Itisnotunusualforpeopletospeaktwoorthreelanguages;they’reknownasbilingualsortrilinguals.Speakersofmorethanthreelanguagesareknownaspolyglots.Andwhenwerefertopeoplewhospeakmanylanguages,perhapsadozenormo

　　Itisnotunusualforpeopletospeaktwoorthreelanguages;they’reknownasbilingualsortrilinguals.Speakersofmorethanthreelanguagesareknownaspolyglots.Andwhenwerefertopeoplewhospeakmanylanguages,perhapsadozenormore,weusethetermhyper-polyglot.

　　Themostfamoushyper-polyglotwasGiuseppeMezzofanti,a19thcenturyItaliancardinal,whowassaidtospeak72languages.Thisclaimsoundsabsurd.Ifyouassumeeachlanguagehad20,000words,Mezzofantiwouldhavetolearnawordaminute,sixhoursaday,forelevenyears—animpossibletask.ButMezzofantiwastestedbycritics,andtheywereallimpressed.

　　DidMezzofantihaveanextraordinarybrain?Orarehyper-polyglotsjustordinarypeoplewithordinarybrainswhomanagetodosomethingextraordinarythroughhardwork?

　　U.S.linguistStephenDrashenbelievesthatoutstandinglanguagelearnersjustworkharderatitandthentheyacquireunusuallystronglanguageability.Asanexample,hementionsaHungarianwomanwhoworkedasaninterpreterduringthe20thcentury.Whenshewas86,shecouldspeak16languagesandwasstillworkingonlearningnewlanguages.Shesaidshelearnedthemmostlyonherown,readingfictionorworkingthroughdictionariesortextbooks.

　　Someresearchersarguetothecontrary.Theybelievethatthereissuchathingasatalentforlearninglanguages.Inthe1930s,aGermanscientistexaminedpartsofthepreservedbrainofahyper-polyglotnamedEmilKrebs,whocouldspeak60languagesfluently.ThescientistfoundthattheareaofKrebs’sbraincalledBroca’sarea,whichisassociatedwithlanguage,lookeddifferentfromtheBroca’sareainthebrainsofmenwhospeakonlyonelanguage.However,westilldon’tknowifKrebswasbornwithabrainreadytolearndozensoflanguagesorifhisbrainadaptedtothedemandsheputonit.

　　Althoughitisstillnotclearwhethertheabilitytolearnmanylanguagesisinborn,there’snodoubtthatjustaboutallofuscanacquireskillsinasecond,third,orevenfourthlanguagebyputtingourmindtoit.

　　小题1:Whatdoestheunderlinedsentenceimply?A．Mezzofanticouldremember360wordsaday.B．Mezzofantihadaspecialwaytolearnlanguages.C．Mezzofanti’sachievementwasridi