Politicians use gestures to strengthen the delivery of speeches, while many people shrug or move their hands wildly to make a point. Now, scientists have shown that making gestures while talking is part of language and affects how the meaning of words is interpreted.

Researchers believe that gestures form part of a communication system deeply rooted in humans, which allow us to be understood. This might explain why many of us gesture while talking on the phone, where our actions can’t be seen. 

Researchers think it’s because gestures and words “very probably” form a single communication system, which serves to promote expression and help us to make ourselves understood. “In human communication, voice is not sufficient: even hand movements are involved, as are facial expressions,” they said.

Researchers also studied prosody, which is what makes a sentence understood in a specific way and usually relies on intonation and the rhythm of language. For example, without prosody, nothing would distinguish the spoken statement “this is an apple” from the “this is an apple?”

In an experiment, the researchers asked 20 Italian speakers to listen to various sentences with confusing meanings and watch videos of people saying the sentences. In the videos, the sentences could be “matched” – when gestures corresponded to the meaning of the spoken words – or ‘mismatched’ when the gestures matched a different meaning. They found that in the matched conditions there was no improvement due to gestures. The participants’ performance was very good both in the video and in the audio only sessions.’

They said that it is in the mismatched experiment that the effect of hand gestures became clear. “With the mismatched sentences, the subjects were much more likely to make the wrong choice - that is, they’d choose the meaning indicated in the gestures rather than in the speech. This means that gestures affect how meaning is interpreted and we believe this shows the existence of a common cognitive system for gestures, intonation and rhythm of spoken language.”

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1.Why do people make gestures while talking on the phone?

A Their actions can be seen by the person on the other side.

B Gestures are part of communication system humans have.

C With gestures the person on the phone can be understood.

D Gestures can help the speaker express his meaning clearly.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据文章第二段…gestures form part of a communication system deeply rooted in humans可知，手势语是人类固有的交流系统的一部分，打电话或交谈时打手势是非常自然的。

2.What is prosody according to the passage?

A Prosody is a part of the communication system.

B Prosody refers to intonation and rhythm of the language.

C Prosody helps people make a clear statement.

D Prosody is used to match gesture with the meaning of words.

解析：选B。B 词义理解题。根据文章第四段…prosody… usually relies on intonation and the rhythm of language可知，prosody（语韵）指的是语言表达中的语调和节奏。

3.What led the subjects to make the wrong choice in the experiment?

A The meaning of the sentences was confusing.

B The gestures were in agreement with the sentences.

C The cognitive system affects the understanding of the sentences.

D They relied on gestures to choose the meaning instead of speech.

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据文章第六段…that is, they’d choose the meaning indicated in the gestures rather than in the speech可知，被试者在对歧义词句做选择时出错，主要是他们依赖手势语进行了选择，而不是说话的声音。手势语对于正确解读词义产生了影响。

4.What conclusion can be drawn from the experiment?

A Gestures affect how the meaning of words is understood.

B There is a cognitive system for spoken language in humans.

C Relying on gestures is more likely to make mistakes.

D Gestures can not clearly interpret the meaning of words.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。结合文章首段与末段可知，研究人员经过实验发现，手势语是人们交流系统的重要部分，对于语义的解读有一定的影响。

5.What can be implied in the passage?

A With gestures people can be better understood.

B Hand movements are involved when voice is not loud enough.

C Prosody brings unique meaning to sentences.

D Gestures should not be used when a sentence has confusing meaning.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据文章第四段…distinguish the spoken statement… 可以判断，语言的韵律与声调使句子具有特殊的意义。