[YB-2]7月3日作业 by忘了密码的E

忘了密码的EUID: 2354139

Issue 13 Many of the world’s lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The government of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct.

主观点 同意语言重要性 但common language很必要 政府亦不应该是保护濒危语言的唯一力量
文章主体提纲
1.同意语言在承载文化上的作用
2.强调在如今这个时代通行语言的重要性 消除语言隔阂很重要 否则会影响发展
3.保护语言 人人有责
(刚想到, 2和3互换位置会不会比较好)


Should the government of countries in which endangered languages are spoken act to prevent them from becoming extinct? The speaker is in favor of this idea, and I tend to think that although the government should put some effort into preserving the languages, it should not be the only focus and should not act alone.

A language is not an organism but a set of patterns in speakers’ minds and behavior. So strictly speaking, when a language goes “extinct”, it is not as if something were “dying” as a living species can, but more like a cultural custom passing out of use. But a language is far more fundamental to our whole thought than, say, a regional style of dressing. When a language goes out of use, something central in human thought has vanished.

Although languages are important as culture carriers, it becomes more and more important that people need to communicate with each other without too much barriers in an age of mass communication. Different languages, however, have been one of the greatest barriers in the area of business, technology, and even everyday life. It is evident that the major players in world economy either have one (or more than one) of the global languages as their official language(s) or have been working hard in education so that whatever people speak at home, priority should go to making sure that children know one dominant language. Remote areas where most endangered languages are being spoken are usually more or less behind the development status of the country as a whole. Farmers cannot communicate with potential buyers out there to sell their products even they can use internet to find the buyers. Youngsters have little chance to leave the villages and learn about the new technology. These all lead to a further competitively loss of certain villages or tribes or areas. In order to keep up with the rest of the world, it is important to speak a language that at least a certain percentage of the world population can understand. For the sake of economic and technological development, governments should think twice before allocating their limited amount of funds.

Not only should education department be cautious when financing the tax payers’ money, it is also essential to understand that government should not be the only part that participate in saving the lesser-known languages. No matter what kind of policy is used, the only test of a language’s viability is everyday life and the way to keep it alive is by talking to others who speak the same language. The Hebrew has been considered as a dead language only used for bible studies for thousands of years before its revival in the end of 19 century during Jewish national movement. Russian Jewish Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making the literary language into everyday spoken language. By talking to people in Hebrew during every possible occasion, he made people understand the need for a common language amongst Jews. Although Hebrew has never been extinct, it was not used in daily life for thousands of years before it became a spoken language again. This example shows that the willingness of preservation among ordinary people is equally important if not more because they are those who speak the languages.

It's hardly possible for us to conceive of a situation where our English language is spoken by nobody any more, in other words has “died out”. And yet this is exactly the fate of many languages. The government should, with the cooperation of its people, help to prevent these languages from becoming extinct. At the same time, however, it has to make sure that the country‘s participation in global activities will not be hurt by language barriers. In another word, the government should make wise decisions to fund the education of global language(s).












53. Melatonin – mild distress – shyness

1. melatonin上升和brain functions改变没有必然的因果联系
2. 既然不是每个婴儿都要去受那些stimuli 那么melatonin就不一定和signs of mild distress 有关
3. 整个teenager群体里到底有多少人说自己shy未知 因此不能说这个组里的人很多变成了shy teenagers 没有标尺
4. 解论说shyness during infancy 和前文的signs不一样


This argument suggested that based on a research thirteen years ago and its follow-up study conducted earlier this year, we can clearly see that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues in to later life. The reasoning seems to be logic, but is open to discuss after being carefully examined.

First of all, although these 25 infants showed signs of mild distress, there is no casual relationship between the signs and the increase of their mothers’ production of melatonin. The fact that melatonin affects some brain functions is not strong enough to support this argument because we do not know if melatonin affects infants’ brain functions or only the mothers. As it is known to all, the brain of the fetus does not develop until the 18th week. In a word, whether the increased melatonin does work to affect the fetus’ brain is not clear based on this argument.

Even if the hormone is proved to affect the embryo’s brain functions, this study failed to relate the fact that the 25 infants were affected by the hormone and that they showed signs of mild distress. Although these seemed to have happened to the same infants, there is not even any faintest logic to show that the hormone was the cause of those signs. Not all infants get exposed to unfamiliar stimuli, it is not clear if they would show any signs of mild distress when being exposed to unusual odors, a tape recording of an unknown voice, etc.

Moreover, the result of the follow-up study this year is not useful in explaining the idea in that there is no statistics about how many teenagers in the total population identify themselves as shy. Is “more than half” significantly higher or is it about normal or even lower than the average number? The above fifty percent itself does not help the researchers to explain their conclusion that melatonin causes shyness.

Last but not least, the conclusion of this study wrongly equalized the signs of mild distress that the infants showed to shyness during infancy. The author changed subject here without considering that the entire study did not mention anything about shyness during infancy at all. Infants with mild distress are not necessarily those who are shy, and thus there was no shyness that “continues into later life”.

