【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[听力原文] Long before they can actually speak, babies pay special attention to the speech they hear around them. Within the first month of their lives, babies' responses to the sound of the human voice will be different from their responses to other sorts of sounds. They will stop crying when they hear a person talking, but not if they hear a bell rings. At first, the sounds that an infant notices might be only those words that receive the heaviest emphasis and that often occur at the ends of sentences. By the time they are six or seven weeks old, babies can detect the difference between the rising and falling of tones. Very soon, these differences in adults' stress and tones can influence babies' emotional states and behavior. Long before they develop actual language comprehension, babies can sense when an adult is cheerful or angry, attempting to do or stop doing something, and so on, merely based on the rate, volume, and melody of adults' speech. Adults make it as easy as they can for babies to pick up a language by exaggerating such characteristics. One researcher observed babies and their mothers in six diverse cultures and found that, in all six languages, the mothers used simplified grammar, short sentences, and transformed certain sounds into baby talk. Other investigators have found that when mothers talk to babies who are only a few months old, they often raise their volume, and speak slowly. They also exaggerate their facial expressions, and emphasize certain words. More significant for language development than their response to general intonation is observation that tiny babies can make relatively fine distinctions between speech sounds. In other words, babies enter the world with the ability to make precisely those perceptual discriminations that are necessary if they are to acquire aural language. Babies obviously derive pleasure from sound input, too: at even as young as nine months they will listen to songs or stories, although the words themselves are beyond their understanding. For babies, language is a sensory-motor delight rather than the route to dull meaning that it often is for adults. What does the talk mainly discuss? 解题思路：应首先找出四个选项的重点信息：differentiate between...human voice and other sounds, differences between a baby's and an adult's ability, how...perceive and respond to human voice以及the response...to sounds other than the human voice，再结合讲座做出判断。 讲话开头便提出：“在真正会说话之前的很长时间里，婴儿会特别关注周围的话语。”接下来便具体阐述他们如何对人声产生反应，因此答案为C。A、B两项只是讲话内容的一部分，不能概括其主要内容；而D项中“对声音的反应”范围被扩大了，不符合文意，故排除。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[听力原文] Why does the speaker mention the ringing of a bell? 解题思路：四个选项都是动词不定式短语，表目的，关键信息分别为：contrast the reactions, give examples...cause...to cry, explain...distinguish between nonhuman sounds以及give examples of typical toys。听录音时应重点抓住这些关键信息。 讲话者在提到“铃声”时指出：“听到人说话时，他们(婴儿)会停止哭闹，但听到铃声时则不会。”这说明讲话者在用铃声的例子对比婴儿对于人声(人说话时)和非人声(铃声)的不同反应，所以答案为A。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文] What can we learn from the findings of babies and their mothers in six diverse cultures? 解题思路：首先找出四个选项的重点信息：婴儿习得语言的时间、母亲和婴儿的交谈方式、婴儿对面部表情的关注、是否有意教导婴儿说话。然后，听音时应重点关注与这些信息有关的内容，并做出选择。 讲话者指出曾有一位研究人员对6对具有不同文化背景的母子进行了观察，并得出一些结论(findings)。对应选项一一进行判断：A项所述内容并未提及，故排除；研究人员在观察后发现，无论使用哪种语言，母亲教导婴儿学说话的方式都很相似，因此B项正确；“她们还会配以夸张的表情”，这说明孩子对面部表情是有反应的，因此排除C项；D项内容未提及，故也排除。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文] According to the talk, why do babies listen to songs and stories, even though they cannot understand them? 解题思路：四个选项都以they开头，听音重点应放在其后的关键信息上：能听懂韵律、喜欢声音、可以轻易记住、专注于说话的意思。听音的时候首先要弄清they的指代对象，然后结合关键信息做出判断和选择。 讲话者最后提到：“对婴儿来说，语言是一种感官运动的乐事，而不是通常对成人来说枯燥乏味的信息传递途径。”这里的“感官运动的乐事”，是指语言对婴儿来说是一种听觉上的享受，即他们喜欢这些声音，故选B。