For question 1 to 10, listen to a radio talk about animals' languages.
Fill in each black with NO more than two words.
You can listen twice.
If I asked you what the difference is between animals and human beings, you might
think for
a bit and then suggest something about the fact that humans can speak to each other
using a language.
Or in some cases more than one language.
And in a way you would be right.
But that is not the whole story by any means.
Many animals can communicate in surprisingly complicated ways, but they never quite
achieve
the range and depth of human languages.
At the simplest level, several kinds of insect, including bees, have been observed,
performing
a special dance to tell each other where they can find nectar and pollen which is
their
food.
This of course does not mean that they are using a language, but they are all the
same
communicating something.
Many people think that certain birds like parrots can speak, but this is in fact
not true.
But animals are only capable of copying the sounds of human speech but have no
understanding
of these sounds and generally use them at the wrong time.
There is also no apparent logic in the way they select what to copy either.
On the other hand, monkeys, apes and other primates are capable of communicating a
small
number of basic ideas using a range of simple sounds that are recognised by other
members
of their social group.
Unfortunately though, none of the groups of monkeys observed so far have developed
any
form of grammar, and so we cannot call this a language.
However some apes, chimpanzees in particular, can be trained to understand and
respond to
certain spoken commands by humans, but so far none have attempted to copy our
speech.
Now there is one kind of animal that does just this, although not many people can
understand
what they are saying.
Dolphins have different shaped mouths to humans, and as a result they are unable to
make all
the sounds that we can make.
They can manage the vowel sounds A, E, I, O, U and so on, but lack the necessary
voice
equipment to reproduce our consonants.
Just a simple phrase like, hello how are you?
Becomes E, O, R, U. But what makes these noises more amazing is that dolphins do
show an awareness
of when to use such phrases, and in this sense are actually trying to communicate
with humans.
But by far the most remarkable form of animal communication are the songs of
whales.
These are fast-clicking and squeaking noises that whales make underwater, and the
sounds
themselves actually contain more information than human speech.
Scientists have noticed that some whales repeat certain long phrases of sounds, and
this
is in fact why they are called songs.
Of particular interest is a species called the bottle-nosed whale, whose songs have
many
of the characteristics of human speech, but at the end of the day we are the only
species
that have developed proper grammatical languages, and most experts now agree that
this is because
of the large communities that we live in, where a child growing up can hear
hundreds of
different examples of his or her language being spoken every day.
If for any reason a young child does not get enough contact with other people
between
the ages of one and four, he or she may never fully develop the power of speech.
One can imagine that if whales or dolphins did start living in large communities
then
well...
You will hear the piece again.
If I asked you what the difference is between animals and human beings, you might
think
for a bit, and then suggest something about the fact that humans can speak to each
other
using a language, or in some cases more than one language, and in a way you would
be right.
But that is not the whole story by any means.
Many animals can communicate in surprisingly complicated ways, but they never quite
achieve
the range and depth of human languages.
At the simplest level, several kinds of insect, including bees, have been observed,
performing
a special dance to tell each other where they can find nectar and pollen, which is
their
food.
This of course does not mean that they are using a language, but they are all the
same
communicating something.
Many people think that certain birds like parrots can speak, but this is in fact
not true.
Such animals are only capable of copying the sounds of human speech, but have no
understanding
of these sounds, and generally use them at the wrong time.
There is also no apparent logic in the way they select what to copy either.
On the other hand, monkeys, apes and other primates are capable of communicating a
small
number of basic ideas, using a range of simple sounds that are recognised by other
members
of their social group.
Unfortunately though, none of the groups of monkeys observed so far have developed
in
a form of grammar, and so we cannot call this a language.
However some apes, chimpanzees in particular, can be trained to understand and
respond to
certain spoken commands by humans, but so far none have attempted to copy our
speech.
Now there is one kind of animal that does just this, although not many people can
understand
what they are saying.
Dolphins have different shaped mouths to humans, and as a result they are unable to
make
all the sounds that we can make.
They can manage the vowel sounds A, E, I, O, U and so on, but lack the necessary
voice
equipment to reproduce our consonants.
As a simple phrase like, Hello, how are you?
Becomes, E, O, R, O, but what makes these noises more amazing is that dolphins do
show
an awareness of when to use such phrases, and in this sense are actually trying to
communicate
with humans.
But by far the most remarkable form of animal communication are the songs of
whales.
These are fast clicking and squeaking noises that whales make underwater, and the
sounds
themselves actually contain more information than human speech.
Scientists have noticed that some whales repeat certain long phrases of sounds, and
this
is in fact why they are called songs.
Of particular interest is a species called the Buttle Nosed Whale, whose songs have
many
of the characteristics of human speech, but at the end of the day we are the only
species
that have developed proper grammatical languages, and most experts now agree that
this is because
of the large communities that we live in, where a child growing up can hear
hundreds of
different examples of his or her language being spoken every day.
If for any reason a young child does not get enough contact with other people
between
the ages of one and four, he or she may never fully develop the power of speech.
One can imagine that if whales or dolphins did start living in large communities
then
well…
