51. C 细节题。由文章第二段的最后一句话there has never been a race of men without a language可知。

55. According to the writer, language changes are most likely to appear in __________.

A. grammar      B. vocabulary  C. intonation   D. pronunciation

本文主要介绍了语言的一些基本特征。

54. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

A. A language is a means of expressing a particular culture.

B. American Indian languages are as developed as English.

C. All languages can well express their own cultures.

D. Some languages are better than other languages.

53. The writer has used American Indian languages as an example to show that they are________ .

A. just as fully developed as some well-known languages.

B. more developed than some well -known languages.

C. more complex than some well - known languages.

D. just as old as some well - known languages.

52. According to the writer, people of undeveloped cultures can have __________ languages.

A. complicated       B. uncivilized    C. primitive   D. well-known

51. In the second paragraph the writer thinks about that __________.

A. some backward race doesn’t have a language of its own.

B. some race in history didn’t possess a language of its own.

C. any human race, whether backward or not, has a language.

D. some races on earth can communicate without language.

50. D 细节题。根据最后一个小方框内的具体内容，可以看出只有D项不是中国学生去Italy留学的理由。

C

Many things about language are mystery, and many will always be so. But some things we do know.

First, we know that all human beings have a language of some kind. There is no race of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one another. In historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language.

Second, there is no such thing as a primitive language. There are many people whose cultures are underdeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized, but the languages they speak are not primitive, In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing.

This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated. Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate. Many people have guessed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises. Study has proved this to be nonsense. There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old. They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive than English and Greek.

A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate. This is, each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language.

Finally, we know that language changes. It’s natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones. This is easy to understand if we look backward in time. Change goes on in all aspects of language. Grammatical features changes as do speech sounds and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly. Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language.

49. A 细节题。从第五个小方框内的“Good news”部分可以判断出选项A是错误的说法。

临沂市高三语文教学质量检查考试（二）  2007．5