China is known for its ancient civilization which has continued all the way through into modern times,【小题1】many ups and downs in the history. One of the key factors has been the Chinese writing system which can date back to the use of longgu 【小题2】symbols were carved. Nowadays, Chinese characters are of great importance not only because they serve as a communication tool, but also unite Chinese people and culture.【小题3】China plays a greater role in global affairs, an increasing number of international students are beginning 【小题4】 (appreciate) Chinese culture through this amazing language.

To better understand how people express gratitude in normal life, anthropologist (人类学家) Simcon Floyd, at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (心理语言学) in Netherlands and his colleagues organised a large, cross-cultural study covering five continents and eight languages. That 【小题1】 (include) English, Italian, Polish, Russian and Lao, as well as unwritten languages such as Cha’palaa, spoken in Ecuador, Murrinh-Patha, used in northern Australia, and Siwu, spoken in Ghana. Both verbal and non-verbal expressions of gratitude, such as a smile or a nod, 【小题2】 (regard) as interactions.

Floyd’s team left cameras in household and community settings and captured more than 1,500 instances of social interactions 【小题3】 one person asked for something and another responded.

They found that in every culture, people fulfilled requests, but expressions of gratitude, such as saying “thanks” or nodding in appreciation, were remarkably rare, 【小题4】 (occur) just 5.5 percent of the time.

English and Italian speakers had slightly 【小题5】 (high) rates of gratitude expression — 14.5 percent and 13.5 percent of the time respectively. However, that’s still surprisingly low considering 【小题6】 polite Western people think they are, says Floyd. “English speakers are not so different from other people, and often prefer not to express gratitude in informal contexts,” he says.

Cha’palaa speakers had the lowest frequency of expressed gratitude, 【小题7】 zero examples in 96 recorded interactions. But this starts to make sense 【小题8】 you learn that the language has no easy way to say “thank you”.

Also surprised by the findings was David Peterson, linguist (语言学家) who developed the 【小题9】 (construct) language Dothraki for the TV show Game of Thrones. It too, has no word for thank you, something Peterson initially considered unlikely. “I thought that you had to have a word 【小题10】 (express) gratitude,” he says.

Are exclamation marks necessary?!

Punctuation is so important in writing that it is one of the first things you learn in school. It is a universal code with different marks to help with the meaning of 【小题1】 is being written. As is known to us, it 【小题2】 indicate the end of a sentence, a question or — in the exclamation mark’s case — a strong emotion. Without an exclamation mark in the correct place, a warning road sign might read, “Children please drive slowly” 【小题3】 【小题4】 “Children! Please drive slowly”.

An exclamation mark is a valid form of punctuation 【小题5】 origin can be traced back to a 14^th century Italian scholar. The exclamation mark informs the reader that there are strong feelings in the words. Although it is up to the reader 【小题6】 (grasp) exactly what that emotion is, it’s a useful signal. Also, exclamation marks on road signs help to keep people safe. As punctuation expert Philip Cowell writes, “There’s a meaningful difference between ‘duck’ and ‘duck!’” Of course, using them too much 【小题7】 (make) exclamation marks lose their purpose but that doesn’t mean they are useless.

However, 【小题8】 matters how punctuation is used. Some writers argue that exclamation marks are never truly necessary. Famous author Terry Pratchett writes that someone who uses multiple exclamation marks is likely to wear “underpants on his head”. Perhaps this is because they seem shouty and forced, 【小题9】 (give) away a writer’s need to tell the reader how to read a sentence. It’s   【小题10】 (good) to leave them out and let the reader react to the words on their own terms. A good writer can create emotions with just words and sentences, 【小题11】 that’s fear, wonder or joy. Exclamation marks make the writer seem desperate and can be tiring to read. One writer described them as “the cockroach of the punctuation world”, meaning they are everywhere, and they are pests.