?arts?university?for?deaf?people.When?Bill?Stokoe?went?to?Gallaudet?to?teach?English,?the?school?enrolled?him?in?a?course?in?signing.?But?Stokoe?noticed?something?odd:?among?themselves,?students?signed?differently?from?his?classroom?teacher.Stokoe?had?been?taught?a?sort?of?gestural?code,?each?movement?of?the?hands?representing?a?word?in?English.?At?the?time,?American?Sign?Language?(ASL)?was?thought?to?be?no?more?than?a?form?of?pidgin?English?(混杂英语).?But?Stokoe?believed?the?“hand?talk”?his?students?used?looked?richer.?He?wondered:?Might?deaf?people?actually:?have?a?genuine?language??And?could?that?language?be?unlike?any?other?on?Earth??It?was?1955,?when?even?deaf?people?dismissed?their?signing?as?“substandard”.?Stokoe’s?idea?was?academic?heresy?(异端邪说).It?is?37?years?later.?Stokoe—now?devoting?his?time?to?writing?and?editing?books?and?journals?and?to?producing?video?materials?on?ASL?and?the?deaf?culture—is?having?lunch?at?a?cafe?near?the?Gallaudet?campus?and?explaining?how?he?started?a?revolution.?For?decades?educators?fought?his?idea?that?signed?languages?are?natural?languages?like?English,?French?and?Japanese.?They?assumed?language?must?be?based?on?speech,?the?modulation?(调节)?of?sound.?But?sign?language?is?based?on?the?movement?of?hands,?the?modulation?of?space.?“What?I?said,”?Stokoe?explains,?“is?that?language?is?not?mouth?stuff—it’s?brain?stuff.”21.?The?study?of?sign?l