英語四級基礎(chǔ)閱讀訓(xùn)練 Text 16

所屬教程:英語四級閱讀

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2022年04月06日

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Text 16

Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the drastic experiment of Frederick II in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.

All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than lack of language here. What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.

Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again. A bird learns to sing and to fly rapidly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed.

Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words. At three he knows about l,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar.

Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about man's brain, compared with that of the monkey, if the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a toy-bear with the sound pattern "toy-bear". And even more incredible is the young brain's ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyse, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.

But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the child's babbling, grasping and smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child's non-verbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.

1.The purpose of Frederick II's experiment was_______.

A.to prove that children are born with the ability to speak

B.to discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech

C.to find out what role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak

D.to prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language

2.The reason some children are backward in speaking is most probably that_______.

A.they are incapable of learning language rapidly

B.they are exposed to too much language at once

C.their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak

D.their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them

3.What is exceptionally remarkable about a child is that_______.

A.he is born with the capacity to speak　　B.he has a brain more complex than an animal's

C.he can produce his own sentences　　　D.he owes his speech ability to good nursing

4.Which of the following can NOT be inferred from the passage?

A.The faculty of speech is inborn in man.

B.Encouragement is anything but essential to a child in language learning.

C.The child's brain is highly selective.

D.Most children learn their language in definite stages.

5.If a child starts to speak later than others, he will_______.

A.have a high IQ　　　　　　　　B.be less intelligent

C.be insensitive to verbal signals　　D.not necessarily be backward

長難例句分析

［長難例句］But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the child's babbling, grasping and smiling, and responds to them.

［結(jié)構(gòu)分析］本句的主干是But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child。where引導(dǎo)的是非限定性定語從句。

［參考譯文］但是，學(xué)習(xí)語言必須加以引導(dǎo)，這取決于母子之間的互動效果。在他們的互動中，母親識別出嬰兒咿呀學(xué)語、抓撓及微笑的信號，并對這些信號作出反應(yīng)。

全文參考譯文

語言是否像食物一樣，是人類的一種基本需要，沒有它，孩子可能會在成長關(guān)鍵時期挨餓和受到損害呢？根據(jù)13世紀(jì)Frederick II 所做的大量實驗可推斷出，事實的確如此。為了發(fā)現(xiàn)孩子在聽不到母語的情況下會講什么語言，他讓護理人員保持沉默。

所有的嬰兒在一年內(nèi)都死亡了。但很明顯，不只是因為缺少語言。缺少的還有良好的母愛。沒有良好的母愛，尤其是在生命的第一年內(nèi)，嬰兒的生存能力受到嚴(yán)重影響。

今天已不存在像Frederick所安排的那樣嚴(yán)重缺乏的情況。盡管如此，一些孩子在語言學(xué)習(xí)方面仍很遲鈍。主要原因是由于母親對大腦已做好快速學(xué)習(xí)語言的孩子所發(fā)出的信號不敏感。如果錯過這些敏感時期，那么獲取技巧的理想時期就會被錯過，他們再也不能如此輕松地學(xué)習(xí)。鳥在正確時期能很快地學(xué)會歌唱和飛翔，但一旦這樣的關(guān)鍵時期被錯過，學(xué)習(xí)過程就會緩慢而困難。

專家們認(rèn)為，不同語言階段都有其固定的順序和年齡，但是，也存在這樣的情形，開始說話晚的嬰兒長大后卻智商很高。嬰兒在12周時，開始會笑并會發(fā)出類似元音的聲音；在12個月時，他能講簡單的話并能理解簡單的命令；18個月時，就能有3～50的詞匯量。到3歲時，約認(rèn)識1000個單詞，并能用這些單詞造句；4歲時，他的語言與其父母的差異僅表現(xiàn)在風(fēng)格上而不是語法上面。

最新資料顯示，嬰兒生來就有說話的能力。與猴子的大腦相比，人腦的特殊之處就在于其組成大腦的復(fù)雜系統(tǒng)所具有的功能。該系統(tǒng)能使嬰兒把所見所感聯(lián)系起來，例如，把玩具熊及其發(fā)音模式聯(lián)系起來。更加令人難以置信的是，嬰兒的大腦能從其周圍混雜的聲音中識別出語言的順序，能夠分析并按新的方法組合與重組語言各個部分。

但是，學(xué)習(xí)語言必須加以引導(dǎo)，這取決于母子之間的互動效果。在他們的互動中，母親識別出嬰兒咿呀學(xué)語、抓撓及微笑的信號，并對這些信號作出反應(yīng)。母親對這些信號的不敏感會削弱母子間的互動效果，因為孩子不能得到鼓勵就會只發(fā)出這些明顯的信號。對嬰兒非語言信號的敏感性對嬰兒語言的形成和發(fā)展是極其必要的。

題目答案與解析

1.Frederick Ⅱ的實驗的目的是_________。

A.用來證實嬰兒天生具有語言的能力

B.弄清楚聽不到任何人類語言時孩子會講什么語言

C.弄清楚保育員教嬰兒說話所起的作用

D.用來證實不學(xué)語言的嬰兒會受到損害

【答案】B

【解析】依據(jù)文中第一段最后一句可以得出答案。文中第一段最后一句指出：“為了發(fā)現(xiàn)嬰兒在聽不到母語的情況下會講什么語言，他要求保育員保持沉默。”B項正好與之相一致。

2.一些孩子在講話方面遲鈍最可能的原因是_________。

A.他們不能快速地學(xué)習(xí)語言

B.他們立刻接觸了太多的語言

C.他們的母親對他們說話所做的努力沒有充分的反應(yīng)