In the social sciences the terms “literate” and “literacy” occur in a variety of contexts. Most generally a contrast is drawn between those preliterate or no literate (and therefore in one sense prehistoric) societies that do not have a full-fledged system of writing for transcribing language and those that do. More frequently the terms refer not to societies but to individuals, the percentage of people who can read and write in a particular society, which is therefore divided into the literate and the illiterate. Even among those who can read, competence obviously varies, so that literacy becomes a measurable quality, [1] (1. for 2. with 3. because) some individuals being more literate than others.
In most societies with writing, until 100 years ago only a minority could read and write; the rest were illiterate and hence were themselves dependent on the oral or visual transmission of knowledge. They were not, [2] (1. therefore 2. however 3. on the contrary), dependent on knowledge originating in the oral or visual registers, and, consequently, their traditions differed in kind from those of a society without writing because they would be indirectly influenced by the written forms; illiterates would absorb Christian or Buddhist book learning through stories, sermons, paintings, and sculpture. Equally, they might learn to conduct cognitive operations invented by the written culture (such as the arithmetic tables learned by heart). The same is true of technological advances developed through the medium of written operations; illiterates may [3] (1. benefit from 2. be prevented from 3. resist) living in a literate culture, although the inability to read and write will place them in a disadvantageous position relative to others who can. Even cultures without writing may be influenced by contact with literate outsiders in a similar manner. The radio could stand as one example, because literacy was clearly [4](1. a side effect 2. an outcome 3. a prerequisite) of its invention but not its operation. Today, however, there is probably no society in the world that does not have some literates who are capable of [5] (1. deriving 2. manipulating 3. gaining) access to written knowledge produced elsewhere.
The first achievement of writing is to ensure the storage and communication over time and space of linguistic messages. There lies its prime role in transforming social organizations, but the process of setting down such messages, whether or not they are then communicated to anyone, leads to changes in human understanding itself. In terms of the mechanics of reading and writing, these involve the development of secondary skills, the coordination of the eye with the brain, the inner ear, and the silent voice, by which linguistic thoughts are expressed in visual formulae and vice versa. The process of learning to read involves the deliberate cultivation of exact memory and verbatim recall right from the start. The memorizing of hundreds of basic shapes is [6] (1. crucial 2. marginal 3. irrelevant) to any logographic writing such as Chinese; syllabic scripts make fewer initial demands, and alphabetic ones fewer still.
The deliberate visual recording of language means not only a search for words but a search for genres. Oral discourse, even when not informal, often trails off into another activity, being punctuated by a drink of water, a mouthful of food, the rustle of paper, the closing of a door, or, in other words, by another nonlinguistic activity. Written composition, however, has to have a formal beginning and an end; “Dear Christine” is completed by “Yours sincerely, Stephen,” [7] (1. put out 2. put forward 3. laid out) in a particular format, with the specification of place and date. Apart from the letter, there is a gamut of genres from the report to the passport, as well as the literary genres ranging from the novel to the poem. These developments appear gradually over time, but eventually not only each composition but each subunit [8] (1. takes after 2. takes on 3. takes in) a specific form each topic requires a paragraph, each sentence a capital letter and full stop, each word its break. Syntax and punctuation become more precise and more formal as a result of becoming visual. Part of the reason behind these changes is that whereas speech [9] (1. operates as 2. addresses 3. defines) one of the channels in face-to-face communication, writing as a register stands on its own. It is “decontextualized,” or rather the context is highly [10] (1. restricted 2. redundant 3. reserved). Hence, clarity of expression and precision of genre, syntax, and punctuation are encouraged by the visual representation of language.
Not only is language decontextualized but because of the permanency of writing, which materializes the flow of speech, words can be rearranged [11] (1. equally 2. less 3. more) freely in composition and also taken out of the sentence structure as individual items and grouped with others of the same “class.” Such an activity is not impossible in oral discourse, but its use is enormously developed in early literate cultures where the reading and copying of lists, as in Mesopotamia, is one of the basic methods of instruction. Listing has other implications, because it means placing items in unambiguous categories, giving each one a position, leading to [12](1. contextualization 2. consolidation 3. contradiction) on the one hand and reconsideration on the other. The list is a component of the table or matrix, an important instrument of intellectual operations. It is also intrinsic to recordkeeping of a multitude of kinds, from trading operations to administrative personnel to astronomical observations. It is the relative permanency of writing that makes it valuable as a means of storing information, [13](1. whatever 2. whether 3. whichever) in the form of note taking, of the more deliberate recording of the Nile floods over time, of the history written for future generations, or of the accidental survival of personal letters.
So much for writing. While reading aloud is necessarily an individual task and a frequent feature of early literacy, especially when only a small proportion of the population had the skills, it involved an immediate audience, the [14](1. Physiological 2. Virtual 3. Physical) presence of hearers. So, too, did a parallel feature of early literacy, the repetitive reading to oneself of a piece, then its subsequent recitation, as if produced purely orally, to a collected audience. Such a process involves rereading, that is, going over for a second or a third time the linguistic message, in a fashion that is virtually impossible without writing. The backward look facilitates not only verbatim memorizing but also understanding and critical analysis, as well as enabling the writer to construct and present more complex sentences than would otherwise be possible. Such reviewing is the counterpart of comparing several versions of the same incident, poem, or account and of evaluating their differences, a procedure that gave [15] (1. birth 2. impetus 3. way) to history in the technical sense.
Literacy not only encourages such deliberate perusal of the text, it also makes possible the opposite, that is, the highly [16] (1. holistic 2. haphazard 3. Selective) forms of retrieval that are involved in consulting a dictionary (or even a library), as well as the skipping and the speed reading that takes place when we read a detective story rather than a poem. The potential results of such procedures are vital to the growth of knowledge. In the first place, the deliberate perusal of a text facilitates the search for inconsistencies, for contradictions, while the ability to set side by side different texts referring to the same events or notions leads to the [17](1. reconsideration 2. cultivation 3. evaluation) of criticism and of skepticism. It allows not only for criticism of the texts but also their further elaboration by commentary, which can [18] (1. in this respect 2. in its turn 3. as it turns out) be stored away for future reference, leading to the building up of libraries of stored knowledge. These libraries encapsulate objective knowledge in the sense that this information has become theoretically [19] (1. inaccessible to 2. associated with 3. independent of) specific human teachers.
The use of writing enables us to accumulate knowledge and at the same time to formalize, summarize, and generate it by means of paralinguistic devices, such as diagrams (including Euclidean geometry), lists, and tables. Such devices not only facilitate comprehension, their creation advances understanding by grouping material in new or question raising ways. The telephone directory and the dictionary are important developments from the simpler forms, powerful instruments of knowledge and communication. At the same time the shopping list or railway timetable enables one to plan ones future action, and the critical value of such tables for the allocation of time, for teaching, for work, in calendars, and in daily diaries needs no stressing. Once again, while planning is intrinsic to all human communities, such action can be greatly [20] (1. enhanced 2. escalated 3. elevated) by the use of literacy.
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