{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue
so well? When we compare with adults learning a foreign 11.______
language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child
without knowledge or experience often succeeds to a complete 12.______
master of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed 13.______
mental powers, in most cases, may end up in a faulty and inex- 14.______
act command. What accounts of this difference? 15.______
Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion
lies partly with the child himself, partly in the behavior of the 16.______
people surround him. In the first place, the time of learning the 17.______
mother tongue is the most favorably of all, namely, the first 18.______
years of life. A child hears it speak from morning till night and, 19.______
what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the
right pronunciation, right intonation, right use of words and right
structure. He drinks all the words and expressions which come to 20.______
him in a fresh, ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance:
there is perfect assimilation.