GMAT Verbal Reasoning Practice Test 1
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Recent studies suggest that human beings link certain speech sounds instinctively with other specific perceptions. In one experiment, subjects tasted different liquids and then made a computer synthesizer produce vowel sounds to match the
tastes. The subjects associated sweet tastes with vowels produced with the tongue placed high toward the back of the mouth, and sour tastes with vowels produced with the tongue placed low toward the front.
Such associations apparently permeate languages. For example, in many languages, words indicating slow movement contain sonorant consonants such as m and r, while words indicating rapid movement contain explosive consonants such
as ch and f. These associations may make foreign languages easier to learn. In experiments, English speakers shown pairs of antonyms in languages foreign to them performed significantly better than chance at matching those words with
their English translations. And English-speaking children learn made-up verbs faster when those verbs follow the conventional sound-meaning associations found in Japanese than when the verbs contravene them.
The intuitive associations between word sounds and meanings probably facilitated the development of the first languages. Early humans coining the first words presumably had no other vocabulary to explain what their new terms meant. But if
those first words had sounds naturally suggesting other sensations, listeners could have more easily intuited their intended meanings.
Directions for Q.No : 15 - 17
Recent studies suggest that human beings link certain speech sounds instinctively with other specific perceptions. In one experiment, subjects tasted different liquids and then made a computer synthesizer produce vowel sounds to match the
tastes. The subjects associated sweet tastes with vowels produced with the tongue placed high toward the back of the mouth, and sour tastes with vowels produced with the tongue placed low toward the front.
Such associations apparently permeate languages. For example, in many languages, words indicating slow movement contain sonorant consonants such as m and r, while words indicating rapid movement contain explosive consonants such
as ch and f. These associations may make foreign languages easier to learn. In experiments, English speakers shown pairs of antonyms in languages foreign to them performed significantly better than chance at matching those words with
their English translations. And English-speaking children learn made-up verbs faster when those verbs follow the conventional sound-meaning associations found in Japanese than when the verbs contravene them.
The intuitive associations between word sounds and meanings probably facilitated the development of the first languages. Early humans coining the first words presumably had no other vocabulary to explain what their new terms meant. But if
those first words had sounds naturally suggesting other sensations, listeners could have more easily intuited their intended meanings.
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