2. 考研
  3. Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start s

Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start s

admin2010-01-13  39
问题    Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they Can speak, though the word "obey" is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gestures and by making questioning noises.
   Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their store. This self-imitation leads on to deliberate imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arisen so to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
   It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular ,situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use,at say seven months, of "mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes.
   Playful and apparently meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however; whether anything is gained when parents cash in on this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds. (370w)  
The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech ______.
选项 A、it remains unclear so far and remains to be further observed and made clear
B、is important because words have different meanings for different people
C、is one that can never be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age
D、is one that should be completely ignored because children’s use of words in often meaningless
答案A
解析  推理题。短文第三段说我们需要认真处理这个问题，get one’s teeth into的含义是“专注于做某事，认真处理某事”。并说一个单词的意义取决于说话人在特定场合给予它的意思，而随着孩子经历的增多，他赋予所用单词的含义也会改变。接着短文又举例说婴儿发出的“mama”声音不能因为认为它毫无意义而不给予认真考虑，因为他会使用它来指代任何他喜欢的人或其他事物，从修饰语“he likes”可知“mama”还是含有一定的含义的，由此可见要判断什么时候婴儿的模仿可以被当作“speech”很难，而正因为界线不清楚，才需要去进一步研究。因此答案选A。
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