The science of linguistics has helped to reconstruct the long road the ancestors of modern day Indians traveled in North America. At the time of the discovery of the New World, line explorers found a babel of tongues. In North and South America more languages were spoken—about 2, 200 of them—than all of Europe and Asia at that time. Despite what some early explorers and European scholars believed, there never was such a language as "American Indian"—meaning, presumably, one common language with only local dialects. Rather than one common language that linked the Indians of North America, about 550 distinct languages were spoken, and nearly every language comprised numerous dialects. A second misconception was that a language had to be written to rank as a full-fledged language. In North America, a truly written language developed only in Mexico, yet most Indian groups were able to communicate a rich unwritten tradition of poetry, oratory, and drama.
单选题
When explorers discovered North America, ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】第二句提到“At the time of the discovery of the New World, line explorers found a babel of tongues.”发现新世界时，探究者们发现语言的混杂性。可见，当时就有许多语言正被使用。
单选题
An incorrect belief of some early scholars was that ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节题。倒数第二句说到“A second misconception was that a language had to be written to rank as a full-fledged language.”第二个错误的认识是一种语言要被称为一种真正的语言，必须具有书写形式。所以选D。
单选题
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】从最后一句“most Indian groups were able to communicate a rich unwritten tradition of poetry, oratory, and drama.”可看出，大部分印第安人能够明白非书写形式的诗歌及戏剧等。这与B项正好吻合，所以选B项。