Question

A new study has found some secrets of people’s understanding of large numbers.

Researchers studied a group of people who were born deaf and never learned any spoken language or a formal sign language, but they have developed a gesture system to communicate with people around them. The gestures let them express approximate amounts, but not exact numbers.

“Up to three, they’re fine,” says Elizabet Spaepen, a researcher at the University of Chicago and an author of the study. “But past three, they start to fall apart.” In one test, Spaepen would knock her fist against a study participant’s fist a certain number of times and then ask them to respond with the same number of knocks. “If I were to knock four times on their fist, they might knock on my fist five times,” she says.

The finding offers a clue to just how much language affects our understanding of numbers. That has been a big question since 2004, when other researchers published data on two tribes in the Amazon whose members also lack words for big numbers. “What they have are words that mean one and two,” Spaepen says, “and then they have a word to mean many.”

Members of the Amazonian tribes also had trouble matching numbers larger than three or four. But some scholars felt that these earlier studies failed to prove that language was the reason. They pointed out that the tribes lived in groups that didn’t use money and had no need for exact numbers.

The new research appears to answer that criticism. “It proves that the kinds of problems in understanding numbers that we found in the Amazonian tribes are not due to just the cultural or environmental circumstances,” says Peter Gordon of Columbia University, one of the researchers involved in the earlier studies.

1.The participants of the new study ______.

A. cannot communicate with one another

B. use a formal sign language to express numbers

C. have some physical disability

D. come from a distant tribe

2. According to the passage, the new study _______.

A. ignored the cultural influence on the participants

B. is doubted by many people

C. has found it is harder to learn numbers than learning a sign language

D. has shown that our understanding of numbers is influenced by our mastering of language.

3. The tribes involved in earlier studies _________.

A. often dealt with big numbers.

B. didn’t use money in their daily life

C. didn’t have their own language

D. often made trouble for the researchers

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Peter Gordon is a researcher of the University of Chicago.

B. Peter Gordon thinks less of the new study than his earlier studies.

C. Peter Gordon believes people’s understanding of numbers has nothing to do with cultural circumstances.

D. Peter Gordon is in favor of the finding of the new study.

5.In which part of a newspaper would you most probably find this passage?

A. Science B. Health

C. Politics D. Lifestyle

Answer 1

1.C

2.D

3.B

4.D

5.A

【解析】

試題分析：本文介紹了研究者通過對一組失聰人士的觀測，得出一個提示，語言使我們對數(shù)字的理解有多少影響。

1. studied a group of people who were born deaf and never learned any spoken language or a formal sign language句意：研究者研究了一組人，他們天生失聰并且從未學(xué)過任何語言表達(dá)或者正規(guī)手語。由此得知participants have some physical disability參與者都有一定的生理缺陷。故選C

2. finding offers a clue to just how much language affects our understanding of numbers句意：這個發(fā)現(xiàn)提供了一個線索，語言使我們對數(shù)字的理解有多少影響。由此得知 C選項(xiàng)has shown that our understanding of numbers is influenced by our mastering of language最為符合。故選D

3. tribes lived in groups that didn’t use money and had no need for exact numbers句意：這群人不使用貨幣，并且無需（知曉）確切數(shù)字。得知didn’t use money in their daily life表意相符。故選B

4. involved in the earlier studies answer that criticism參與早期研究的人員Peter Gordon對于批判的回應(yīng)。由此以及其話語得知Peter Gordon is in favor of the finding of the new study，Peter Gordon支持新研究。故選D

5. 板塊摘錄的。故選A

考點(diǎn)：考查社科類說明文閱讀