听力原文： Now I'd like to organize my speech around your questions. I can see that some of

you have questions on your mind, so please go ahead and ask them. You may ask, is all this concern about sexism in language really important？ I mean, are there more serious issues facing women today？

You know, I understand what you are thinking. And of course, there are many serious issues facing women. I mean, there are so many that I could mention, the AIDS crisis, workplace and equality, the way the mass medial treats women, that is, the way they stereotype women and so on. But I'd like to point out that in addition to these issues, the language question is also on the minds of international organizations, such as the United Nations, who try very hard to avoid sexism in their publications. You see, the issue isn't just the words themselves, but the ideas behind the words.

Have you ever thought about the roles that boys and girls play in children's literature？ It often seems that the boys are the ones having all the fun, having adventures and so on, while the girls just stand in the background, smiling sweetly. You see, women tend to be pushed to the background in society. By focusing on the language we use about women, we may be able to change their expectations. Here is a question about the relationship between the way we think and the way we talk. For example, if we say "chair" instead of "chairman", do you really think we'll start imagining more women in powerful positions？ Again that's a very interesting question. And yes, it's true that we don't completely understand the relationship between language and thought. So does what we say affect what we think？ The answer is probably yes. I for one would say that if we speak about people in certain ways, that definitely has an influence on the way we think about them. Imagining a little girl who grows up hearing "chairman" "chairman" "chairman", what is she going to think of when she hears this word？ A man, of course. But we must give young people the idea that women can also enter the professional world and be successful. One of my students once asked: does this controversy about how we use language exist in other languages, too？ My answer is yes. It's definitely receiving more and more attention worldwide. But remember that the feminist movement, which is so active in the United States, has been a major force behind the move to avoid sexist language. It's a complicated issue, however, because the issues of gender in language change from one language to the next. For example, nouns don't have a gender in English, but there are two genders for nouns in Spanish, masculine and feminine, and German has three gender groups. Some nouns are masculine, others are feminine. And there's a third category which isn't masculine or feminine. SO each language has its own gender issues. We'll want to take a look at some newspapers and magazines to see how they avoid sexism in English. Well, we'll have to leave it there for today. Thank you.

Questions:

16.What is mainly discussed in this speech？

17.What is the speaker's view of the relationship between language and thought？

18.According to the speaker, what is the major force supporting the effort to avoid sexist language？

19.Which of the following statements is NOT true about the issues of gender in language？

20.What is the speaker most probably going to talk about next？

(36)

A．Workplace inequality.

B．Sexism in language.

C．The AIDS crisis.

D．The way the mass media treats women.