To sum up, the researches should have been improved in several perspectives. The relationship between melatonin and signs of mild distress and between mothers’ increased melatonin level and the fetus’ brain functions should be clarified. More population average data should be provided to show that those who showed signs of mild stress as babies were more likely to become shy in their teenage years. In addition, the conclusion has to be revised to prevent a false assumption that mild distress equals to shyness.

sunxcintUID: 2654472

Issue 13 Many of the world’s lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The government of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct.
主观点 同意语言重要性 但common language很必要 政府亦不应该是保护濒危语言的唯一力量
文章主体提纲
1.同意语言在承载文化上的作用
2.强调在如今这个时代通行语言的重要性 消除语言隔阂很重要 否则会影响发展
3.保护语言 人人有责
(刚想到, 2和3互换位置会不会比较好)


Should the government of countries in which endangered languages are spoken act to prevent them from becoming extinct? The speaker is in favor of this idea, and I tend to think that although the government should put some effort into preserving the languages, it should not be the only focus and should not act alone.

A language is not an organism but a set of patterns in speakers’ minds and behavior. So strictly speaking, when a language goes “extinct”, it is not as if something were “dying” as a living species can, but more like a cultural custom passing out of use. But a language is far more fundamental to our whole thought than, say, a regional style of dressing. When a language goes out of use, something central in human thought has vanished.

Although languages are important as culture carriers, it becomes more and more important that people need to communicate with each other without too much barriers in an age of mass communication. Different languages, however, have been one of the greatest barriers in the area of business, technology, and even everyday life. It is evident that
改为Obviously the major players in world economy either have one (or more than one)此处括号删除，用逗号隔开显示强调， of the global languages as their official language(s) or have been working hard in改为made every effort to education so that whatever people speak at home, priority should go to making make sure that children know one dominant language. Remote areas where most endangered languages are being spoken are usually more or less behind the development status of the country as a whole. Farmers cannot communicate with potential buyers out there to sell their products even they can use internet to find the buyers. Youngsters have little chance to leave the villages and learn about the new technology. These all lead to a further competitively loss of certain villages or tribes or areas. In order to keep up with the rest of the world, it is important to speak a language that at least a certain percentage of the world population can understand. For the sake of economic and technological development, governments should think twice before allocating their limited amount of funds.

Not only should education department be cautious when financing the tax payers’ money, it is also essential to understand that government should not be the only part that participate in saving the lesser-known languages. No matter what kind of policy is used, the only test of a language’s viability is everyday life and the way to keep it alive is by talking to others who speak the same language. The Hebrew has been considered as a dead language only used for bible studies for thousands of years before its revival in the end of 19 century during Jewish national movement. Russian Jewish Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making the literary language into everyday spoken language. By talking to people in Hebrew during every possible occasion, he made people understand the need for a common language amongst Jews. Although Hebrew has never been extinct, it was not used in daily life for thousands of years before it became a spoken language again. This example shows that the willingness of preservation among ordinary people is equally important if not more because they are those who speak the languages.

It's hardly possible
不确定用法 for us to conceive of a situation where our English language is spoken by nobody any more, in other words has “died out”. And yet this is exactly the fate of many languages. The government should, with the cooperation of its people, help to prevent these languages from becoming extinct. At the same time, however, it has to make sure that the country‘s participation in global activities will not be hurt by language barriers. In another word, the government should make wise decisions to fund the education of global language(s)改为languages.



Argument

这个argument有一个猜测就是这些婴儿可能都是出生在秋天，这是得出结论是其他所有结论的基础，我觉得必须对这个猜测的准确性和依据提出怀疑。

This argument suggested that based on a research thirteen years ago and its follow-up study conducted earlier this year, we can clearly see that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues in to later life. The reasoning seems to be logic, but is open to discuss after being carefully examined.

First of all, although these 25 infants showed signs of mild distress, there is no casual（似乎是说必然是吗？necessary） relationship between the signs and the increase of their mothers’ production of melatonin. The fact that melatonin affects some brain functions is not strong enough to support this argument because we do not know if melatonin affects infants’ brain functions or only the mothers. As it is known to all, the brain of the fetus does not develop until the 18th week. In a word, whether the increased melatonin does work to affect the fetus’ brain is not clear based on this argument.

Even if the hormone is proved to affect the embryo’s brain functions, this study failed to relate the fact that the 25 infants were affected by the hormone and that they showed signs of mild distress. Although these seemed to have happened to the same infants, there is not even any faintest logic to show that the hormone was the cause of those signs. Not all infants get exposed to unfamiliar stimuli,(独立主格结构，get去掉) it is not clear if they would show any signs of mild distress when being exposed to unusual odors, a tape recording of an unknown voice, etc.

Moreover, the result of the follow-up study this year is not useful in explaining the idea in that there is no statistics about how many teenagers in the total population identify themselves as shy. Is “more than half” significantly higher or is it about normal or even lower than the average number? The above fifty percent itself does not help the researchers to explain their conclusion that melatonin causes shyness.

Last but not least, the conclusion of this study wrongly equalized the signs of mild distress that the infants showed to shyness during infancy. The author changed subject here without considering that the entire study did not mention anything about shyness during infancy at all. Infants with mild distress are not necessarily those who are shy, and thus there was no shyness that “continues into later life”.

To sum up, the researches should have been improved in several perspectives. The relationship between melatonin and signs of mild distress and between mothers’ increased melatonin level and the fetus’ brain functions should be clarified. More population average data should be provided to show that those who showed signs of mild stress as babies were more likely to become shy in their teenage years. In addition, the conclusion has to be revised to prevent a false assumption that mild distress equals to shyness.