TEXT A Culture is the sum total
of all the traditions, customs, beliefs, and ways of life of a given group of
people. In this sense, every group has a culture, however savage,
underdeveloped, or uncivilized it may seem to us. To the professional
anthropologist, there is no intrinsic superiority of one culture over another,
just as to the professional linguist there is no intrinsic hierarchy among
languages. People once thought of the languages of backward
groups as savage, undeveloped forms of speech, consisting largely of grunts and
groans. While it is possible that language in general began as a series of
grunts and groans, it is a fact established by the study of "backward" languages
that no spoken tongue answers that description today. Most language of
uncivilized groups are, by our most severe standards, extremely complex,
delicate, and ingenious pieces of machinery for the transfer of ideas. They fall
behind our Western languages not in their sound patterns or grammatical
structures, which usually are fully adequate for all language needs, but only in
their vocabularies, which reflects the objects and activities known to their
speakers. Even in this department, however, two things are to be noted: 1. All
languages seem to possess the machinery for vocabulary expansion, either by
putting together words already in existence or by borrowing them from other
languages and adapting them to their own system. 2. The objects and activities
requiring names and distinctions in "backward" languages, while different from
ours, are often surprisingly numerous and complicated. A Western language
distinguishes merely between two degrees of remoteness ("this" and "that"); some
languages of the American Indians distinguish between what is close to the
speaker, or to the person addressed, or removed from both, or out of sight, or
in the past, or in the future. This study of language, in turn,
casts a new light upon the claim of the anthropologists that all cultures are to
be viewed independently and without ideas of rank of hierarchy. The article states that grunt-and-groan forms of speech are found ______.
A.nowhere today B.among the Australian aboriginals C.among Eastern cultures D.among people speaking "backward" languages