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 a 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 her
colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first few 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 a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and
similar languages that sounds like something in between. EEG recordings 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, while 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 other, easier-to-distinguish vowel
sounds. When tested in the morning, and again in the evening,
the babies who'd heard the tricky boundary vowel all night showed brainwave
activity indicating that they could now recognise this new 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 night-time learning, but she suspects that the
special ability might indicate that unlike adults, babies don't "turn off" their
cerebral cortex while they sleep. "The skill probably fades in the course of the
first year of life", she adds, "so forget the idea that you can pick up 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.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据文章第二段最后一句“Marie Cheour...suspected that they might progress this fast because they learn language...as well as when they are awake.”可知，Marie Cheour怀疑婴儿学习语言进步很快的原因可能在于他们不仅醒着时在学习，而且睡觉时也在学，所以题干叙述正确，故本题选A。
单选题
An infant can recognize a lot of vowels by the time he or she is a year
old.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 第二段第一句“By the time babies are a year old，they can recognize a lot of sounds and even simple words.”可知，婴儿到了一岁时，他们可以识别许多音，甚至一些简单的词。文章提到a lot of sounds，但没有提及a lot of vowels，故本题选C。
单选题
Finnish vowels are easy to distinguish.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 文章根本没有提及关于芬兰语元音是否易于区分的问题。所以本题选C。
单选题
The three vowels mentioned in this article are all Finnish sounds.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据第三段第二句后半句“a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages that sounds like something in between”可知第三个元音是介于两种语言之间的音，所以题干叙述错误，故本题选B。
单选题
The study shows that the infant's cerebral cortex is working while he
or she is asleep.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据文章最后一段第一句后半句“...babies don't 'turn off' their cerebral cortex while they sleep”可知，与大人不一样，婴儿睡觉时没有把大脑皮层“关掉”。所以题干叙述正确，故本题选A。
单选题
If an adult wants to learn a language faster, he can put a language
tape under his pillow.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据文章最后一段倒数第二句“The skill probably fades in the course of the first year of life', she adds, 'so forget the idea that you can pick up tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow.”可知，因为在睡眠时学习的技能会随着年龄增大而渐渐消失，所以大人假若为学会法语中一些麻烦的音而把录音带放在枕头下是没有效果的。因此题干叙述错误，故本题选B。
单选题
Cheour's finding is worthless.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据文章最后一句“Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies who are genetically at risk of language disorders.”可知，Cheour希望这些睡眠时间可用来帮助那些遗传上可能有语言障碍的婴儿，因此题干叙述错误。故本题选B。