Let’s look at some examples of what researchers have discovered. One of the most famous examples of insect communication is the dance language of bees. When bees have found a source of food they do a dance. The movements of the bees and their positions show the distance and direction of the food source. For insects, this is an advanced communication system but no, you can’t call this language in the human sense.
Researchers have found that certain sounds dolphins make are linked to specific types of behavior. For example .they’ll make one kind of whistling sound while feeding, another while socializing. Sometimes one dolphin will whistle（吹口哨） and another will seem to answer. Dolphins have large human-sized brains and it’s possible that they may have a type of language.
It’s not surprising that primates（灵长类） may have advanced communication systems. Verve monkeys have different alarm calls 危险预警信号for different animals. An alarm call meaning “eagle鹰” sends monkeys down the trees while an alarm call meaning “leopard” sends them up the trees.
The most exciting work of all has been done in America where researchers have taught chimpanzees American Sign Language. A monkey called Washoe has learnt hundreds of words and is able to use then in sentences, for example, “want food now.” When people seem upset she signed words such as “hurt” and “sorry”. On one occasion, a young chimpanzee took Washer’s magazine. Washoe signed to herself, “Bad, bad, bad”. Clearly words have meaning for Washoe and for some of her companions too.
However, when all is said and done, none of the research has shown that animals use language in the complex way that humans do. However, the researcher ……
Unit 10
Listening in
Passage 1
M: What do you think of it, Remeo and Julie?
W: It really is the greatest love story. You can’t imagine how wonderful it was for me to see it. M: So did you enjoy your time in London?
W: It’s been incredible. I’ve learned so much about London and what fun you can have here. It’s just amazing.
W: So where are we now?
M: This is the West End, which is famous for its cinemas and theatres. I used to work in a theatre near here.
W: And I thought Camden Market was great fun. M: That’s Electric Ballroom down there. W: What’s that?
M: It’s one of the greatest clubs in London. W: And the pubs were unbelievably cosy. M: What are you having?
W: Oh, an orange juice, please.
M: An orange juice and I’ll have a half of bitter, please. O: All right, sir
W: And I love learning about the history of London
W: I think this is my favorite view in the whole of London. Big Ben is a really important part of life of the country
W: And it was great to work in Time Off London.
M2: So you are all set for the interview with Janet’s Chinese friend? M: Sure. We are meeting him tomorrow at midday. M2: And Janet. You are OK to give Andy a hand?
W: Yes, thank you very much for another chance after last week
Conversation 2
W: But most of all I’ve had so much fun discovering London together with you.
W: What a wonderful view! This is such a great city. Do you ever get tired of living in London, Andy?
M: When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford. M: Well, it is great you’ve had a good time here. So when do you go back to Oxford? W: Term starts next week.
M: And what will you do when you finish?
W: I will go back to China. That’s where my home is and my family. But I will always want to come back to London.
M: Excellent. Maybe we can stay in touch
W: I really hope so, Andy. You have been such a good friend to me. I don’t know how to say thank you enough. M: Bu ke qi.
W: You speak Chinese. You have nerve told me.
M: Dui, wo hui shuo yidianer zhongwen. I learned a bit at uni. We’ll all be speaking Chinese in the future.
W: Just like we all speak English today. M: Yes, zaijian lihui.
W: Zaijian, Andy. Feichang ganxie.
M: Bu ke qi. I’ll miss you, come back to London soon
Outside view
……Think for a minute about the kinds of people who practice extreme sports. The people in
these pictures: daredevil（喜欢冒险的人，鲁莽大胆的人）, risk-takers, thrill-seekers. Sure! But what kind of job do you think they have? Exciting jobs, right? What kinds of lives do they lead? Thrilling lives, of course! How old are they? They’re all under 30, right? what do they look like? Tall, strong, powerful, of course! Now, think again ……So, tell me, how come you came to the dentist?
……Um, well, I wanted to come for my regular, like, yearly appointment. ……Doctor Stephen Green is a holistic（整体的） dentist.
……We’ll try to tell you a little bit about your diet and your nutrition and most of your immune
system is built around the food we eat. My goal is finding health, and helping your find health and find that balance using the teeth as, as kind of a window into that. And making a lot of money, ah, is not where it’s at. It’s, it’s helping people.
……Doctor Green is passionate about his work. He is also passionate about windsurfing.
……I really don’t consider myself extreme. I’m a 60-year-old man, but I love to get out there. It
keeps me in shape. The, the act of preparing my sails, getting out there, looking at the wind, planning the day, talking to other windsurfers, deciding how we’re are going to prepare, what we’re going to rig, is, is part of it. Just sometimes the rigging and de-rigging is enough exercise but if I get out of there and I get going and I find that magical balance, it’s, it’s worth it all, and, and, and, it’s taught me not to be afraid. Un, that’s, that’s the biggest thing I’ve learnt from it.
……Most Sundays Doctor Green gets together with his son, Jeremy.
