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What do we think with? Only the brain? Hardly. The brain is like a telephone exchange. It is the switchboard, but not the whole system. Its function is to receive incoming signals, make proper connection, and send the messages through to their destination. For efficient service, the body must function as a whole.
But where is the "mind"? Is it in the brain? Or perhaps in the nervous system? After all, can we say that the mind is in any particular place? It is not a thing, like a leg, or even the brain. It is a function, an activity. Aristotle, twenty-three hundred years ago, observed that the mind was to the body what cutting was to the ax. When the ax is not in use, there is no cutting. So with the mind. "Mind," said Charles H. Woolbert, "is what the body is doing. "
If this activity is necessary for thinking, it is also necessary for carrying thought from one person to another. Observe how people go about the business of ordinary conversation. If you have never done this painstakingly, you have a surprise in store, for good conversationalists are almost constantly in motion. Their heads are continually nodding and shaking sometimes so vigorously that you wonder how their necks can stand the strain.
Even the legs and feet are active. As for the hands and arms, they are seldom still for more than a few seconds at a time.
These people, remember, are not making speeches. They are merely common folk trying to make others understand what they have in mind. They are not conscious of movement. Their speech is not studied. They are just human creatures in a human environment, trying to adapt themselves to a social situation. Yet they converse, not only with oral language, but with visible actions that involve practically every muscle in the body.
In short, because people really think all over, a speaker must talk all over if he succeeds in making people think. 1. The best title for the passage would be_______.
A. Bodily Communication B. Spoken Language
C. Bodily Actions D. Conversation 2. Which of the following statements would the author agree with?
A. Thinking is a social phenomenon.
B. Thinking is solely a brain function.
C. Thinking is a function of the nervous system.
D. Thinking is the sum total of bodily activity. 3. In communication, it is essential not only to employ speech, but also_______.
A. to speak directly to the other person
B. to employ a variety of bodily movements
C. to be certain that the other person is listening
D. to pay great attention to the other person’s behavior 4. It can be inferred from the passage that the basic function of bodily activity in speech is to_______.
A. make the listener feel emotional
B. strengthen the speaker’s understanding
C. strengthen or intensify the speaker’s implied meaning to the listener
D. convey the speaker’s implied meaning to the listener 5. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. The brain is compared to a telephone exchange.
B. The mind is an activity of the nervous system.
C. Some people remain still while talking to others.
D. Many people move their bodies on purpose while talking. Key:1. A 2. D 3. B 4. C 5. A
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