单选题 Learning speaking is a huge task for the child. lf he or she wants to do it in a short period, it challenges explanation. Researches show that language learning starts from listening. Children are different greatly in the amount of listening that they do before they begin to speak. The children who start speaking late always listen more. A large amount of children will "obey" some spoken instructions before they can speak, although the word "obey" is not as accurate as a description of the keen and pleased cooperation that is often shown by them. Before they can speak, some children will also ask questions through gesture and by making noises.
Tracing the development from the babies' noises to their first spoken words is not easy. It has been suggested that babies like making noises. During the first few months, the noises they made usually indicate pleasure, upset, and so on. However, because these can't really show the baby's intention to communicate with others, these can hardly be viewed as language's early forms. It has also been suggested that since about three months babies play with sounds for entertainment, and that by six months they can develop more new sounds. This self-imitation leads to deliberate imitation of sounds and words, which made or spoken to them by other people.

单选题 What does the author mean by "challenges explanation" in Paragraph 1?
A. It's unnecessary to make explanation for the phenomenon.
B. Till now, no explanation has been made.
C. It's very important to provide an explanation.
D. It is not easy to provide an adequate explanation.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为推断题。文章第一段告诉我们：孩子学说话是一项十分艰巨的任务，如果他又能在短时间内学会，这需要一定的能力。challenge有“挑战”的意思，这里可理解为“不容易”。

单选题 What's the main idea of the second paragraph?
A. How babies' early forms of language development.
B. How difficult babies learn to speak.
C. Babies' imitation of adults' sounds.
D. Babies' intention to communicate.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为推断题。文章第二段主要写婴儿通过制造噪声来表达他们交流的意图。

单选题 What do not the children usually do before they can speak?
A. To obey some spoken instructions.
B. To listen to other people.
C. To show the intention to communicate.
D. To ask some questions through gesture.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节题。从文章第二段可得知：孩子会说话前，他们常听别人说话，“遵守”话语指令，通过身体语言和发出声音声来问问题。唯独C选项“表达交流的意图”没有提到。

单选题 Which is the best title for this passage?
A. How Babies Learn to communicate.
B. Development of Babies' Learning Speaking.
C. A Huge Task for Children.
D. Babies' Early Language.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为推断题。纵观全文，作者描述了孩子从听别人说活，自己制造声音，到模仿别人说话的这样一个学说话的过程。