专八练习题：

When a human infant is born into any community in any part of the

world it has two things in common with any infant, provided neither of them __1__

have been damaged in any way either before or during birth. Firstly, and most __2__

obviously, new born children are completely helpless. Apart from a powerful

capacity to pay attention to their helplessness by using sound, there is nothing __3__

the new born child can do to ensure his own survival. Without care from some

other human being or beings, be it mother, grandmother, or human group, a

child is very unlikely to survive. This helplessness of human infants is in marked

contrast with the capacity of many new born animals to get on their feet within __4__

minutes of birth and run with the herd within a few hours. Although young

animals are certainly in risk, sometimes for weeks or even months after birth, __5__

compared with the human infant, they very quickly develop the capacity to

fend for them. __6__www.for68.com

It is during this very long period in which the human infant is totally

dependent on the others that it reveals the second feature which it shares with all __7__

other undamaged human infants, a capacity to learn language. For this reason,

biologists now suggest that language be “ species specific” to the human race, __8__

that is to say, they consider the human infant to be genetic programmed in __9__

such way that it can acquire language. This suggestion implies that just __10__

as human beings are designed to see three-dimensionally and in color and just

as they are designed to stand upright rather than to move on all fours, so they

are designed to learn and use language as part of their normal development as

well-formed human beings.