新编英语教程第二册答案unit10dictationandtranslation.doc

I. Dictation A. Have you ever asked yourself that question? Probably not. We use our language every day, but we rarely think about it. We don’t think about language, because it is so much a part of us. Well, what is language? We might say that it is a means of communication, but it is really more than that. Language is what makes us human. Though language we are able to share our feeling,, our thoughts and our experiences with others. Without language, human society would not be possible. Most linguists believe that human beings and language developed together. They don’t know exactly when the first language was spoken, but they know that it was very simple. At first, people probably used single words in order to talk about things that were necessary for their lives. They probably had a word for water, for example, and words for fire and food. But expressing thoughts and ideas must have been very difficult. B. “Practice makes perfect” has often been said of foreign-language learning, but it is equally true of learning mathematics. For example, Ruby, a student in my class, gives her algebra assignment the same kind of attention she gives to a comic strip. She just goes over it as if she is reading a comedy and that’s all. She reads the explanations and the sample problems in her book and thinks that she doesn’t have to work out the problems so long as she understands them very well. By the time the examination time comes, she finds that she lacks experience in applying what she has learned from reading to the solving of problems. Algebra is learned best through the actual experience of solving problems, not just through reading about how to solve them. In algebra, too, practice does make perfect. II. Translation A. 1. Last night, I had hardly fallen asleep when hasty knocks woke me up. 2. It was after serious consideration that they decided to leave their hometown and settle down in Paris. 3. The police was at a loss as to how to explain the case. 4. He bought his