1 . In many languages, the word for “mother/mom” takes an m-sound. Is there any reason for such near-universality?

Linguists(语言学家) generally argue for “the arbitrariness of the sign”: no connection exists between the word dog and the furry quadruped. A rare exception is onomatopoeia, where words representing the bark of a dog (bow-wow) and the buzz made by a bee are more or less similar to the sound. Yet most things are not subject to naming this way.

What about mama? It does not sound like a mother, but the fact is that some sounds are more widespread than others around the world. There are many dozens of observed consonants which are rare and hard for non-natives to learn.

In contrast, a few—such as b, m, p, t, d and k—show up far more frequently, in nearly every spoken language in the world. That is almost certainly because they are easy to make. A baby vocalising will, at first, make a vowel-like sound, usually something like “ah”, which requires little in the way of control over the mouth. If they briefly close their mouth and continue vocalising, air will come out of their nose, thus making the m-sound that is used in “mother” around the world.

Though the “mamas” bear the most obvious similarity, the “papas” have striking commonalities, too. Babies can easily stop their breath when they close their lips (rather than going on breathing through the nose). This produces a b-or a p-sound. It is surely for this reason that so many names for “father” use these consonants: papa in English, abb in Arabic and baba in Mandarin. T-and d-sounds are similarly basic, involving a simple tap of the tongue against the teeth: hence daddy, tatay (Tagalog) or tayta (Quechua).

Father and mother are, therefore, an oddity. F-is not especially easy to utter(发音); th-sounds are even harder. English, Greek and Spanish are unusual in having them. Even Anglophone children may struggle with th-sounds when they are five, or older still in many cases.

Anyway, it is hard to find linguistic universals amid the world’s dazzling variety.

1. What does the underlined word “quadruped” in Paragraph 2 most probably refer to?

A．Pronunciation

B．Sound

C．Bee

D．Animal

2. “Mamas” and “papas” are used so universally because ________.

A．the sounds of the two words sound alike

B．air will come out of baby’s mouth directly

C．the sounds can be easily and naturally uttered

D．babies can continue their breath when closing their lips

3. According to the passage, which of the following words might be the most difficult to articulate?

A．Forthcoming.

B．Programme.

C．Magnificent.

D．Magazine.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Inspiration from babies’ smile and talks.

B．Linguists’ efforts to the research of sounds.

C．Connection between the word mum and dad.

D．Reasons for similar sounds in unrelated languages.

2 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写一个恰当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

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