完形填空 Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr., was the chairman of the English Department at Gallaudet University. He saw the way deaf people communicated and was extremely 21 . He was a hearing person, and signs of the deaf were totally new to him.
Dr. Stokoe decided to propose a study of sign language. Many other teachers were not interested, and thought Dr. Stokoe was 22 to think about studying sign language. Even deaf teachers were not very interested in the project. However, Dr. Stokoe did not give up. 23 , he started the Linguistics Research Program in'1957. Stokoe and his two deaf assistants, worked 24 this project during the summer and after school. The three 25 made films of deaf people signing. The deaf people in the films did not understand 26 the research was about and were just trying to be nice to Dr. Stokoe. Many people thought the whole project was silly, but 27 agreed with Dr. Stokoe in order to please him.
Stokoe and his 28 studied the films of signing. They 29 the films and tried to see patterns in the signs. The results of the research were 30 : the signs used by all of the signers 31 certain linguistic rules.
Dr. Stokoe was the first linguist to test American Sign Language 32 a real language. He published the 33 in 1960,but not many people paid attention to the study. Dr. Stokoe was still 34 —he was the only linguist who 35 that sign language was more than gestures. He knew it was a language of its own and not just another form of English.