阅读理解
American Sign Language, often called ASL, is used by most people with hearing problems in the United States and Canada.
Besides ASL, there are more than fifty sign languages used throughout the world today, including Mayan Sign, British Sign, Israeli Sign, and Chinese Sign. Like spoken languages, sign languages are different from each other. But all sign languages are based on sight instead of sounds.
Sign languages have several main visual (视觉) parts that work together to express meaning. The first part is the shape made by the hands. Movement is also important. Moving the body or organs (器官) like hands affects the meaning of the shape. The place where the sign is made and the direction the hands face are crucial as well. Other visual clues (线索), such as the expression on a person's face, can sometimes change a sign's meaning. For example, a change in a smile can show whether a signer is happy, very happy, or overjoyed. Raising the eyebrows can mark a question.
In sign languages, the visual parts are combined (结合) in different ways to create signs.
These signs stand for things, actions, feelings, and ideas. ASL has about 4,000 different signs. Like spoken languages, sign languages cannot be translated word-for-word.
For English word may be represented by a series of signs in ASL. Or several English words may be
represented by a single ASL sign. Unlike spoken languages, the signs are organized according to sign-language grammar and the most important word or idea is signed first.
In ASL, the letter signs are made with one hand. Signers would rarely, if ever, spell out all the words they are signing. That would be as awkward and slow as speakers spelling each spoken word. However, American Sign Language does not have signs for proper names, so signers may use the alphabet to spell these. Also, sign languages often borrow words from other languages. They may spell words using finger spelling which is done with a set of hand shapes that stand for letters of the alphabet.
Sign languages develop naturally when people with shared culture and needs want to communicate with each other. Signers are closely linked to each other, perhaps more than to speaking people in their own communities. Signers share points of view, values, needs, and problems,as well as languages.
