The Birth of a Language (Reading)

Click the link below for the reading passage:

The Birth of a Language


1) According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true?

A) Children often develop complex languages with each other.
B) Most of the world's languages are complex and stable.
C) If a change occurs in a language, it usually spreads without the conscious effort of its speakers.
D) Speakers of a language have the capacity to create social, political and environmental changes through that language.


2) From paragraph 2, line 3, which of the following is closest to the meaning of "intricate"?

A) simplistic
B) perplexing
C) remarkable
D) elaborate


3) All of the following are true EXCEPT:

A) Relationships between deaf children and their parents and siblings were difficult because of their inability to communicate with one another.
B) Nicaragua did not have a local sign language at the time.
C) Post-revolution Nicaragua emphasized education on a national level.
D) Teachers at the deaf schools helped the students develop ISN. 


4) From paragraph 8, the sentence, "The idea holds that, in general, young children can rapidly absorb and master new languages until the age of six; the ability declines quickly until age twelve, and after that any acquisition of a new language requires substantially more effort," can be best restated as:

A) The critical period theory suggests that during adolescence an individual's ability to learn new languages has deteriorated but prior to that point, such a task is less challenging.
B) Evidence that young children learn languages faster than teenagers supports the critical period theory.
C) For a child over twelve years, learning a language requires a significant amount of effort.
D) Children under the age of six are at the peak stage of their language acquiring abilities and this skill gradually fades in the subsequent years.


5) From paragraph 7, line 2, which of the following is closest to the meaning of "baffled"?

A) surprised
B) confounded
C) amazed
D) undermined


6) From paragraph 7, line 4, which of the following is closest to the meaning of "fledgling"? 

A) overwhelming
B) developed
C) new
D) complex

7) Why were Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker mentioned in paragraph 10?

A) They wanted to perform an experiment by isolating children to observe language development.
B) They both believed that a child who spoke ISN from birth would not grow up isolated.
C) The spontaneous development of ISN coincides with their ideas on language development.
D) The emergence ISN is supported by the research of both scholars.


8) Choose 3 sentences that best summarize the passage.

A) After a revolution in Nicaragua, the government tried to promote literacy in the country, which led to the founding of some schools for the deaf.

B) The deaf children used mimicas with their families.

C) Judy Shepard-Kegl had some difficulty understanding the teenagers of the school she studied.

D) The younger children's version of the ISN was more complex than the teenagers' due to differences in their brains.

E) The development of the language supported some theorists' views that humans have an inborn talent for learning complex language.

F) The deaf children began to speak their own language with no input from the teachers at the school.

The Other Mystery of Easter Island (Reading)

Click on the link below to access the reading passage. 

The Other Mystery of Easter Island

1) According to the passage, Easter Island is most famous for its

A) unusual language.
B) secretive inhabitants.
C) peculiar monuments.
D) obscure exile.


2) Each of the following is true about the language of Easter Island EXCEPT:

A) It has so far remained incomprehensible to scholars.
B) It is unique within its geographical area.
C) It is possibly closely related to Spanish.
D) It is a relatively recent language.


3) The word "decipher" (paragraph 2, line 8) is closest in meaning to:

A) decode
B) contrast
C) evaluate
D) discover


4) According to the passage, Rongorongo disappeared because

A) All of its speakers were killed or taken as slaves. 
B) It was too closely related to the religious beliefs of the population.
C) Languages of the colonizers were dominated because they were easy to learn.
D) New settlers to the island outlawed its use.


5) The word "forthcoming" (paragraph 6, line 1) is closest in meaning to:

A) belligerent
B) cooperative
C) unstable
D) comprehensible


6) Which of the following was NOT a difficulty encountered by people wishing to translate the tablets?

A) The islanders were unwilling to help.
B) There are several meanings for each symbol.
C) Europeans had suppressed the language.
D) One symbol could represent an idea rather than just an object.


7) The phrase "the artifact" (paragraph 8, line 4) refers to:

A) the Mamri tablet
B) a lunar calendar
C) a four-foot-long scepter
D) an Easter Island Chief


8) Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the sentence, "Should anyone find a workable translation for Rongorongo, the knowledge stored on the remaining tablets might explain the mysterious statues of Easter Island, the sudden appearance of the written language, and the island’s history and customs as whole" (paragraph 10)?

A) The information contained on the tablets might address several important questions about Easter Island in the event that the language is translated.

B) Issues such as the mysterious statues, the emergence of written language, and the history and customs of the island might be explained by the data recorded on the tablets.

C) No one has completely analyzed Rongorongo, making it difficult to extract the knowledge contained in the tables.

D) Mysteries pertaining to Easter Island are likely to remain until linguists can unravel the Rongorongo written language.


9) Match the following pieces of information to the respective researchers:

A) The first to attempt to translate the language.

B) The first to identify the purpose of a tablet.

C) Realized the the symbols come in groups of three.

D) The first to make a major discovery about the tablets.

E) Successfully translated a portion of text.

F) Identified all the components of the language.

G) Misled by a young boy.

H) Focused his research on a staff with symbols on it.

I) Asked an elderly islander to help him translate.

J) Believed all the texts were connected to the creation of the world.


Thompson
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Hevesy
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Fischer
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The Linguistic Genius of Babies (Listening)

1) What is the lecture mainly about?

A) The unique ability of babies to absorb information quickly and easily.
B) The way that a mother and her child can connect through language.
C) The accomplishments of a selection of talented children.
D) The way an infant's brain organizes linguistic information.


2) Listen to the beginning of the lecture again. At 00:31, she says, "The modern tools of neuroscience are demonstrating to us that what's going on up there is nothing short of rocket science." What does that mean?

A) She is expressing wonder at the power of a baby's brain.
B) She is speculating about the future of the child's career.
C) She is comparing the complexity of neuroscience to rocket science.
D) She is explaining that modern techniques can reveal how the mind works.


3) According to the lecture, the "critical period" is

A) not a theory that is accepted by all researchers.
B) the most important span of time in a human's life for language learning.
C) the time during which language learning begins to decline.
D) a cycle of highs and lows for language learners.


4) How do the statistics of a language affect a baby's development?

A) The baby learns to distinguish /l/ and /r/ sounds by listening to their parents.
B) The baby becomes more sensitive to the common sounds of their parents' language.
C) The baby calculates the number of occurrences of specific sounds and uses those figures to analyze the language it hears.
D) The baby distinguishes its language from other languages by the end of it's first year.


5) Which of the following statements are true about infant language acquisition? (choose two options)

A) Social elements of the brain are crucial to language learning.
B) Baby's have significant difficulties when you change their language environment suddenly.
C) The sounds in some languages such as Mandarin are more difficult for children to distinguish than those of other languages.
D) The television language lessons were mostly ineffectual for the babies in the speaker's experiments.