Passage Four
It may not be obvious, but hearing two languages regularly during pregnancy puts infants on the road to bilingualism by birth. According to new findings in Psychological Science, infants born to bilingual mothers (who spoke both languages regularly during pregnancy) exhibit different language preferences than infants born to mothers speaking only one language.
Psychological scientists Krista Byers-Heinleiii and Janet F. Werker from the University of British Columbia along with Tracey Burns of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in France wanted to investigate language preference and discrimination in newborns. Two groups of newborns were tested ill these experiments: English monolinguals (whose mothers spoke only English during pregnancy) and Tagalog-English bilinguals (whose mothers spoke both Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, and English regularly during pregnancy). The researchers employed a method known as t4high-amplitude sucking-preference procedure” to study the infants9 language preferences. This method capitalizes on the newborns' sucking reflex—increased sucking indicates interest in a stimulus. In the first experiment, infants heard 10 minutes of speech, with every minute alternating between English and Tagalog.
Results showed that English monolingual infants were more interested in English than Tagalog—they exhibited increased sucking behavior when they heard English than when they heard Tagalog being spoken. However, bilingual infants had an equal preference for both English and Tagalog. These results suggest that prenatal bilingual exposure may affect infants, language preferences, preparing bilingual infants to listen to and learn about both of their native languages.
To learn two languages, bilingual newborns must also be able to keep their languages apart. To test if bilingual infants arc able to discriminate between their two languages, infants listened to sentences being spoken in one of the languages until they lost interest. Then, they either heard sentences in the other language or heard sentences in the same language, but spoken by a different person. Infants exhibited increased sucking when they heard the other language being spoken. Their sucking did not increase if they heard additional sentences in the same language. These results suggest that bilingual infants, along with monolingual infants, are able to discriminate between the two languages, providing a mechanism from the first moments of life that helps ensure bilingual infants do not confuse their two languages.
The researchers observe that, “Monolingual newborns, preference for their single native language directs listening attention to that language”and that，“Bilingual newborns’ interest in both languages helps ensure attention to, and hence further learning about, each of their languages，” Discrimination of the two languages helps prevent confusion. The results of these studies demonstrate that the roots of bilingualism run deeper than previously imagined, extending even to the prenatal period.
The purpose of the experiments in Paragraph 2 is to find out________.
通过第二段第一句的后半部分可知他们想调查新生儿的语言偏好和分辨“...wanted to investigate language preference and discrimination in newborns”。因而 B 选项中的 “likings and discerning ability” 符合题意。
In the“high-amplitude sucking-preference procedure”， stronger language preference is shown by ________.
文章第二段倒数第二句提到吸吮的增加表明对刺激感兴趣，由此可知语言的偏好是通过吸吮的增多来体现的，所以A 是正确答案。
According to Paragraph 3, language learning of an infant________.
推理题。第三段最后一句提到 “These results suggest that prenatal bilingual exposure may affect infants' language preferences, preparing bilingual infants to listen to and learn about both of their native languages.”因此研究表明新生儿的语言学习会受到其出生前语言环境的印象，所以C 项符合题意。
Which of the following statements is true of bilingual newborns?
通过第三段第二句 “However, bilingual infants had an equal preference for both English and Tagalog”可知双 语新生儿对两种语言的态度一样，所以排除A。在第四段中提到双语婴儿和单语因而都能识别两种语言， 因此排除B。C项双语婴儿比单语婴儿有更多优势在文中没有体现。
Bilingual newborns' interest in both languages is helpful because it enables them to ________.
最后一段第一句的后半部分提到“Bilingual newborns' interest in both languages helps ensure attention to, and hence further learning about, each of their languages.”，双语新生儿对两种语言的兴趣可以帮助他们集中注 意更好地学习两种语言。因此A选项“focus on and better study both languages” 正确。