Language is the most astonishing behavior．in the animal kingdom．It is the species-typical behavior．that sets humans completely 【B1】______ from all other animals．Language is a means of communication, 【B2】______ it is much more than that．Many animals can 【B3】______ ．The dance of the honeybee communicates the location of flowers 【B4】______ other members of the hive (蜂群)．But human language permits communication about anything, 【B5】______ things like unicorns (独角兽) that have never existed．The key 【B6】______ in the fact that the units of meaning, words, can be 【B7】______ together in different ways, according to 【B8】______ , to communicate different meanings.
Language is the most important learning we do．Nothing 【B9】______ humans so much as our ability to communicate abstract thoughts, 【B10】______ about the universe, the mind, love, dreams, or ordering a drink．It is an immensely complex 【B11】______ that we take for granted．Indeed, we are not aware of most 【B12】______ of our speech and under standing．Consider what happens when one person is speaking to 【B13】______ ．The speaker has to translate thoughts into 【B14】______ language．Brain imaging studies suggest that the time from thoughts to the 【B15】______ of speech is extremely fast, only 0.04 seconds! The listener must hear the sounds to 【B16】______ out what the speaker means．He must use the sounds of speech to 【B17】______ the words spoken, understand the pattern of 【B18】______ of the words (sentences), and finally 【B19】______ the meaning．This takes somewhat longer, a minimum of about 0.5 seconds．But 【B20】______ started, it is of course a continuous process.
【B1】