Question

【題目】 In 2009, Dr. Kathleen Wermke and her colleagues made headlines with a study showing that French and German newborns produce distinctly different “cry melodies,” reflecting the languages they heard in womb (子宮). Today, Dr. Wermke’s lab houses a collection of around a half-million recordings of babies from as far a field as Cameroon and China.

The analysis of these recordings has produced further insights into the factors that shape a baby’s first sounds. Newborns whose mothers speak tonal languages, such as Mandarin, tend to produce more complex cry melodies. Swedish newborns, whose native language has what linguists call a “pitch accent,” produce more sing-songy cries.

Hearing and imitating are fundamental to language development. By the third trimester, a fetus (胎兒) can hear the rhythm and melody of its mother’s voice — known as “prosody”. It is the defining characteristic of language for the fetus. After they are born, young babies mimic many different sounds. But they are especially shaped by the prosody they heard in the womb, which becomes a handy guide to the strange sounds coming from the people around them. Through stress, pauses and other clues, prosody cuts up the stream of sound into words and phrases – that is, into speech.

“These studies redouble the lab’s broader effort to map the typical development of a baby’s cries, as well as vocalizations like cooing and babbling.” Dr. Kathleen Wermke said. “Knowing what typical development looks like and what factors can influence it helps doctors address potential problems early on.”

【1】The underlined word “mimic” in Paragraph 3 refers to ______.

A.imitateB.learn

C.hearD.gain

【2】What is Dr. Kathleen Wermke’s attitude towards the studies？

A.AmbiguousB.Doubtful

C.NeutralD.Approving

【3】What would be the best title for the text?

A.Mandarin is the most complex tonal language

B.Swedish newborns produce more simple cry sounds.

C.Newborn babies cry in different languages

D.Hearing is fundamental to language development

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】D

【3】C

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。文章主要講了出生在不同國家、還不會說話的寶寶，哭聲會不一樣。德國一個研究團隊發(fā)現(xiàn)，胎兒在母體內(nèi)已經(jīng)會受到語言環(huán)境的影響。因此，嬰兒啼哭的聲調(diào)也會和母語的特征一致。

【1】

詞義猜測題。根據(jù)第三段Hearing and imitating are fundamental to language development. By the third trimester, a fetus (胎兒) can hear the rhythm and melody of its mother’s voice — known as “prosody”. 聽力和模仿是語言發(fā)展的基礎，在孕期的第三個階段，胎兒能聽出他媽媽聲音的節(jié)奏和旋律，即“韻律”。所以在嬰兒出生后是模仿不同的聲音，這里符合A選項“模仿”。故選A項。

【2】

推理判斷題。根據(jù)最后一段博士說的話Dr. Kathleen Wermke said. “Knowing what typical development looks like and what factors can influence it helps doctors address potential problems early on.”了解常規(guī)發(fā)展情況，以及哪些因素對此有影響，有助于醫(yī)生盡早發(fā)現(xiàn)潛在病癥。所以這里凱瑟琳·韋姆克博士對這些研究的態(tài)度是贊同的態(tài)度。故選D項。

【3】

主旨大意題。根據(jù)第一段“In 2009, Dr. Kathleen Wermke and her colleagues made headlines with a study showing that French and German newborns produce distinctly different “cry melodies,” reflecting the languages they heard in womb (子宮).” 2009年，凱瑟琳博士和她的同事因為一項研究上了各種媒體頭條，他們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，法國和德國的新生兒發(fā)出的啼哭旋律有明顯區(qū)別，并與他們在胎兒時，聽到的語言一致。后面整篇文章都在討論不同國家嬰兒啼哭聲不同的原因和影響，所以主旨是新生兒有不同的啼哭聲。“新生兒會用不同的語言哭泣”最適合作為文章標題。故選C項。