职称英语考试

试题来源：职称英语模拟题-理工类-阅读判断
【单选题】

A Dolphin and an Astronomer

One day in 1963, a dolphin named Elvar and afamous astronomer, Carl Sagan, were playing a little game. The astronomer wasvisiting an institute which was looking into the way dolphins communicate witheach other. Sagan was standing on the edge of one of the tanks where several ofthese friendly, highly intelligent creatures were kept. Elvar had just swum upalongside him and had turned on his back.

The dolphin wanted Sagan to scratch his stomachagain, as the astronomer had done twice before. Elvar looked up at Sagan,waiting. Then, after a minute or so, the dolphin leapt up through the water andmade a sound just like the word "more". The astonished astronomerwent to the director of the institute and told him about the incident."Oh, yes. That's one of the words he knows," the director said,showing no surprise at all.

Dolphins have bigger brains in proportion totheir body size than humans have, and it has been known for a long time thatthey can make a number of sounds. What is more, these sounds seem to havedifferent functions, such as warning each other of danger. Sound travels muchfaster and much further in water than it does in air. That is why the parts ofthe brain that deal with sound are much better developed in dolphins than inhumans. But can it be said that dolphins have a 'language', in the real senseof the word?

Scientists don't agree on this.

A language is not just a collection of sounds,or even words. A language has a structure and what we call a grammar. Thestructure and grammar of a language help to give it meaning. For example, thetwo questions 'Who loves Mary?' and 'Who does Mary love?' mean very differentthings. If you stop to think about it, you will see that this differencedoesn't come from the words in the question but from the difference instructure. That is why the question 'Can dolphins speak?' can't be answereduntil we find out if dolphins not only make sounds but also arrange them in agrammatical order which affects their meaning.

1 The astronomer was not interested in the waydolphins communicate with each other.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

2 The dolphin leapt up into the air becauseSagan was too near the water.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

3 Parts of the dolphin's brain are particularlywell developed to handle different kinds of sound.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

4 Dolphins are the most useful animals tohumans.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

5 Dolphins travel faster in water than anyother animals.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

6 Some scientists believe that dolphins have alanguage of their own.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

7 Sounds can be called a language only whenthey have a structure and a grammar.

A Right

B Wrong

C Not mentioned

网考网参考答案：B、B、A、C、C、A、A
大数据分析：根据网考网与考试题库的统计分析，该试题：
56%的考友选择了A选项
7%的考友选择了B选项
37%的考友选择了C选项
考友解析与评论：
 · 大家看教材，书上原话
 · 这题不解，原来选B、B、A、C、C、A、A，感觉没错啊
 · 我也是这么错的