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200 words
When a human infant comes into being in any community in
any part of the world, it has two things in common with any other
infant. First of all, newborn children are completely helpless
Apart from a powerful capacity to draw attention to their
5 helplessness by using sound, there is nothing the newborn child can
do to ensure his own survival, Without care from some other human
being, be it mother or father, an infant is not liable to survive
2 This helplessness is characteristic of a human infant, and is in
contrast with the capacity of many newborn animals to stand up
10 within minutes of birth. They don't even have difficulty running
with the *herd within a few hours. Since young animals are certainly
in danger, sometimes for weeks or even months after birth, compared
with the human infant, they quickly develop the capacity to protect
themselves. However, the human infant is in need of others for a
is
15 very long time. During this long period, the human infant develops
the second feature which it shares with all other human infants, the
capacity to learn language. It goes without saying that language
18 specific to and indispensable to the *human race.
(注) herd 「(同種の動物の) 群れ」 human race [
is