The first two stages in the development of civilized man were probably the invention of pr
The (2)_____ of language is also obscure. No doubt it began very gradually. Animals have a few cries that serve (3)_____ signals, (4)_____ even the highest apes have not been found able to pronounce words (5)_____ with the most intensive professional instruction. The superior brain of man is apparently (6)_____ for the mastering of speech. When man became sufficiently intelligent, we must suppose that he (7)_____ the number of cries for different purposes. It was a great day (8)_____ he discovered that speed could be used for narrative. There are those who think that (9)_____ picture language preceded oral language. A man (10)_____ a picture on the wall of his cave to show (11)_____ direction he had gone, or (12)_____ prey he hoped to catch. Probably-picture language and oral language developed side by side. I am inclined to think that language (13)_____ the most important single factor in the development of man. Two important stages came not (14)_____ before the dawn of written history. The first was the domestication of animals; the second was agriculture. Agriculture was (15)_____ in human progress to which subsequently there was nothing comparable (16)_____ our own machine age. Agriculture made possible (17)_____ immense increase in the number of the human species in the regions where it could be successfully practiced. (18)_____ were, at first, only those in which nature fertilized the soil (19)_____ each harvest. Agriculture met with violent resistance from the pastoral nomads, but the agricultural way of life prevailed in the end (20)_____ the physical comforts it provided.
A.the latter
B.the later
C.the second
D.the latest