Apes Are Talking
Koko: Did you hear what Dr. Terrace said about us? He claims we cannot create our own sentences. Instead, he says, we react to clues accidentally given by our trainer. He says we are like the famous horse Clever Hans. Hans was supposed to be able to solve arithmetic problems and then stamp out the answers with his hoof(蹄子).
If the horse was asked what two plus two was, he would stamp four times. Although the trainer did not realize it, says Dr. Terrace, the horse was picking up clues from the trainer as to when to stop stamping.
Washoe: I disagree with Dr. Terrace. My trainer, Dr. R. Allen Gardner and his wife, Beatrice, have seen me talking in sign language to other chimps.
Koko: I heard that Dr. Terrace became unimpressed with ape language after studying a chimp named Nim. Dr. Terrace found that Nim usually made signs only after being prompted(提示)by his trainer. Yet when children learn a language, they start using many words on their own. Nim usually did not do this. Even when Nim did use additional signs, he did not add any new information. The signs (words) were repeated over and over again.
Washoe: My trainer says that Nim wasn't given much of a chance to act on his own. He had so many different trainers, he became confused. That is not the best way to get chimps to communicate.
Koko: I'll never understand humans. But the big question is: Can we really use language?
【2017届高三英语一轮复习小专题测试1】相关文章:
★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (3)
★ 【浙江专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(二十六)选修6Unit 1《Art》
★ 【北师大版】2014届高考英语一轮复习指导课时作业:Unit 8 B卷 Word版含解析
★ 【浙江专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(二十九)选修6Unit 4《Global warming》
★ (全国通用)2014届高考英语一轮单元复习 限时强化训练十
★ 湖南省岳阳市2014高考英语一轮单项选择训练题(6)及答案
★ 2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(四十八)选修8Module 6《The Tang Poems》(外研版)
★ 湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (20)
最新
2017-04-24
2017-04-24
2017-04-24
2017-04-24
2017-04-21
2017-04-21