Exercise 5.2

1. Vegetation covers the earth, except for those areas continuously covered with ice or scorched by heat. Plants grow most richly in fertilized plains and river valleys, but they also grow at the snow’s edge in the high mountains, in the cracks of busy sidewalks, and on seemingly barren cliffs. Densely vegetated areas include the ocean and its edges and around lakes and swamps. Vegetation covered the earth before humans existed and will continue to exist long after humans disappear.

2. Animals do not have the power to create a new message based on new experiences. Their genetic code limits the number and kind of messages they can communicate. For example, bees can only communicate about distance, direction, source, and richness of pollen. A species of animal delivers a limited repertoire of messages in the same way, generation after generation.

3. According to Jones’ 1985 paper, language skills are very important to children’s problem-solving skills. Improvements in language skills resulted in an improvement in nonverbal problem solving. This occurs probably because language habits acquired earlier are used to articulate problems and to activate knowledge that has previously been learned through language. Therefore, problem solving in general can be enhanced by practicing formulating nonlinguistic problems verbally.