Humanity’s highly developed ability to communicate verbally is our

essence. With our tremendous vocabulary, we would perhaps be not 【M1】__________

much better off than gorillas and monkeys. Language is taken as granted 【M2】__________

since it is a basic characteristic. But it is, for all its universality, among

the most powerful of human tools. “The pen is mightier than the sword. “

We define language a system of communication that is primarily 【M3】__________

verbal, symbolic, dually-patterned, and arbitrary and is used by humans

with common cultural expectancies. Language is also a mean to 【M4】__________

communicate ideas, knowledge and emotions to other individuals

through the use of the body. The system of communication used is a set

of codes or rules; a specific signaling system developed by humans. This

signaling system consists of sounds used by individuals to express

knowledge, emotions and ideas. This system is learned and passed on

through culture transmission by the teaching and the imitation of others. 【M5】__________

This system is significant so it is purely human in nature and no other 【M6】__________

species are able to duplicate our system. Language is primarily verbal

because it is part of the grammatical machine in humans which uses a 【M7】__________

sound, phonology, to express ideas and emotions.

The broadest definition for language includes much more. For 【M8】__________

example, we have codes, such as Morse, smoke signals, body language,

a nd to extent even music. Computer programs include special coding that 【M9】__________

can in some sense being called language. 【M10】_________

There are times when your child proudly presents you with their

scribble of a stick figure with crazy hair. It might worth a closer look: if 【M1】__________

their drawing includes certain features, you could have a genius in your 【M2】__________

hands.

According to a new study of human figures drawn by children aged

seven to nine, there are 30 so-called “exceptional items” that only highly

gifted children draw when depict people. 【M3】__________

Previous attempts to analyze children’s intelligence through their

drawings have focused on their “drawing IQs”: the number of features

and items drawn by a child judged against an average number drawn by 【M4】__________

children in their age group. This approach, however, is controversial.

Not only does drawing IQs give no information about the particular 【M5】__________

features drawn, but there are doubts about how valid the scores are as a

predictor of intelligence. There is currently no precise score that

differentiates gifted from not-gifted children. What is considered to be

gifted goes over a high IQ. For example, the role of creativity—in the 【M6】__________

form of generating novel ideas, thinking flexibly and out-of-the-box—is

widely considered a sign of giftedness. But these children give unusually 【M7】__________

answers to intelligence tests. Their answers are not necessarily wrong

but cannot be considered correct, because that they are not mentioned in 【M8】__________

the scoring manuals of the used tests.

A research team found that out of 135 items drawn by the 120

children in their study, 30 items were considered to be “exceptional” and

a possible indicator for gifted. In the drawings of the highly gifted 【M9】__________

group, each of the 30 exceptional items occurred only once or twice.

Also, 20 of the highly gifted children drew one or more exceptional

items. Highly gifted children produce many novel drawings when 【M10】_________

compared with non-gifted children.

As many as 40% of university language departments are likely to

close within a decade, the former government adviser charged with

bolstering foreign language uptake in higher education has warned,

delivering a huge blow to the UK’s diplomatic and economic hopes.

Amid a deepening crisis in a language learning—which is causing 【M1】__________

alarm at highest levels of government—the number of universities 【M2】__________

offering degrees in modern languages have already plunged from 105 in 【M3】__________

2000 to 62 at the start of this academic year.

The rate of attrition is expected to continue into the next decade. A

further 20 departments will be vulnerable to close in the next 10 years, 【M4】__________

and there is growing concern that the pace of decline is set to quicken, 【M5】__________

according to Professor Mike Kelly, a former adviser on the Department

for Education’s steering group on languages and now head of the

government-funded Routes into Languages programme co-ordinating

attempts to increase the uptake of language degrees in England.

Huge areas of the country are being left without any degree-level

language courses, which in turn is increasing the number of language 【M6】__________

teachers in schools, compounding the crisis. Last week it emerged that

A-level candidates for French and German fell by 50% between 1996 to 【M7】__________

2012.

The Foreign Office has become increasingly concerning about the 【M8】__________

future of its diplomatic corps, with senior figures privately voicing

urgent concerns about the standard of their graduate recruits. It has built 【M9】__________

its own languages school and is spending ￡lm a year to bring the civil

service upon to scratch. 【M10】_________