It only takes ten minutes, but reading your baby a bedtime story could yield benefits for years to come, scientists said today. Research shows that children who are【C1】______to a lot are faster at understanding words. This【C2】______processing helps them do better at school— and could【C3】______help them get a good job, have a happy【C4】______and keep on the right side of the law. Psychologist Anne Fernald said that the effects are so【C5】______that talking to children should be【C6】______as importantly as feeding them. And it is never too【C7】______to start. Dr Fernald said: "【C8】______you want your kid to do well in school, talk to them【C9】______a baby. If you bring a child into the world, we【C10】______the responsibility for feeding them, keeping them clean and keeping them safe. I think we now have enough scientific evidence to add something else to that list—and that is【C11】______learning from infancy on. Long before your baby is speaking, it is【C12】______information about language." In a series of studies on babies, Dr Fernald showed that there are big differences in how quickly children process words. Speedy processing is important【C13】______it frees up the brain to think about the next word—or the world【C14】______. Dr Fernald said: "You are building a mind that can conceptualize and【C15】______and think about the past and think about the future." She also showed that children who are【C16】______at understanding words tend to hear more words at home. In her studies, some【C17】______had as few as 600 words a day directly talked to them. To put this in【C18】______, the average adult speaks around 200 words a minute. Other children heard more than 12,000 words. Dr Fernald has also shown that children who can quickly process words at the age of two do better at school at the age of eight. Other research has shown that children who do well in【C19】______school are more likely to go onto higher education, get a good job, re-mam married and stay out of【C20】______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：主语it指代句中的baby一词，故空格处动词应说明婴儿在学会说话之前，对information about language(语言信息)的反应。文章首段提到给孩子读睡前故事、跟孩子说话交流可让孩子理解词语的速度更快，故推断孩子在很小的时候就可受到语言的熏陶。D项absorbing“吸收”代入后，句子语义符合语篇要求。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：本句谈论到其他研究的结果，从文章逻辑来看，这里提到的研究应与Fernald的研究联系紧密，故空格所在的定语从句(who do well in…school)所修饰的children与上句提到的“8岁时学习成绩好”的children间应存在内在的逻辑关系。学生8岁时的学习是小学阶段的学习，C项primary搭配school指“小学”。