学位英语

Easy Learning

Students should be jealous. Not only do babies get to doze their days away, but they’ve also mastered the fine art of learning in their sleep.

By the time babies are a year old they can recognise a lot of sounds and even simple words. Marie Cheour at the University of Turku in Finland suspected that they might progress this fast because they learn language while they sleep as well as when they are awake.

To test the theory, Cheour and her colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first few days of their lives. They exposed all the infants to an hour of Finnish vowel sounds — one that sounds like “oo”, another like “ee” and a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages that sounds like something in between1. EEG2 recordings of the infants brains before and after the session showed that the newborns could not distinguish the sounds.

Fifteen of the babies then went back with their mothers, while the rest were split into two sleep-study groups3. One group was exposed throughout their night-time sleeping hours to the same three vowels, while the others listened to other, easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds.4

When tested in the morning, and again in the evening, the babies who’d heard the tricky boundary vowel all night showed brainwave activity indicating that they could now recognise this new sound. They could identify the sound even when its pitch was changed, while none of the other babies could pick up the boundary vowel at all.

Cheour doesn’t know how babies accomplish this night-time learning, but she suspects that the special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies don’t “turn off” their cerebral cortex while they sleep. The skill probably fades in the course of the first year of life, she adds — so forget the idea that you can pick up tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow. But while it may not help grown-ups, Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders.

词汇：

vowel /5vaJEl/ n.元音 Finland /5finlEnd/ n.芬兰 Finnish /5finiF/ adj.芬兰的，芬兰人的，芬兰语的 newborn /nju:5bC:n/ n.新生儿; adj.新生儿的 cerebral /5seribrEl/ adj.大脑的 cortex /5kC:teks/ n.皮层remedial /ri5mi:djEl/ adj.补救的 注释:

1. … that sounds like something in between：that引导的是定语从句， that指代前面的 vowel。between可以理解为 between the vowel that sounds like “oo” and the vowel that sounds like “ee”。

2. EEG = electroencephalogram脑电图

3. two sleep-study groups：两个睡觉—学习小组

4. easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds：较容易区分的元音练习：

1. Babies can learn language even in their sleep. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned

2. An infant can recognize a lot of vowels by the time he or she is a year old. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned

3. Finnish vowels are easy to distinguish. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned

4. The three vowels mentioned in this article are all Finnish sounds. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned

5. The study shows that the infant’s cerebral cortex is working while he is asleep. A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned

6. If an adult wants to learn a language faster. he can put a language tape under his pillow.

1. A 第二段的最后一句话是这么说的： Marie Cheour at the University of Turku in Finland suspected taht they might progress this fast because they learn language while they sleep as well as when they are awake.芬兰 Turku大学的 Marie Cheour怀疑他们进步这么快的原因可能是他们不仅在醒着时而且在睡觉时也在学习语言。可见，这个命题是真的。

2. C 第二段有这么一个句子： By the time babies are a year old they can recognise a lot of sounds and even simple words.婴儿到了一岁时，他们可以识别许多音，甚至一些简单的词。从“许多音”是推不出“许多元音的”，反向的推导是成立的。

3. C 第四段的最后一句话是这么说的：… while the others listened to other, easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds. ……而其他的婴儿只听其他的较容易区分的元音。但“其他的较容易区分的元音”是指 “oo”和“ee”这两个元音。这两个音容易区分并不等于说所有的元音都容易区分。

4. A 注意第三段中有这样一个短语： a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages that sounds like something in between (第三个为芬兰语和与芬兰语类似的语言所特有的介于 “oo”和“ee”之间的边界元音 )。上述引语表明这个边界元音也属芬兰语中的元音。

5. A 该题问的是：此研究表明，婴儿睡觉时大脑皮层仍在工作。答案可以从最后一段第一句中找到：… unlike adults, babies don’t “turn off” their cerebral cortex while they sleep.跟大人不一样，婴儿睡觉时没有把大脑皮层“关掉”。

6. B 本题是这么说的：假如一个大人学一种语言时想学得快一点，他可以把一盘语言录音带放在枕头下面。这个命题是错的。文章最后一段是这么说的：她接着说，这种技能可能在生命的最初过程中渐渐消失，因此应忘掉这样一个想法，即：你作为一个成年人只需要把一盘语言录音带塞在枕头下面就可以学会法语中一些麻烦的音。但是，虽然这并不能帮助成年人……所有这些话都是对本题的否定。

7. B 本题的意思是： Cheour的发现是没有价值的。这不对。文章是这么说的：但是，显然这并不能帮助成年人， Cheour希望这些睡眠时间可用来帮助那些从基因上来说会发生语言障碍的婴儿。

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