Passage 19
学霸导读 在多元化的世界里，语言也是多元的，你知道印第安人部落的“语言”是怎样的吗？
Each Indian tribe （ 部落 ） had a different language. Many Indians never learned any language e 1 their own. Do you know how Indians from different tribes talked to each other？ They had two ways to talk without sound. One way was by sign language； the other was by signals.
Sign language is a way talking by signs. Indians used it when they met strangers. In this way, they could f ind out w 2 the stranger was a friend or an enemy.
Indians usually used signals when they wanted to send messages to someone far away. To make signals， an Indian might use a pony （ 小马 ）. He might use a blanket. Or he might use smoke， a mirror or f ire arrows.
To signal that he had seen many animals, an Indian r 3 his pony in a large circle. Sometimes the Indian gave a signal like this and then went away to hide. This meant that there was danger.
The blanket signal was visible from far away. An Indian held two c 4 of a blanket in his hands. Then he began to swing （ 摆动 ） the blanket from side to side in front of him. An Indian could send many different signals with his blanket.
He could also send many signals with a mirror to w 5 someone or to get the attention of a person far away. But he also used it to send messages in code. Of course, mirrors could be used o 6 when the sun was shining. At night, Indians used f ire arrows for signaling.
An Indian also sent signals with smoke. He made a small f ire of dry wood. Then he put grass or green branches on it. He held a blanket over the f ire for a minute. When he r 7 the blanket from the f ire, there was a cloud of smoke. The number of clouds of smoke told his message in code.
Now you can see that Indians didn’t need to learn each other’s language. They could talk to one another by using signals or sign language.
1.__________2.__________3.__________4.__________5.__________6.__________7.__________
高频词汇
signal /'sɪgnəl/ n. & v. 信号，标记/发信号
arrow /'ærəʊ/ n. 箭，箭头
visible /'vɪzəbl/ adj. 看得见的，可见的
branch /brɑːntʃ/ n. 树枝，分支