Speech
Read the passage and answer the following questions:-
1.Many animals are able to communicate with each other very well — but none of them can talk as we do. That is, no animals use words.
2. Birds cry out and make sounds that other birds understand. Smells, movements, and sounds are used for communication by animals, through which they express joy or anger or fear.
3. Human speech is a very complicated process, which no animal can perform. One reason is that in a very special way we use a whole series of organs to produce the sounds we want to make when we utter words. The way our vocal cords are made to vibrate, the way the throat, mouth and nasal cavities are adjusted, the way the lips, teeth, lower jaw, tongue, and palate are moved — just to make vowel and consonant sounds, is something animals can’t do. They cannot produce a whole series of words to make a sentence.
4. And there is another, a perhaps more important reason why animals can’t talk. Words are only labels for objects, actions, feelings, expressions and ideas. For example, the word ‘bird’ is a label for a living, flying object. Other words describe its colour, shape, flying and singing. Still, other words would be used to tell what the speaker thinks or feels about the bird or its actions.
5. For human beings, therefore, the use of words means the use of labels or symbols and then organizing them in a certain way to communicate something. This requires a degree of intelligence and logical thinking that no animals have. So, they can’t talk the way people do.
1.1 Attempt any eight of the following questions on the basis of the passage you have read:
(i) How is communication in animals made through?
(ii) State the words which help birds to express their emotions.
(iii) Why are animals not able to talk like human beings?
(iv) What do animals require for using words properly?
(v) How do birds communicate among themselves?
(vi) Why is human speech a complicated process?
(vii) How can human beings communicate among themselves?
(viii) According to the passage, what does the use of words actually signify?
(ix) Find the word in para 3, which means the same as ‘difficult’.
Answers
(i)Communication in animals is made through smells, movements and sounds.
(ii) Birds cry out and make sounds to be understood by other birds.
(iii) Because animals are helpless to produce a complete series of words. So they cannot make a sentence.
(iv) Animals require some quantity of intelligence and logical thinking like human beings for using words properly.
(v) With the help of cry and sounds, birds express joy, anger and fear among themselves.
(vi) Because human speech uses a whole series of organs to produce the sounds, which animals cannot perform.
(vii) In communication human beings use labels or symbols and organise them in a particular way to communicate something.
(viii) The use of words actually signifies the use of labels or symbols. For example, ‘bird’ is a label for a living and flying object.
(ix) Complicated.
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