When a human infant is born into any community in any part of the
world it has two things in common with any infant, provided neither of (1)___
them have been damaged in any way either before or during birth. Firstly, (2)___
and most obviously, new born children are completely helpless. Apart from a
powerful capacity to pay attention to their helplessness by using sound, (3)___
there is nothing the new born child can do to ensure his own survival. Without
care from some other human being or beings, be it mother, grandmother, or
human group, a child is very unlikely to survive. This helplessness of human
infants is in marked contrast with the capacity of many new
born animals to get on their feet within minutes of birth and run with the (4)___
herd within a few hours. Although young animals are certainly in risk , (5)___
sometimes for weeks or even months after birth, compared with the human
infant they very quickly grow the capacity to fend for them. (6)___
It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally
dependent on the others that it reveals the second feature which it shares (7)___
with all other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language. For
this reason, biologists now suggest that language be "species specific" to (8)___
the human race, that is to say, they consider the human infant to be genetic (9)___
programmed in such way that it can acquire language. (10)___
This suggestion implies that just as human beings are designed to see
three-dimentionally and in colour, and just as they are designed to stand
upright rather than to move on all fours, so they are designed to learn and
use language as part of their normal developments as well-formed
human beings.