Speech--the act of uttering sounds to convey meaning--is a kind of human action. Like any other constantly repeated action, speaking has to be learned, but once it is learned, it becomes a generally unconscious and apparently automatic process. As far as we can determine, human beings do not need to be forced to speak; most babies seem to possess a sort of instinctive drive to produce speech like noises. How to speak and what to say are another matter altogetner. There actions are learned from the particular society into which the baby is born; so that, like all conduct that is learned from a society--from the people around us--speech is a patterned activity. The meandering babble and chatter of a young child are eventually channeled by imitation into a few orderly grooves that represent the pattern accepted as meaningful by the people around him. Similarly, a child's indiscriminate practice of putting things into his mouth becomes limited to putting food into his mouth in a certain way. The sounds that a child can make are more varied and numerous than the sounds that any particular language uses. However, a child born into a society with a pattem of language is encouraged to make a small selection of sounds and to make these few sounds over and over until it is natural for him to make these sounds and not others. The sounds that a child is able to make are_. A) not as varied as those used in language B) more varied and numerous than those in any language C) far fewer than those needed to form a language D) completely different from the sounds of language
B
As a substitute teacher, my daily routine involves driving to a new school almost every day so I'm usually unable to anticipate the day's events, good or bad! On one particular day, I was teaching in a very difficult classroom. I was managing behavior all morning and by lunch time, I knew I needed coffee to even consider surviving the afternoon. So on my lunch break, I drove to a nearbyplaza to get a cup of coffee. Upon returning to the car I realized I had locked my keys and my phone inside! I had about 15 minutes to get back to the school which was a good 4 or 5-minute drive away. I contemplated sprinting back, but it being winter, I thought a nasty fall on ice would only make the situation much worse. So I ran into a McDonald's which was in the same plaza and asked the man at the counter who happened to be the manager to please call me a cab. I briefly explained my situation to him, and I could tell by the look in his eyes, that he empathized. He hurried to the back to use the phone while I paced in the restaurant. I had less than 10 minutes to get back to my school at this point. The manager returned only to tell me that the cab company had put him on hold and then the line got disconnected, and that he was now on hold again, but had not yet been able to request the cab yet. My expression, I assume, began to resemble some combination of hopelessness and fear. Without a thought, he grabbed his coat and offered to drive me to the school. Without hesitation, I followed him into his car and made it back into my classroom with 2 minutes to spare before the bell! Upon arriving at the school, I thanked this man endlessly. His calmdemeanor and kind nature made me think he was probably a wonderful manager to work for, and also a wonderful human being to have on this earth. This experience makes me realize that out of every seemingly hopeless situation, there is the opportunity for acts of kindness totranspire , which can have an unimaginable impact on those who receive them. Why did the author go to get a coffee? A) Because he needed to eat something as lunch. B) Because he was very thirsty. C) Because he had to refresh himself for the classes in the afternoon. D) Because he wanted something hot to drink.
C
(Q).
Oprah Winfrey, the queen of American daytime talk TV, is considered one of the most powerful women in the world.Now, after 25 years' hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show, the star has announced she is calling it quits. According to the Los Angeles Times, the move "signals the beginning of the decline for the daytime talk show." More women are working full-time jobs, and people are turning to cable and pre-recorded shows for their entertainment. It may be that Oprah isn't quitting so much as moving on.She has created the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and will most likely move her show to the network.If audiences around the world need Oprah, they well know where to look. Oprah Winfrey was born to a single teenage mother in a small town in rural Mississippi, US.As a child, she lived with poverty and abuse.But she got a job at a local radio station, where her honesty, emotional style won her many fans.She quickly rose through the ranks of radio and television before launching her own production company and starting her own show. Oprah's talk show was not the first of its kind, but it quickly became the best and most popular.It made talk shows popular, and others jumped in to start similar shows.But while other talk shows turned ugly, featuring guests who argued and attacked each other with chairs, _ "Part of her power lies in the fact that her life story resonates with her audience, as a kind of version of the American dream," writes Kevin Connolly, a reporter with the BBC. She became a star because of the way she opened up about her problems to her audience.She shared her own struggles with relationships and weight.She focused on self-help.Connolly believes "something in her honesty and her sometimes painfully emotional directness struck home with a certain type of American". Which of the following statements is NOT true? A) The stop of Oprah's show reflects the decrease of audience. B) Oprah hosted her show for about 25 years. C) American talk show was pioneered by Oprah. D) Oprah used to be a radio presenter.
(A).
C