{{B}}Easy Learning{{/B}}
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 recognize 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 their colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first 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 between. EEG
(脑电图) recording 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 groups. One group was exposed throughout their night-time sleeping
hours to the same three vowels, while the others listened to the other,
easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds. When tested in the morning,
and again in the evening, the babies who'd heard the tricky boundary vowels all
night showed brainwave activity indicating that they could now recognize this
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 nighttime learning, but she
suspects that the special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies
don't "turn off" their cerebral cortex(大脑皮层)while they sleep. The skill probably
fades in the course of the first years of life, she adds. So forget the idea
that you can pick up the 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.
单选题
Babies can learn even in their sleep.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为learn language in their sleep。依据关键词，可在短文第一段找到相关语句：Not only do babies get to doze their days away，but they've also mastered the fine art of learning in their sleep．这句话的意思是：婴儿们不仅整天睡觉，而且他们还能在睡眠中掌握学习的艺术。下文从学习语言方面验证了这种说法，故此题为“正确”的。
单选题
An infant can recognize a lot of sounds by the time he or she is a year old.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为a year old。依据关键词，可在短文第二段找到相关语句：By the time babies are a year old they can recognize a lot of sounds and even simple words．这个句子的意思是：当婴儿一周岁时他们可以识别出很多声音，甚至简单的单词。故此题为“正确”的。
单选题
The three vowels mentioned in this article are all Finnish sounds.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为three vowels…Finnish sounds。依据关键词，可在短文第四段找到相关语句：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 between．这句话的意思是：他们让所有的婴儿听一个小时的芬兰元音二其中一个类似“oo”，另一个类似“ee”，还有一个芬兰语和类似语言特有的边界音，听起来像两者之间的声音。由此可以推断出并不是三个元音都是芬兰音，故此题为“正确”的。
单选题
The study shows that the infants' cerebral cortex stops working while he is asleep.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为infants cerebral cortex。依据关键词，可在短文最后一段找到相关语句：babies don’t "turn off " their，cerebral cortex(大脑皮层)while they sleep.这句话的意思是：婴儿睡觉时没有把大脑皮层“关掉”。故此题为“错误”的。
单选题
Cheours has found how babies accomplish this nighttime learning.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为nighttime learning。依据关键词，可在短文最后一段找到相关语句：Cheour doesn't know how babies accomplish this nighttime learning…这句话的意思是：舍乌尔不知道婴儿是如何完成这个夜间学习的。故此题为“错误”。
单选题
Cheours' finding can help babies learn language.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 关键词为help babies learn language。依据关键词，可在短文最后一段找到相关语句：Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders．这句话的意思是：舍乌尔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。文章只提到帮助那些从基因上来说会发生语言障碍的婴儿，并没有提到帮助婴儿学习语言，故此题为“未提及”的。