Can software bring dead tongues back to life? Probably yes. A computer algorithm（计算程序）work

Can software bring dead tongues back to life? Probably yes.
A computer algorithm（计算程序）works almost as well as a trained linguist（语言学家） in reconstructing how dead protolanguages would have sounded, says a new study.
Our computer system is doing a basic job right now, says Alex Bouchard-Côté, an assistant professor in the department of statistics at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the paper describing the algorithm. But the program does a good enough job that it may be able to give linguists a head start, the statistician added.
For centuries, scholars have reconstructed languages by hand: looking at the same word in two or more languages and making educated guesses about what that word's ancestor may have sounded like. For example, the Spanish word for man （hombre） and the French word for man （homme） developed from the Latin word homo. The way linguists compare words from descendant（后代）languages to reconstruct the parent language is called, appropriately, the comparative method.
The early 19th-century linguist Franz Bopp was the first to compare Greek, Latin and Sanskrit using this method. Jacob Grimm, one of the Brothers Grimm of fairy tale fame, used the comparative method to show how Germanic languages developed from a common ancestor.
The difference between that and Bouchard-Côté's program, the statistician says, is we do it on a larger scale. As a proof of concept, Bouchard-Côté fed words from 637 Austronesian languages （spoken in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and more） into the new algorithm, and the system came up with a list of what the ancestor words of all those languages would have sounded like. In more than 85 percent of cases, the automated reconstruction came within one character of the ancestor word commonly accepted as true by linguists.
The algorithm won't replace trained human linguists, but could speed up language analysis.
Using a computer to do large-scale reconstruction offers another advantage. Bouchard-Côté says, “With big data sets, you can really start finding regularities … You might find that certain sounds are more likely to change than others.
So Bouchard-Côté's team tested the functional load hypothesis（假设）, which says that sounds that are more important for two clearly different words are less likely to change over time. A formal test of this hypothesis in 1967 looked at four languages; Bouchard-Côté's algorithm looked at 637.
The revealed pattern would not be obvious if we had not been able to reconstruct large numbers of protolanguages, Bouchard-Côté and his coauthors write in the new study.
In addition to simply helping linguists understand how people spoke in the past, studying ancient languages can perhaps answer historical questions. For example, Bouchard-Côté says, Say people are interested in finding out when Europe was settled. If you can figure out if the language of the settling population had a word for wheel, then you can get some idea of the order in which things occurred, because you would have some records that show you when the wheel was invented.”
【小题1】The underline word “protolanguages” in the first paragraph probably refers to .A．the languages that couldn’t be reconstructed by handB．parent languages that existed in the pastC．languages developed from a common ancestorD．languages used to explain things that occurred in the past【小题2】We can learn from the fourth and fifth paragraphs that the reconstruction of “protolanguage” by scholars .A．is commonly accepted as falseB．dates back to the 19th centuryC．focuses on European languagesD．is conducted using the comparative method【小题3】According to Bouchard-Côté, reconstructing the dead protolanguages might .A．arouse people’s interest in when Europe was settled B．allow us to find answers to some historical questions C．enable us to picture the way linguists communicatedD．help figure out how the wheel was invented【小题4】The author probably wants to prove the computer algorithm program led by Bouchard-Côté .A．will bring every dead language back to lifeB．can take the place of linguists in language analysisC．is of great help to promote language analysis with big data sets D．can merely reconstruct Asian-Pacific “protolanguages”B

(答案→)B 解析：以前语言学家通过比较的方法研究以前失去的语言，现在由Bouchard-Côté带领实施的计算程序可以进行大量数据的语言分析，除了分析语言以外，这项调查还有助于解决很多历史问题。【小题1】猜词题：根据第四段的句子：The way linguists compare words from descendant（后代）languages to reconstruct the parent language is called, appropriately, the comparative method.可知“protolanguages”指的是过去人们说的语言，选B【小题2】细节题：根据第四段的句子：The way linguists compare words from descendant（后代）languages to reconstruct the parent language is called, appropriately, the comparative method.可知学者们重新构建“protolanguages”是通过对比的方法，选D。【小题3】细节题：从文章最后一段的句子：In addition to simply helping linguists understand how people spoke in the past, studying ancient languages can perhaps answer historical questions.可知Bouchard-Côté所说,重新构建已经失去的原语言，让我们找到一些历史问题的答案，选B。【小题4】写作意图题：从文章第六段的句子：The difference between that and Bouchard-Côté's program, the statistician says, is we do it on a larger scale.可知作者可能想证明由Bouchard-Côté带领实施的计算程序对于促进大量数据的语言分析是很有用的。选C。

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