2025年6月英语四级听力真题 卷一 段落一

Passage One

段落一

Talking is unique to humans, An animal might make 10 different sounds, but an adult human knows more than 20,000 words.

说话是人类独有的能力。一种动物可能只会发出10种不同的声音，但一个成年人却认识超过20,000个单词。

Additionally, we're the only animal that expresses thoughts in full sentences.

此外，我们是唯一能用完整句子表达思想的动物。

Researchers don't think language was invented; instead, they think it evolved.

研究者们并不认为语言是“发明”出来的；相反，他们认为语言是“进化”而来的。

How did talking evolve? There are two main theories.

说话能力是如何进化的？主要有两种理论。

The first theory is that language started with people making different sounds, mostly imitating the things around them, like animal calls, nature sounds, and the sounds of tools.

第一种理论认为，语言始于人们发出不同的声音，主要是模仿周围的事物，比如动物的叫声、自然界的声音以及工具的声音。

Perhaps they made the sound of wind to comment on the weather or imitated the sound of a bird to tell a friend that there was a bird nearby,

也许他们模仿风声来谈论天气，或者模仿鸟叫来告诉朋友附近有只鸟。

Then over hundreds of thousands of years, those sounds turned into words that people began to learn as part of their language.

然后经过数十万年的时间，这些声音逐渐变成了词语，人们开始将其作为语言的一部分来学习。

At some point, people started stringing the words together to form sentences.

在某个阶段，人们开始将这些词语串联起来组成句子。

The other main theory, which is more recent, is that people started off by gesturing pointing at things with their hands and imitating actions using their bodies.

另一种主要理论（出现时间较晚）认为，人们最初是通过打手势（用手指向事物）以及用身体模仿动作开始的。

Eventually these gestures turned into a full sign language.

最终这些手势演变成了一套完整的手语。

This theory guesses that after developing sign languages, people eventually started making sounds along with their gestures.

该理论推测，在发展了手语之后，人们最终开始在做手势的同时发出声音。

At some point, they switched to mostly making sounds that became words instead of just using their bodies.

在某个时刻，他们转向主要发出声音（这些声音变成了词语），而不仅仅是使用身体动作。

The reason they switched to making sounds, the theory goes, is that talking out loud lets you communicate with someone even when you can't see them.

该理论认为，他们转向发声的原因在于，大声说话使你能在看不见对方时仍然与之交流。

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.

问题16到18是基于你刚刚听到的段落。

16. How did language come into being according to researchers?

根据研究人员的说法，语言是如何产生的?

17. How did language start according to the first theory?

根据第一种理论，语言是如何起源的?

18. Why did people switch from gesturing to making sounds according to the more recent theory?

根据新近的理论，人们为什么从使用手势交流转变为发出声音交流?

扫码听力原文