ENG 121
Midterm Practice Reading
Name:
Date:
Sign Language
1 Using sign is one way for people to communicate. Signs are specific movements of the
hands, arms, face, etc. People use signs in the same way they use words – to express ideas. If you
put a finger to your mouth to mean “be quiet,” that is a sign, too.
2 Some deaf* people communicate through signs all the time.
They have entire sign
languages. Many deaf people in North America use American Sign Language, or ASL. It is the third
most common language in the United States.
3 It seems that people are born ready to learn a language. Babies who can hear notice their
parents’ voices at an early age. They can often understand spoken words when they are only six
months old. Soon, they try to make the sounds they hear. They start with sounds like bababa. The
babies whose parents use sign language notice their parents’ signs. Soon these babies start trying to
hold and move their hands in the same ways.
4 Sometimes deaf children invent their own ways to communicate.
One team of
psychologists* did a study of eight deaf children born to hearing parents. The parents were English
speakers in the United States and Chinese speakers in Taiwan. No one taught sign language to these
children. They developed their own personal sets of signs, and then their mothers learned to use
them. The children also invented ways to make sentences by using various signs. In other words,
what each child did was to invent a simple language. The languages of these American and
Taiwanese children were not like English or Chinese. Their languages were actually a lot like each
other.
5 Whether people use signs or speech to show how they feel, everyone learns language in
much the same way. Today, many hearing people in North America are learning ASL. They want to
be able to communicate with people in the deaf community, and ASL is a fun language to learn.
deaf* = someone who cannot hear
psychologist* = people trained in the study of the mind and how it works.
A. Circle T for “TRUE,” F for “FALSE,” or DS for “IT DOESN’T SAY” according to the passage.
1. Only deaf people use signs to communicate.
T
F
DS
2. ASL is the name for one kind of sign language.
T
F
DS
3. Psychologists did a study of eight children without hearing problems.
T
F
DS
4. Babies are too young to learn sign language.
T
F
DS
5. Sometimes a hearing child invents his or her own language.
T
F
DS
B. Circle the best answer according to the passage.
6. What is the main idea of paragraph 3?
A. Babies learn to communicate to their parents through signs.
B. Parents and babies learn from each other either by sounds or sign languages.
C. Parents use sign language to communicate to their six month old babies.
D. Babies who can hear and babies who cannot are born ready to learn language.
7. Which one is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Deaf people have entire languages of signs.
B. ASL is the name for one kind of sign language.
C. The languages of the Taiwanese and American deaf children were not similar to each other.
D. Many hearing people in North America are learning American Sign Language.
8. What was the same about mothers of deaf children in Taiwan and the United States?
A. They learned the signs their children came up with to communicate.
B. They invented simple languages for their children.
C. They learned signs and words to express their ideas.
D. They developed their own personal sets of signs.
9. In paragraph 4: “They developed their own personal sets of signs.” They refers to_____________ .
A. parents of deaf children
B. psychologist
C. eight deaf children
D. English and Chinese speakers
10. How do deaf people communicate?
A. They use oral language.
B. They use sign language.
C. They use pictures.
D. By writing on the paper