Students should be jealous. Not only do babies get to doze their days away, but they've also mastered the fine art of learning in their sleep. By the time babies are one year old, they can recognize a lot of sounds and even simple words. Marie Cheour at the University of Turku in Finland suspected that they might progress this fast because they learn language while they sleep as well as when they are awake. To test the theory, Cheour and their colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first days of their lives. They exposed all the infants to an hour of Finnish vowel sounds one that sounds like "oo"; another like "ee" and the third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages that sounds like something in between. EEG (脑电图) recording of the infants brains before and after the session showed that the newborns could not distinguish the sounds. Fifteen of the babies then went back with their mothers, where the rest were split into two sleep-study groups. One group was exposed throughout their night-time sleeping hours to the same three vowels, while the others listened to the other, easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds. When tested in the morning, and again in the evening, the babies who'd heard the tricky boundary vowels all night showed brainwave activity indicating that they could now recognize this sound. They could identify the sound even when its pitch was changed, while none of the other babies could pick up the boundary vowel at all. Cheour doesn't know how babies accomplish this nighttime learning, but she suspects that the special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies don't "turn oft" their cerebral cortex (大脑皮层) while they sleep: The skill probably fades in the course of the first years of life, she adds so forget the idea that you can pick up the tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow. But while it may not help grown-ups, Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders.
单选题
Babies can learn language even in their sleep.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 选A的依据是第2段最后一句。
单选题
An infant can recognize a lot of vowels by the time he or she is one year old.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 第2段有这样一个句子“...the time babies are one year old, they can recognize a lot of sounds and even simple words”，从“许多音”是推不出“许多元音”的，反向的推论才是成立的。
单选题
Finnish vowels are easy to distinguish.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 第4段最后一句是“while the others listened to the other, easier-to-distinguish vowel sounds”，其他的较容易区分的元音是指“oo”和“ee”这两个音。这两个音容易区分并不等于所有的元音都容易区分。
单选题
The three vowels mentioned in this article are all Finnish sounds.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 注意第3段有这样一个短语：something in between，介于前两个元音之间的音。因此，3个元音均是这个边缘上的音，并不是芬兰语种的音。
单选题
The study shows that the infant's cerebral cortex is working while he is asleep.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 选A的依据是最后一段中的“...unlike adults, babies don't "turn off" their cerebral cortex while they sleep”。
单选题
If an adult wants to learn a language faster, he can put a language tape under his pillow.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 这个命题是错误的。文章最后一段有“The skill probably fades in the course of the first years of life, she adds so forget the idea that you can pick up the tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow. But while it may not help grown-ups”， 这些话都是对本题的否定。
单选题
Choeur's finding is worthless.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 这种观点是错误的。文章的最后一句指出“while it may not help grown-ups, Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders”。