“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to have one in the house, particularly where there are children around?”

　　“The National Hydrogen Bomb Association hopes to educate people in the safe handling of this type of weapon. We are instructing owners to keep the bomb in a locked cabinet

　　and the fuse (導火索) separately in a drawer.”

　　“Some people consider the hydrogen bomb a very fatal weapon which could kill somebody.”

　　The spokesman said, “Hydrogen bombs don’t kill people—people kill people. The bomb is for self-protection and it also has a deterrent effect. If somebody knows you have a nuclear weapon in your house, they’re going to think twice about breaking in.”

　　“But those who want to ban the bomb for American citizens claim that if you have one locked in the cabinet, with the fuse in a drawer, you would never be able to assemble it in time to stop an intruder (侵入者).”

　　“Another argument against allowing people to own a bomb is that at the moment it is very expensive to build one. So what your association is backing is a program which would allow the middle and upper classes to acquire a bomb while poor people will be left defenseless with just handguns.”

　　16. According to the passage, some people started a national association so as to ________.

　　A) block any legislation to ban the private possession of the bomb

　　B) coordinate the mass production of the destructive weapon

　　C) instruct people how to keep the bomb safe at home

　　D) promote the large-scale sale of this newly invented weapon

　　17. Some people oppose the ownership of H-bombs by individuals on the grounds that ________.

　　A) the size of the bomb makes it difficult to keep in a drawer

　　B) most people don’t know how to handle the weapon

　　C) people’s lives will be threatened by the weapon

　　D) they may fall into the hands of criminals

　　18. By saying that the bomb also has a deterrent effect the spokesman means that it ________.

　　A) will frighten away any possible intruders

　　B) can show the special status of its owners

　　C) will threaten the safety of the owners as well

　　D) can kill those entering others’ houses by force

　　19. According to the passage, opponents of the private ownership of H-bombs are very much worried that ________.

　　A) the influence of the association is too powerful for the less privileged to overcome

　　B) poorly-educated Americans will find it difficult to make use of the weapon

　　C) the wide use of the weapon will push up living expenses tremendously

　　D) the cost of the weapon will put citizens on an unequal basis

　　20. From the tone of the passage we know that the author is ________.

　　A) doubtful about the necessity of keeping H-bombs at home for safety

　　B) unhappy with those who vote against the ownership of H-bombs

　　C) not serious about the private ownership of H-bombs

　　D) concerned about the spread of nuclear weapons

　　16. A 17. C 18. A 19.D 20. A

　　Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born With, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.

　　When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.

　　Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混雜英語). But Stokoe believed the “hand talk” his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually: have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as “substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy (異端邪說).

　　It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (調節) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff—it’s brain stuff.”

　　21. The study of sign language is thought to be ________.

　　A) a new way to look at the learning of language

　　B) a challenge to traditional, views on the nature of language

　　C) an approach: to simplifying the grammatical structure of a language

　　D) an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language

　　22. The, present growing interest in sign language was stimulated by ________.

　　A) a famous scholar in the study of the human brain

　　B) a leading specialist in the study of liberal arts

　　C) an English teacher in a university for the deaf

　　D) some senior experts in American Sign Language

　　23. According to Stokoe, sign language is ________.

　　A) a Substandard language

　　B) a genuine language

　　C) an artificial language

　　D) an international language

　　24. Most educators objected to Stokoe’s idea because they thought ________.

　　A) sign language was not extensively used even by deaf people

　　B) sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted

　　C) a language should be easy to use and understand

　　D) a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds

　　25. Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that ________.

　　A) sign language is as efficient as any other language

　　B) sign language is derived from natural language

　　C) language is a system of meaningful codes

　　D) language is a product of the brain

　　21. B 22. C 23. B 24.D 25. D