……I can’t believe you picked such a good day for your tournament, Jeremy.
……Yeah, these waves are incredible. The wind is up. Going to have a good day, huh? My son
Jeremy, ah, he, he’s just amazing, uh, he’s just the most balanced person I ever met. He’s created in Jupiter a, a kiting Mecca. Uh, people love to come here. And he’s created a whole set of friends from a wide variety of walks of life.
……People have come here from all over the world to learn kite surfing. If you’ve never surfed,
if you’ve never flown kites, um, you can learn this easy. There’s no one type of person, uh, that can do this sport. My dad and I are like brothers. Uh, we’ve gone surfing together in Costa Rica, we’ve gone windsurfing in Miami, and now we’ve gone kite surfing in the Dominican Republic. It’s magic to do it by yourself, but to be able to share it with your son, l mean, oh! What a blessing! When the wind starts blowing 20 miles an hour, or 22 miles an hour, the power just increased so much. Kite boarding is like flying. It’s like no other sport. You’re in the moment. You’re not thinking about anything else, except for worried about how you’re going to control this, and how you’re going to land. I, I, I love to watch Jeremy kitesurfing, uh, it’s, first of all he’s part of me, so part of me is doing all those big jumps and feel the exhilaration（兴奋）. It doesn’t take a lot of strength if you had the balance. You can take the sport, you know, up to about 30 miles an hour, uh, before it starts to get very, very dangerous. Safety’s very, very important. People are always asking me if they can hurt themselves kiteboarding. Those big jumps and those long distances make it very, very dangerous. you can hurt yourself if you don’t know your limits and you go in extreme conditions. Injury is part of it and eating our green vegetables and taking our enzymes（酶）we’ve found that we’re able to be very resilient, bounce back very quickly, and the injuries then become a very small part of our experience.
……When I go out, I go fast, it feels good. Even if for a few moments, it, it’s, it’s just the most
exhilarating（使人异常兴奋的）, most wonderful, most magical things that can happen. And I know that I’m, I’m young again and it’s worth every day. It keeps me happy for a month.
Listening in
Passage 1
There have always been tales of miraculous survival at sea and the latest news story is one
of the best survival stories you ever hear. A 62-year-old American citizen called Richard Van Pham, an immigrant from Vietnam, set out in his small eight-meter boat from Southern California one morning last May. He intended to sail to an island 35 kilometers away. The trip to the island normally takes a day but there was a bad storm and the high winds broke the boat’s mast（船桅）so the sail fell down and it broke the rudder so there was no means of directing the boat. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the radio stopped working and so did the boat’s motor. With no way of sailing, the boat just floated with no direction, day after day, and it wasn’t until fourth months later – four months, imagine that! –that an American plane spotted the boat almost 480 kilometers off the coast of Coast Rica. The plane radioed an American ship nearby and it rescued poor Richard Van Pham. Pham was delighted to be rescued of course, but astonishingly, he didn’t want to be taken back home. Instead, he wanted the sailors to help him repair his boat so that he could sail to Hawaii. Yes, Pham thought he was near Hawaii, an island in another direction. Very understandable, considering the length of time he’d been at sea.
Pham had lost 18 kilometers but apart from that he was in surprisingly good health. he ‘d survived by catching fish and drinking rainwater. There were old newspaper onboard and he’d read them. There was also solar generator（发电机）aboard so he’d been able to watch videos on a small television. Sounds OK, doesn’t it
The reason why no one had reported him missing was because he had no family. He’d come to America in 1976 and had became a successful businessman. But ten years ago he had a bad car accident which left him unable to work. Most recently he had been living in his boat.
Where’s Pham now? Well, the ship’s sailors liked Pham so much that they gave him $800 to fly back to San Francisco in America. And finally, what did Pham have to say about his experience?” If you travel at sea, you take what you find. If you were scared you will die.” What a man!
Passage 2
Woman: You remember Craig Clarkson? Man: He’s a friend of yours.
Woman: Yes, well, I saw him recently –he’s just about to go on a three-week sailing trip across
the Atlantic and he makes it sound like walking to the other side of the town. What makes a man with a family sail across the Atlantic?
Man: A need to be alone with nature? Something like that.
Woman: I’m sure that’s part of it, but there’s lot more to it than that, I think. Man: A need to prove yourself, get recognition from other people?
Woman: Yes, but then there’s that comedian, the man who swam across the England Channel. Man: Um, comedian – yes, I know who you mean.
Woman: He’s hugely successful, he has no need for recognition, so why did he do it? Or the
other day I read about an 11-year-old boy, who’d climbed Qomolangma, the highest mountain in the world. Extraordinary!
Man: Well, I think humans are built to need goals and challenges to feel alive. It’s in our
genes, it’s why we’re not living in caves, why we have this need to conquer nature. It’s what that mountaineer said:’’ why do I want to climb the mountain? Because it’s there.”
Woman: But what I can’t understand is that people go though such hardship, I mean, look at
Ranulph Fiennes, for example.