HYPERPOLYGLOTS

You are going to read an article about hyperpolyglots. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A – G the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Someone who speaks two languages is often referred to as bilingual and someone who speaks three is trilingual, but what do we call people who speak four or more? Geniuses? 1 .……............….. Believe it or not, a word has even been invented for those few people who speak six or more. 2 .……............….. After all of the recent press about British children giving up language after the last government made language learning optional from the age of 14, it’s hard to imagine there being many hyperpolyglots in the UK. 3 .……............….. In 2004, scientists had the opportunity to dissect Krebs’s brain in an effort to confirm whether his impressive language skills were due to a unique brain structure. While they observed distinct differences in the region of Krebs’s brain responsible for language — known as Broca’s area — they were ultimately unable to answer whether his unique brain was different since birth or if it grew to be that way from learning so many new languages. 

Today, we know multilinguals and hyperpolyglots have distinct differences in their brains’ neural activity when compared to people who can only speak one language. 4 .……............….. Any type of cognitive activity, whether it’s doing a puzzle, playing an instrument, or learning a language, can build new neural pathways. Ray Gillon is a British hyperpolyglot who speaks an astounding 18 languages! 5 .……............….. Among his 18 languages are Thai, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Bulgarian and Mandarin.

Although Ray Gillon first started learning French and Latin at school, and later German at university, he is a self-taught linguist who developed his language skills by travelling around the world. It wasn’t until he started working in the south of France that he had any enthusiasm for languages. His next job took him around the world, and as he travelled he picked up the languages of the countries he was visiting. Ray Gillon now supervises foreign language versions of Hollywood films, meaning that he has to keep up to date with his languages. 6 .……............….. Among other polyglots are Alex Rawlings, an Oxford University student who speaks 11 languages, and Matt Withers, who speaks six languages. Unlike Ray Gillon who travelled around the world, Matt Withers signed up to a series of courses to learn languages. He believes that in order to learn other languages you need to know the grammar of your own language. Ray Gillon says that by the third or fourth language it becomes easier to assimilate grammar and vocabulary, but other than that, he can’t explain his ability to speak so many languages.

Adapted from medicaldaily.com and planetveritas.com