A. COOK B. AM COOKING C. COOKED D. AM GOING TO COOKREAD THE FOLLOW...
28. A. cook
B. am cooking
C. cooked
D. am going to cook
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct
answer to each of the questions.
Because writing has become so important in our culture, we sometimes think of it as
more real than speech. A little thought, however, will show why speech is primary and
writing secondary to language. Human beings have been writing (as far as we can tell
from surviving evidence) for at least 5000 years; but they have been talking for much
longer, doubtless ever since there have been human beings.
When writing did develop, it was derived from and represented speech, although
imperfectly. Even today there are spoken languages that have no written form.
Furthermore, we all learn to talk well before we learn to write; any human child who is
not severely handicapped physically or mentally will learn to talk: a normal human being
cannot be prevented from doing so. On the other hand, it takes a special effort to learn to
write. In the past many intelligent and useful members of society did not acquire the skill,
and even today many who speak languages with writing systems never learn to read or
write, while some who learn the rudiments of those skills do so only imperfectly.
To affirm the primacy of speech over writing is not, however, to disparage the latter.
One advantage writing has over speech is that it is more permanent and makes possible
the records that any civilization must have. Thus, if speaking makes us human, writing
makes us civilized.