56. My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.

　A. learning English　　　　　　　　　　 B. finding places to stay in England

C. driving their car on English roads　　　　 D. going to England by car

55. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Washoe was the first animal to be taught human language.

B. Washoe, the chimp, was named in honor of a place.

C. There were four chimps in total at Ellensburg Campus.

D. Chomsky believed primates only perform silent signs.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　L　　

When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”

I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’

54. What can be inferred from the passage?

A. The ASL project was first set up in Africa for the study on Washoe.

B. Washoe may communicate with other chimps by signing.

C. Washoe must have been able to speak 250 words or so.

D. The researchers will prove that most chimps could use language.

53. In the last paragraph, the underlined word “disputed” probably means “______”.

A. supported　　　 B. studied　　　 C. questioned　　　　 D. discussed

52. In Goodall’s opinion, teaching Washoe ASL ______.

A. was not successful　　　　　　　 B. led to the book Next of Kin

C. won honor for Fouts　　　　　　　 D. made a difference

51. As for its first task, Washoe was involved with _______.

A. some space research　　　　　　　 　B. a study on African animals

C. an ASL project　　　　　　　　　　 D. the program of training the Air Force

50. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that scientists ________.

　A. are puzzled by the mystery of forest pollution

　B. feel ease by the use of unleaded gasoline

　 C. still consider lead pollution a problem

　 D. lack enough means to combat lead pollution

K

Washoe, a female chimpanzee (黑猩猩) believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

The chimp died on Tuesday night, according to Roger and Deborah Fouts, co-founders of The Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute in Washington, where she lived.

Washoe was born in 1965 in Africa, where she was captured by the Air Force and taken to the US for research use in the space program. In 1966, she left the program and began living with two scientists, Allen and Beatrix Gardner, who led a project to teach the chimp American Sign Language (ASL) in Washoe, Nevada, for which it was named. Washoe had been living on Central Washington University’s Ellensburg Campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words. Also, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimps: Tatu, 31, Loulis, 29, and Dar, 31.

Primate (灵长类) researcher Jane Goodall, in Fouts’ book Next of Kin, noted the importance of the work with Washoe. “Roger, through his ongoing conversations with Washoe and her extended family, has opened a window into a chimpanzee’s mind,” Goodall said.

Though previous efforts to teach chimps spoken languages had failed, the researchers believed there was a better chance using signs. But Washoe’s language skills were disputed by scientists who believed that language is unique to humans. Among those who doubted that chimps could use language were linguist (语言学家) Noam Chomsky and Harvard scientist Steven Pinker. They believed primates simply learn to perform certain acts in order to receive rewards, and do not acquire true language.

49. The authors of the Ambio study have found that ________.

　 A forests get rid of lead pollution faster than expected

　 B. lead accumulations in forests are more difficult to deal with

　 C. lead deposits are widely distributed in the forests of the US

　 D. the upper layers of soil in forests are easily polluted by lead emissions

48. How did scientists discover the source of lead pollution in Greenland?

　 A. By analyzing the data published in journals like Nature and Ambio.

　 B. By observing the lead accumulations in different parts of the arctic area.

　 C. By studying the chemical elements of soil and snow in Northeastern America.

　 D. By comparing the chemical compositions of leaded gasoline used in various countries.

47. Lead accumulation worldwide decreased significantly after the use of unleaded gas in the US ________.

A. was discouraged　　　　　　　 B. was carried out by law

C. was forbidden by law　　　　　 D. was introduced