Charles Darwin found inspiration for his theory of evolution in birds' beaks, giant tortoise shells — and language. “The survival or preservation of certain favored words in the struggle for existence is natural selection, he wrote in The Descent of Man in 1871.

Language gradually shifts over time. Much research examines how social and environmental factors influence language change, but very little wrestles with the forces of human cognitive (selection that fix certain words into the vocabulary. For an extensive new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, scientists investigated just that.

The scientists carried out two experiments and the results combine to show three properties that give words an “evolutionary advantage” by helping them stick in the brain: First, words typically acquired at an early age such as “hand” or “today”) are stabler. Next, concrete words linger better than abstract ones: “dog” lasts longer than “animal,” which lasts longer than “organism.” Lastly, emotionally exciting words — whether negative or positive — tend to last.

Early language-evolution models assumed that language becomes increasingly complex over time. But this new study supports a more recent theory that language ultimately gets more efficient and easier to understand.

The proposed trend toward “simpler” language is controversial. Columbia University linguist John MeWhorter more or less agrees with the study's results about evolutionary advantages within language. He questions, however, implications regarding the overall efficiency of English — a language he says contains things like “needlessly complex” grammatical traces.

Study lead author Ying Li, a psychologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a non-native English speaker, notes that English had even more puzzling grammar in the past. MeWhorter, Li supposes, “would complain more if he traveled back 800 years ago.”

You might think it’s going to be really challenging if you plan to learn a foreign tongue. You’ve probably heard a lot of talks about how easy it is to learn languages as a young child, and that learning as an adult can be tough. You might even know friends or family members who have tried to learn a foreign tongue and failed. That’s because they have friends or colleagues around them who experienced failure. We’re here to cheer you up with some good news and inspire you to get started. The amazing adult brain！

Scientists are always learning about the human brain. Decades ago, experts believed that the brain developed during childhood and then retained that way for life. However, modern studies have shown us that the brain has the ability to continually form new neural(神经的)connections throughout adulthood. A 2010 Swedish study tested two groups of people, one in the range of age 21 through 30 and another between 65 and 80. Remarkably, they found no significant differences in neuroplasticity(神经可塑性). In other words, this suggests that it’s possible for you to learn new things at any age.

Besides being possible to learn languages, research also suggests that it improves the adult brain in general. In a 2012 Chinese study, experts looked at a group of adults who were learning Mandarin over a nine-month period. They found that these adults showed improved integrity(完整性)in their white matter, the part of the brain that allows neural cells to communicate. The better your neural cells communicate, the easier it will be for you to learn new things.

Why may adults have an easier time learning? Children might be blessed with a naturally high degree of neuroplasticity, but that doesn’t mean learning is necessarily easier for them. In fact, adult brains have a number of great qualities that might actually make learning easier, especially if you take advantage of free learning apps like Mondly.

I ran into quite a few language problems while vacationing ( 度假) with my family last summer. The most embarrassing was when my Mom apologized to the people we were staying with because her “pants were dirty”. They looked at her in amazement, not knowing how to react. You see, Mom had fallen over and gotten mud on her jeans. But in Britain, “pants” means underpants or knickers( 内裤；衬裤), not trousers as it does back home.

Katie — From America

I went to stay with a friend on the west coast last summer. Her flat was on the first floor of a high-rise building so I got the lift up. Then I wandered round for ages looking for her flat but couldn’t find it. Fed up and tired, I finally had to go out to find a phone box. She explained that her flat was on the first floor, which for me meant the ground floor.

David — From Britain

When I asked for the “restroom” in a big department store, people kept directing me to a room with seats where I could sit and “rest”. It took me years to get through to (使...明白)someone that I only wanted the toilet!

Tom — From America

Last summer we went on a two-week family touring holiday, so Dad hired a car over the Internet. This was an old vehicle and there turned out (结果是；证明是)to be lots of things wrong with it. When he phoned the hire company and tried to explain that the lock on the boot was broken, they thought he was talking about footwear! He had no idea their word for “boot” was “trunk”. In the end we went to a garage and just solved the problem.

Mary — From Britain