The more parents talk to their children, the faster those children"s vocabularies grow and the better their intelligence develops. That might seem blindingly obvious, but it took until 1995 for science to show just how early in life the difference begins to matter. In that year Betty Hart and Todd Risley of the University of Kansas published the results of a decade-long study in which they had looked at how, and how much, 42 families in Kansas City conversed at home. Dr Hart and Dr Risley found a close correlation between the number of words a child"s parents had spoken to him by the time he was three and his academic success at the age of nine. At three, children born into professional families had heard 30m more words than those from a poorer background. This observation has profound implications for policies about babies and their parents. It suggests that sending children to "pre-school"(nurseries or kindergartens)at the age of four—a favoured step among policymakers—comes too late to compensate for educational shortcomings at home. Happily, understanding of how children"s vocabularies develop is growing, as several presentations at this year"s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS)showed. One of the most striking revelations came from Anne Fernald of Stanford University, who has found that the disparity starts at the tender age of 18 months, when most toddlers speak only a dozen words, those from disadvantaged families are several months behind other, more favoured children. Indeed, Dr Fernald thinks the differentiation starts at birth. She measures how quickly toddlers process language by sitting them on their mothers" laps and showing them two images; a dog and a ball, say. A recorded voice tells the toddler to look at the ball while a camera records his reaction. This lets Dr Fernald note the moment the child"s gaze begins shifting towards the correct image. At 18 months, toddlers from better-off backgrounds can identify the correct object in 750 milliseconds—200 milliseconds faster than those from poorer families. This, says Dr Fernald, is a huge difference.

单选题 According to Dr Hart and Dr Risley, ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：根据Dr Hart and Dr Risley定位到第一段中间部分。选项[A]和[B]文章均没有提到，选项[C]“has nothing to do with没有关系”与该段倒数第二句中的“a close correlation密切关系”相悖，故错误。选项[D]对应第一段结尾：At three，children born into professional families had heard 30m more words than those from a poorer background．其中professional families对应parents with higher education；heard 30m more words对应talk more。故该项正确。

单选题 The author"s attitude towards present pre-school age is______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：根据题干中的pre—school age定位到第二段第二句：It suggests that sending childrento“pre—school”(nurseries or kindergartens)at the age of four一a favoured step among policymak-ers--comes too late to compensate for educational shortcomings at home．该句的“comes too late”明确表明作者对于如今“pre—school age学前年龄”的态度，是否定、质疑的，故选项[B]为答案。

单选题 We can infer from the second paragraph that______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：通过本段的“pre-school at the age of four…comes too late…”可以明确知道：孩子可以更早上学。即选项[A]表述正确。选项[B]文章未提到，属于无中生有。选项[C]对应最后一句：Happily，understanding of how children’s vocabularies develop is growing，as several pres—entations at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS)showed．该句说“understanding…is growing理解加强了”，而不是“vocabularies are growing词汇量增加了”，故该项属于偷换概念的错误。选项[D]对应“comes too late to compensate for ed—ucational shortcomings at home”一句，原文说“上学年龄晚不利于弥补家庭教育缺陷”，而不是说“家庭教育缺陷无法弥补”，故该项错误。综上所述，答案为选项[A]。

单选题 The underlined word "toddlers"(Para 3, Line 2)refers to______.

单选题 Dr Fernald"s experiment shows that______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：根据Dr Fernald定位到最后一段最后两句：At 18 months，toddlers from better—offbackgrounds can identify the correct object in 750 milliseconds--200 milliseconds faster than thosefrom poorer families．This，says Dr Fernald，is a huge difference．根据at 18 months，huge difference等关键词，可以判断四个选项中与之相符的是选项[C]children’s gap starts at an earlyage。其中，gap对应difference；at an early age对应at 18 months。故选项[C]为答案。