Learning English

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语言不仅是沟通的工具，更在潜移默化中塑造着我们的视角。许多顶尖语言学家指出：你所使用的语言会深刻地影响你的思考方式、想象力乃至认知能力。本文将聚焦于 “时间认知” 这一有趣的话题，为大家介绍使用不同语言的人，在面对抽象的时间时，有着怎样不同的理解。

词汇：time 时间

1 Close your eyes and think about the future. Do you imagine it to be in front of you or behind you? Maybe your timeline is vertical, with the future below, and the past above? Linguists such as Lera Boroditsky believe that the language you speak might influence your perception of time.

2 She highlighted that in English, we see time on a horizontal line. The past is behind us, and the future is ahead. We can see this in phrases like 'forward thinking', and 'ahead of schedule' that we use for the future, and 'back in the day' and 'behind the times' for the past. However, not all languages reflect this perspective.

3 For the Aymara people in the Andes mountains, the word for future means 'behind time'. Work by Nuñez and Sweetser revealed that when gesturing, the Aymara people point backwards when talking about the future, while English speakers gesture forwards. It has also been suggested that if you speak Chinese, you might see the timeline more vertically due to the use of 'down' to talk about future events, and 'up' for past events.

4 What happens if you speak two languages? In a study called 'Can a mind have two time lines?' English-Chinese bilinguals were asked to place photos of actors in chronologicalorder by age. Interestingly, they chose to put photos of an English-speaking actor in a horizontal sequence, but photos of a Chinese-speaking actor in a vertical sequence. So, it seems like one person can have multiple time perceptions, and that your timeline can rotate depending on which language is in focus.

5 The debate about how much language shapes our thoughts and perceptions is ongoing. It has intrigued linguists for decades and will for ages to come. So, next time you plan your day or tell a story, notice how you visualise the timeline of events, and remember that not everyone sees time through the same lens!

测验与练习

一、将标题和段落配对。

Paragraph 1 ________
Paragraph 2 ________
Paragraph 3 ________
Paragraph 4 ________
Paragraph 5 ________

a. English phrases
b. An unfinished argument
c. How do you perceive time?
d. One mind, two time perceptions?
e. Lie horizontally to imagine time
f. Time perceptions of speakers of different languages

二、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。

1. What does the phrase 'forward thinking' suggest about English speakers?
a. They imagine the future to be in front of them.
b. They imagine the future to be above them.
c. They find it hard to imagine the future.

2. What does 'this' refer to in the following sentence? We can see this in phrases like 'forward thinking', and 'ahead of schedule' that we use for the future, and 'back in the day' and 'behind the times' for the past.
a. English
b. English-speakers' time perception
c. the future

3. The Aymara word for future indicates that Aymara people perceive the future to be behind them.
a. True
b. False
c. Not given

4. Bilingual people may see time in multiple ways.
a. True
b. False
c. Not given

5. Linguists think this debate is…
a. problematic.
b. complicated.
c. interesting.

三、用下列单词完成对本文的总结。

Have you ever thought about how you imagine a 1) ________ of events? When you put events in 2) ________, do you imagine them in a vertical or 3) ________ line? The language we use can give clues about our 4) ________. For example, phrases in English like 'back in the day' suggest we may look 5) ________ to our past.

vertically
horizontal
backwards
sequence
chronological order
time perception
ahead of schedule

（答案见词汇表后）

词汇表

timeline 时间轴
vertical 垂直的
horizontal 水平的，与地面平行的
forward thinking 前瞻性思维，有前瞻性的
ahead of schedule 提前
back in the day 从前，曾几何时
behind the times 过时，落伍
backwards 向后
forwards 向前
vertically 垂直地
chronological order 按时间先后顺序排列
sequence 顺序，序列
time perception 时间感知
ongoing 仍在进行的，持续存在的
decade 十年
ages 很长时间

答案

一、将标题和段落配对。

Paragraph 1 c) How do you perceive time?
Paragraph 2 a) English phrases
Paragraph 3 f) Time perceptions of speakers of different languages
Paragraph 4 d) One mind, two time perceptions?
Paragraph 5 b) An unfinished argument

二、根据文章内容选出正确的选项。

1. a. …in English, we see time on a horizontal line. The past is behind us, and the future is ahead. We can see this in phrases like 'forward thinking', and 'ahead of schedule' that we use for the future.

2. b. The pronoun 'this' refers to the sentence 'In English, we see time on a horizontal line', which, in summary, is English speakers' time perception.

3. a.True.For the Aymara people in the Andes mountains, the word for future means 'behind time'. …when gesturing, the Aymara people point backwards when talking about the future.

4. a. True.Interestingly, they [bilinguals] chose to put photos of an English-speaking actor in a horizontal sequence, but photos of a Chinese-speaking actor in a vertical sequence. So, it seems like one person can have multiple time perceptions.

5. c.It [the debate] has intrigued linguists for decades and will for ages to come.

三、用下列单词完成对本文的总结。

Have you ever thought about how you imagine a sequence of events? When you put events in chronological order, do you imagine them in a vertical or horizontal line? The language we use can give clues about our time perception. For example, phrases in English like 'back in the day' suggest we may look backwards to our past.