单选题 Passage 8
Researchers are increasingly interested in manipulating the environment early in children's lives when they are perceived to be at risk for impoverished intelligence. In a program conducted in North Carolina by Craig Ramey and his associates, pregnant women with IQs averaging 80 were recruited for a study. After their babies were born,half of the infants were cared for during the day at an educational daycare center and half were reared at home by their mothers; both groups of children were given medical care and dietary supplements, and their families were given social services if they requested them.
At the age of 3, the children who attended the educational daycare center had significantly higher IQs than did the home-reared children. This difference was likely due to the decline in the IQs of the home-reared children during the period from 12 to 18 months of age. By the time the children were 5 years old, 39 percent of the home-reared children had IQs below 85 but only 11 percent of the educational day-care children had IQs this low. In the most recent evaluation of this project, positive effects of educational daycare on the intellectual development and academic achievement of the children were evident at age 12.
Some parents, such as those in Ramey's study, have difficulty providing an adequate environment for the intellectual needs of their infants. Once these difficulties are a reoccurring part of the family system, changing efforts probably will be more difficult and costly; early intervention in the family system is directed at changing parental adaptive and responsive functioning so that permanent negative effects are minimized.
In another investigation, the Infant Health and Development Program, early intervention with low-birth weight children revealed that both home visitation and an educational child curriculum improved the children's IQ, decreased behavior problems, and improved the home environment. The intervention was more effective with mothers with low educational attainment than those with high educational attainment, more effective for African American than White children, and effective for most at-risk children.
Intervention programs have the most positive effects on children's well-being when they (a) begin as early as possible, (b) provide services to parents as well as to the child, (c) have a low child-teacher ratio, (d) have high parental involvement, and (e) have frequent contacts. In one review of family intervention studies, intervention was more effective when there were eleven or more contacts between the intervener and the family; while eleven sessions is a somewhat arbitrary number, it does indicate that a certain duration of contact is necessary for intervention success.

单选题 From the first sentence of the first paragraph, we learn that researchers
A. have increased the risks to child growth by manipulating the natural environment.
B. are increasingly aware of the effects of environmental factors on intelligence development.
C. are increasingly interested in manipulating the environment without being aware of the risks involved to children.
D. are increasingly interested in figuring out how intelligence is developed in early childhood.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】归纳题。文章第一段第一句话指出，研究人员对于调整孩子成长的早期环境越来越感兴趣——人们觉得此时的孩子有缺乏智力的危险。这说明，研究人员越来越意识到环境对孩子成长的影响。这与B项的意思相符。A、C明显与文章的意思不符；文中没有提到D。
单选题 What does the word "impoverished" (Para. 1) mean?
A. Improved. B. Enhanced. C. Poor. D. Missing.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】词义题。文章第一段指出，研究人员对于调整孩子成长的早期环境越来越感兴趣，人们觉得，此时的孩子有缺乏智力的危险；克雷格·瑞迈及其同事实施了一个计划，招聘了一些平均智商为80的怀孕女性进行研究；第二段指出，孩子三岁时，那些接受教育日托中心照料的孩子的智商明显高于在家中照料的孩子。这说明，该单词的意思应该是“贫乏的”。这与C项的意思相符。A、B和D都与文章的意思不符。
单选题 It is implied in the passage that the babies at the daycare center
A. were given more medical care than those at home.
B. were born of mothers with higher IQs.
C. were reared under a more favorable environment.
D. were more closely attended to by their mothers.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推论题。文章第二段指出，孩子三岁时，那些接受教育日托中心照料的孩子的智商明显高于在家中照料的孩子；到孩子五岁时，在家里抚养的孩子中，39%的智商低于85，而在教育日托中心接受护理的孩子中，只有11%的智商低于85。这说明，日托中心的孩子受抚养的环境更好。这与C项的意思相符。文章第一段最后一句话说“两组婴儿都得到医疗服务和饮食供给，如果需要的话，他们的家庭可以得到社会的帮助”，这里并没有说哪种婴儿得到的医疗护理多，所以A不对；文中没有提到B、D。
单选题 The finding that children reared at home had low IQs at age 12 indicates
A. parents fail to provide an adequate environment for their intelligence growth.
B. educational daycare centers are the best place for children to grow up in.
C. intellectual development and academic achievement of children are closely related.
D. the age of 12 is a critical point in time for intellectual development in children.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。文章第二段最后一句话指出，教育日托中心的护理对孩子的智力发展和学业成绩产生积极影响的时期明显是在孩子12岁时；第三段第一、二句话指出，一些家长在为婴儿的智力需求提供一个适当的环境时面临困难。这说明，在家抚养的孩子12岁时智商之所以低，是因为其父母没能力为其智力需求提供适当的环境。这与A项的意思相符。文中没有提到B、C；D与文章的意思不符。
单选题 It is clear from the passage that the author advocates
A. providing enough daycare centers for children of working mothers.
B. early intervention in children's intellectual growth.
C. the natural development of children's intelligence.
D. depriving poor mothers of the opportunities to raise their children at home.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。文章第三段指出，对家庭的早期干预的目的是为了改变父母对孩子所起有适应性的、易起反应的作用，以便将其持久的负面影响减少到最低限度；第四段指出，早期干预对于那些受教育少的母亲更有效，对非洲裔美国小孩比对白人小孩更有效，对大多数有智力缺陷的小孩更有效；最后一段指出，干预计划对孩子的幸福有最积极的影响。这说明，作者倡导对孩子的智力发展进行早期干预。这与B项的意思相符。文中没有提到A、D；C是作者反对的观点。