首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 languages. No one was certain of the true figure, but it was
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 languages. No one was certain of the true figure, but it was
admin
2013-12-04
19
问题
CARDINAL MEZZOFANTI of Bologna was a saint who was said to speak 72 languages. No one was certain of the true figure, but it was a lot. Visitors flocked from all corners of Europe to test him and came away stunned. Two condemned prisoners were due to be executed, but no one knew their language to hear their confession. Mezzofanti learned it in a night, heard their sins the next morning and saved them from hell.
Or so the legend goes. In Babel No More, Michael Erard has written the first serious book about the people who master vast numbers of languages. A journalist with some linguistics training, Mr. Erard is not a
hyperpolyglot
himself, but he approaches his topic with both wonder and a healthy dash of skepticism.
To find out whether anyone could really learn so many languages, Mr. Erard set out to find modern Mezzofantis. The people he meets are certainly interesting. One man with a mental age of nine has a vast memory for foreign words and the use of grammatical endings, but he cannot seem to break free of English word-order. Ken Hale, who was a linguist at MIT and died in 2001, was said to have learned 50 languages. Professional linguists still swear by his talent. But he insisted he spoke only three and could merely "talk" in others. Mr. Erard says that true hyperpolyglottery begins at about 11 languages, and that while legends abound, tried and tested exemplars are few.
Hyperpolyglots are likely to be introverted, which may come as a surprise to some. Hale’s son always said that, in his father’s case, languages were a cloak for a shy man. Emil Krebs, a German diplomat who was also credited with knowing dozens of languages, was rude in all of them. He once refused to speak to his wife for several months because she told him to put on a winter coat.
At the end of his story, however, Erard finds a surprise in Mezzofanti’s archive: flashcards. Stacks of them in twelve tongues. The world’s most celebrated hyperpolyglot relied on the same tools given to first-year language-learners today. The conclusion? Hyperpolyglots may begin with talent, but they aren’t geniuses. They simply enjoy tasks that are tedious to normal people. The talent and enjoyment drive a virtuous cycle that pushes them to feats others simply shake their heads at.
It can be learned from the passage that Ken Hale was______.
选项
A、outgoing
B、modest
C、strong-willed
D、reliable
答案
B
解析
第三段的后半段讲到了麻省理工学院的Ken Hale。据说他学习了50种语言,很多专业的语言学家对他的才能深信不疑。但他自己却坚持说他只能讲三种语言,其他语言只能达到“会话”水平。可以看出他非常谦虚。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/OOSYFFFM
0
研究生英语学位课统考(GET)
相关试题推荐
Freudderivedpsychoanalyticknowledgeofchildhoodindirectly:hereconstructedchildhoodprocessesfromadult______.
Personalityistoalargeextentinherent—A-typeparentsusuallybringaboutA-typeoffspring.Buttheenvironmentmustalsoh
Wehaveknownforalongtimethattheorganizationofanyparticularsocietyisinfluencedbythedefinitionofthesexesandt
ThegeologyoftheEarth’ssurfaceisdominatedbytheparticularpropertiesofwater.PresentonEarthinsolid,liquid,andga
Byeducation,Imeantheinfluenceoftheenvironmentupontheindividualtoproduceapermanentchangeinthehabitsofbehavio
TheUnitedStatesisoftenconsideredayoungnation,butinfactitisnexttotheoldestcontinuousgovernmentintheworld,a
Whenwetalkaboutintelligence,wedonotmeantheabilitytogetagoodscoreonacertainkindoftest,oreventheabilityt
Firmsthatusecomputershavefoundthatthenumberofstaff______isneededforqualitycontrolcanbesubstantiallyreduced.
Thefollowingqualificationsareessentialforthepost;anhonorsdegreeinEnglish,______inshorthandandtypewritingandsome
Hishealthdeterioratedrapidlyduetoinsufficientnutritionand______medicalcare.
随机试题
下列选项中,不得适用继续盘问的情形有()。
Pickouttheappropriateexpressionsfromtheeightchoicesbelowandcompletethefollowingdialoguesbyblackeningthecorresp
A.神经源性间歇跛行B.坐骨神经支配区的放射痛C.两者均有D.两者均无(1997年)腰椎椎管狭窄
以下哪项不属于机体节律性对药代动力学的影响
(2007)某变电所有2台变压器并联运行,每台变压器的额定容量为31.5MVA,短路损耗Pk=148kw,短路电压百分比Uk%=10.5,空载损耗P0=40kW,空载电流I0%=0.8。变压器运行在额定电压下,变比为110/11kV,两台变压器流过的总功率
45%的置信度估计该居民区平均每户年用水量的置信区间公式为( )。如果上述统计量z值对应的临界值为±1.68,其他条件都不变,则说明该小区居民2007年的平均用水量比2006年( )。
甲是合伙企业合伙人,因病身亡,其继承人只有乙。关于乙继承甲的合伙财产份额的下列表述中,不符合《合伙企业法》规定的有()。
资源共享包括________共享、________共享和________共享。
EJB technology enables rapid and simplified development of distributed,(19),secure and portable applications based on Java techn
______isreputedastheautomobilecapitaloftheworld.
最新回复
(
0
)