Listening, speaking, reading and writing are necessary to everyday life, where language is the primary 1 for expression and communication. Studying how people use language — — what words and phrases we unknowingly 2 —— can help us better understand ourselves and why we 3 the way we do.
Stanford linguists（语言学家）attempt to 4 what is individual and general about the language we use. They also try to find how it came into use and the ways it 5 over time. After researches, they have found that even the smallest differences in language use are 6 the speakers' belief, according to research. One study finds that a(n) 7 harmless sentence, such as "girls are as good as boys at math," can in some way 8 sexist stereotypes (性别刻板印象). The statement's grammatical form suggests that being good at math is more 9 for boys than girls, the researchers said. Language can play a(n) 10 role in showing how we and others understand the world.
Studying other languages helps us have a better understanding of 11 around the world. People speak about 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there are a lot of similar things among languages, each one is 12 ，both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the people who speak it. Dan Jurafsky, the Professor in Humanities and chair of the Department of Linguistics at Stanford, advised that we shouldn't only 13 on our own language. Studying other languages and how they develop can help us understand what is 14 in humans' different ways of communicating with one another.
"Understanding what different groups of people say and why is the first step in deciding how we can 15 people together," Jurafsky said.
