in the news since 1988; the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: Encyclopedic Edition is the OALD plus encyclopedic entries; the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture is the LME plus cultural information. The key fact is that all three dictionaries can be seen to have a distinctly \approach the cultural element is not identical, making direct comparisons between the three difficult.
While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic/cultural entries for the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, there is a clear difference. Oxford lays claim to being encyclopedic on content whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English-speaking world. The Oxford dictionary can therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny for cultural bias than the Longman publication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of the world from the cultural perspectives of the English-speaking world. The cultural objectives of the BBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an analysis of over 70 million words recorded from the BBC World Service and National Public Radio of Washington over a period of four years, their 1,000 brief encyclopedic entries are based on people and places that have featured in the news recently. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to the World Service who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in listening comprehension.
In reality, though, the BBC dictionary will be purchased by a far wider range of language learners, as will the other two dictionaries. We will be faced with a situation where many of the users of these dictionaries will at the very least have distinct socio-cultural perspectives and may have world views which are totally opposed and even hostile to those of the West. Advanced learners from this kind of background will not only evaluate a dictionary on how user-friendly it is but will also have definite views about the scope and appropriateness of the various socio-cultural entries.
29. What feature sets apart the three dictionaries discussed in the passage from traditional ones?
A) The combination of two dictionaries into one B) The new approach to defining words C) The inclusion of cultural content D) The increase in the number of entries
30. The Longman dictionary is more likely to be criticized for cultural prejudice ____________.
A) Its scope of cultural entries the beyond the culture of the English-speaking world. B) it pays little attention to the cultural content d the non-English-speaking countries C) it views the world purely from the standpoint of the English-speaking world.
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D) it fails to distinguish language from culture in its encyclopedic entries.
31. The BBC dictionary differs from Oxford and Longman in that ____________. A) it has a wider selection Of encyclopedic entries
B) it is mainly design to meet the needs of radio listeners C) it lays more emphasis co language then on culture
D) it is intended to help listeners develop their listening comprehension skills
32. It is implied in the last paragraph that, in approaching socio-cultural content in a dictionary, special thought be given to ____________. A) the language levels of its users
B) the number of its prospective purchasers C) the different tastes of its users
D) the various cultural backgrounds of its users
33. What is the passage mainly about?
A) different ways of treating socio-cultural elements in the three new English dictionaries. B) A comparison of people's opinions on the cultural content in the three new English dictionaries.
C) The advantages of the BBC dictionary over Oxford and Longman. D) The user-friendliness of the three new English dictionaries.
Passage Seven (Questions 34-38)
Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learnt the system of that culture, to communicate or to interact.
Now, what is meant by system? Every language operates within its own system, that is, within its own recurring patterns or arrangements which are meaningful to its speakers. The sounds, which are used to form words, which, in turn, are used in speech utterances, are always arranged in particular ways or designs which convey the same meaning to all speakers of the language. Let us examine some examples in English.
When I say the words “the man”, you know I’m talking of one man and of a man previously mentioned. “The men”, on the other hand, conveys the meaning of more than one man. When you hear “arrive” you know it would fit into the place used for verbs in sentence. “Arrival”, on the other hand, would fit into the slot used for what we generally call a noun, wouldn’t it? To continue, in English, word order is an important part of the system. Compare the two sentences: “The cat bit the lady.” and “The lady bit the cat.” The forms of the words are exactly the same, aren’t they? But
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what a difference in the meaning!
Examining another feature of the “system”, we find that in English adjectives don’t “agree” with nouns. We say “the boys are tall” and “the tall boys”; “the girl is tall” and “the tall girls”. In the native language of your students, changes may occur because of gender (masculine or feminine) or because of number (singular or plural).
This system of meaningful arrangements of sounds and forms in speech which the youngest native speaker knows by the time he reaches six or seven may differ in important respects from any other language system in the world.
34. Which of the following statements cannot be derived from the author’s definition of language? ________.
A. The form of a word has no logical relationship with its meaning. B. Speech is the primary form of language.
C. All languages are equal in the sense that each of them has its own system. D. Language is only used for human interaction.
35. Which of the following features is/are referred to in this passage? ________. A. Plurality B. Agreement C. Word order D. All of the them
36. In Paragraph 2, “operates” actually means _______. A. guides B. controls C. functions D. manages
37. By “native speakers”, the author means those people who _______. A. communicate or interact very well B. share the same way of life
C. learn the system of a same language D. reach the age of 6 or 7
38. From this passage it can be said of language that ______.
A. Different languages are different in their grammatical systems.
B. Languages that possess the feature of gender agreement may be more complex than those that do not.
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C. The change of word order will change the meaning of a sentence. D. Different cultures have different languages.
Passage Eight (Questions 39-43)
Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the drastic experiment of Frederick I in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.
All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than lack of language here. What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.
Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again. A bird learns to sing and to fly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed.
Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to five words. At three he knows about 1,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than in grammar.
Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about man’s brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a toy-bear with the sound pattern “toy bear”. And even more incredible is the young brain’s ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyse, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.
But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the child’s babbling, grasping and smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child get discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child’s non-verbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.
39. The purpose of Frederick I’s experiment was ______.
A. to prove that children are born with the ability to speak
B. to discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech C. to find out what role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak D. to prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language
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