Unit2学习能力
Text2 正文
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 1,000 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, is 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 analyze, 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 (咿呀学语), 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.
Text 2 习题
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
Text 2全文翻译
语言是否如同食物这种人们的基本需求一样，没有了它，在关键期的儿童会饿死和受到损害?从十三世纪弗雷德里克一世的极端实验来看，语言可能会是这样。弗雷德里克一世期望发现如果没有母语，儿童将说什么语言，他叫护士保持沉默。
所有的婴儿在第一年就夭折了。但是，显然这不仅仅是缺少语言的问题。真正缺乏的是良好的哺育。没有良好的哺育，尤其是在生命的第一年，人的生存能力会受到严重的影响。
当今不会再存在如同弗雷德里克那样欠缺的安排了。然而，一些儿童仍然在说话方面滞后。通常是母亲对婴儿发出的信号不敏感，而婴儿的大脑已经对快速学习语言做好了安排。如果这些敏感的阶段被忽略的话，那么学习技能的最佳时间将被错过，同时人可能再也不会那么容易地学习这些技能了。小鸟在合适的时候能够很快地学会唱歌和飞翔，但一旦关键期错过了，那么学起来就会既慢又难。
专家指出人按照固定的顺序并在一定的年龄进入说话阶段，但也有开始说话晚，最后成为高智商者的例子。十二周的时候，婴儿会笑并且发出类似元音的声音;在十二个月的时候，他会说简单的单词并且听懂简单的指令;在十八个月的时候他有三到五十个词汇量。在三岁的时候，他知道大约一千个能够用来造句的单词，到了四岁的时候，他的语言在风格而不是语法方面与他父母的语言迥异。
最近的研究结果表明，婴儿生来就有说话的能力。与猴子大脑相比，婴儿大脑之所以特殊在于其复杂的系统能使儿童把对玩具熊这样具体事物的视觉及感觉与“玩具熊”这个词语的声音模式连接起来。更让人难以置信的是这个小脑袋从周围混杂的声音里挑选出语言的顺序，对其对进行分析，再以新的方式对语言的各部分进行组合、再组合的能力。
但是说话需要引导，这依赖于儿童与母亲的交流，在此过程中，母亲识别儿童咿呀学语，抓东西和微笑等的信号并对这些信号做出反应。母亲对这些信号的不敏感性会削弱交流，因为儿童受挫，同时他们仅仅会发出明显的信号。对儿童非语言信号的敏感对语言的产生和发展是必要的。
Text 2 重点句
But clearly there was more than lack of language here.
该句语法：
“more than”可翻译为“多于……”，所以汉语一般翻译成为“不仅”。所以该句中是“不仅仅缺乏……”的含义。
Text 2 习题答案
答案:BCCBD
1.The purpose of FrederickⅠ’s experiment was__
1.Frederick Ⅰ实验的目的是______。
[A] to prove that children are born with the ability to speak
[A] 证明孩子生来就具有说话的能力
[B] to discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech
[B] 发现孩子在没有听见人类语言的情况下会说哪种语言
[C] to find out what role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak
[C] 研究细心护理在教孩子说话中起什么作用
[D] to prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language
[D] 证明在没有学习语言的情况下，孩子会受到伤害
2.The reason some children are backward in speaking is most probably that__
2.一些孩子在说话上迟钝的主要原因是____。
[A] they are incapable of learning language rapidly
[A]他们不能迅速学会语言
[B] they are exposed to too much language at once
[B]他们同时置身于太多的语言之中
[C] their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak
[C]母亲对孩子要说话的欲望回应不足
[D] their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them
[D]他们的妈妈智力不够，帮不了他们
3. What is exceptionally remarkable about a child is that
3. 儿童最不可思议的方面是__________。
[A] he is born with the capacity to speak
[A]他生来就具有说话的能力
[B] he has a brain more complex than an animal’s
[B]与动物相比，他的大脑更复杂
[C] he can produce his own sentences
[C]他能创造自己的句子
[D] he owes his speech ability to good nursing
[D]他的说话能力归功于好的照顾
4. Which of the following can NOT be inferred from the passage?
4. 哪个选项不能从短文中推论出来?
[A] The faculty of speech is inborn in man.
[A]人生来具有说话能力
[B] Encouragement is anything but essential to a child in language learning.
[B]鼓励在孩子学语言的过程中根本不起什么作用
[C] The child’ s brain is highly selective.
[C]儿童的大脑具有高度选择性
[D] Most children learn their language in definite stages.
[D]绝大多数孩子在确定的阶段学习语言
5. If a child starts to speak later than others, he will
5.如果一个孩子开始说话比其他孩子晚，他将来会_______。
[A] have a high IQ
[A] 具有高智商
[B] be less intelligent
[B] 智商低
[C] be insensitive to verbal signals
[C] 对语言信号不敏感
[D] not necessarily be backward
[D] 不一定低智商
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