单项选择题
| People thinking about the origin of
language for the first time usually arrive at the conclusion that it developed
gradually as a system of grunts, hisses and cries and (51) a
very simple affair in the beginning. (52) , when we observe
the language behaviour of (53) we regard as primitive
cultures, we find it (54) complicated. It was believed that
an Eskimo must have the tip of his tongue a vocabulary of more than 10,000 words
(55) to get along reasonably well, much larger than the
active vocabulary of an average businessman who speaks English. (56)
, these Eskimo words are far more highly infleeted (词尾变化) than
(57) of any of the well-known European languages ,for a
(58) noun can be spoken or written in (59)
hundred different forms, each (60) a precise
meaning different from that of any other. The forms of the verbs are even more (61) . The Eskimo language is, therefore, one of the most difficult in the world to learn, (62) the result that almost no traders or explorers have (63) tried to learn it. Consequently , there has grown up, in communication between Eskimos and whites, a jargon (64) to the pidgin English used in Old China, with a vocabulary of from 300 to 600 uninflected words. Most of them are derived from Eskimo but some are derived from English, Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian and other languages. It is this jargon that is usually (65) by travellers as "the Eskimo language". |