首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Trying too Hard Can Slow New Language Development A)Neuroscientists have long observed that learning a language presents a diffe
Trying too Hard Can Slow New Language Development A)Neuroscientists have long observed that learning a language presents a diffe
admin
2014-12-26
49
问题
Trying too Hard Can Slow New Language Development
A)Neuroscientists have long observed that learning a language presents a different set of opportunities and challenges for adults and children.
B)Adults easily grasp the vocabulary needed to navigate a grocery store or order food in a restaurant, but children have an innate ability to pick up on subtle nuances of language that often elude adults. For example, within months of living in a foreign country, a young child may speak a second language like a native speaker.
C)Experts believe that brain structure plays an important role in this "sensitive period" for learning language, which is believed to end around adolescence. The young brain is equipped with neural circuits that can analyze sounds and build a coherent set of rules for constructing words and sentences out of those sounds. Once these language structures are established, it’ s difficult to build another one for a new language.
D)In a new study, a team of neuroscientists and psychologists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)discovered another factor that contributes to adults’ language difficulties: When learning certain elements of language, adults’ more highly developed cognitive skills actually get in the way.
E)The researchers discovered that the harder adults tried to learn an artificial language, the worse they were at deciphering the language’ s morphology—the structure and deployment of linguistic units such as root words, suffixes, and prefixes.
F)"We found that effort helps you in most situations, for things like figuring out what the units of language that you need to know are, and basic ordering of elements. But when trying to learn morphology, at least in this artificial language we created, it’ s actually worse when you try," said Amy Flynn a postdoc at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
G)Finn and colleagues from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Stanford University, and the University of British Columbia describe their findings in journal PLOS ONE.
H)Linguists have known for decades that children are skilled at absorbing certain tricky elements of language, such as irregular past participles(examples of which, in English, include "gone" and "been")or complicated verb tenses like the subjunctive. "Children will ultimately perform better than adults in terms of their command of the grammar and the structural components of language—some of the more idiosyncratic, difficult-to-articulate aspects of language that even most native speakers don’ t have conscious awareness of," Finn says.
I)In 1990, linguist Elissa Newport hypothesized that adults have trouble learning those nuances because they try to analyze too much information at once. Adults have a much more highly developed prefrontal cortex than children, and they tend to throw all of that brainpower at learning a second language.
J)This high-powered processing may actually interfere with certain elements of learning language. "It’ s an idea that’ s been around for a long time, but there hasn’ t been any data that experimentally show that it’s true," Finn says. Finn and her colleagues designed an experiment to test whether exerting more effort would help or hinder success.
The study
K)First, they created nine nonsense words, each with two syllables. Each word fell into one of three categories(A, B, and C), defined by the order of consonant and vowel sounds. Study subjects listened to the artificial language for about 10 minutes. One group of subjects was told not to overanalyze what they heard, but not to tune it out either.
L)To help them not overthink the language, they were given the option of completing a puzzle or colouring while they listened. The other group was told to try to identify the words they were hearing. Each group heard the same recording, which was a series of three-word sequences—first a word from category A, then one from category B, then category C—with no pauses between words.
M)Previous studies have shown that adults, babies, and even monkeys can parse this kind of information into word units, a task known as word segmentation. Subjects from both groups were successful at word segmentation, although the group that tried harder performed a little better. Both groups also performed well in a task called word ordering, which required subjects to choose between a correct word sequence(ABC)and an incorrect sequence(such as ACB)of words they had previously heard.
N)The final test measured skill in identifying the language’s morphology. The researchers played a three-word sequence that included a word the subjects had not heard before, but which fit into one of the three categories.
O)When asked to judge whether this new word was in the correct location, the subjects who had been asked to pay closer attention to the original word stream performed much worse than those who had listened more passively. The findings support a theory of language acquisition that suggests that some parts of language are learned through procedural memory, while others are learned through declarative memory.
P)Under this theory, declarative memory, which stores knowledge and facts, would be more useful for learning vocabulary and certain rules of grammar. Procedural memory, which guides tasks we perform without conscious awareness of how we learned them, would be more useful for learning subtle rules related to language morphology.
Q)"It’s likely to be the procedural memory system that’s really important for learning these difficult morphological aspects of language. In fact, when you use the declarative memory system, it doesn’t help you, it harms you," Finn says. Still unresolved is the question of whether adults can overcome this language-learning obstacle. Finn says she does not have a good answer yet but she is now testing the effects of "turning off" the adult prefrontal cortex using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation.
R)Other interventions she plans to study include distracting the prefrontal cortex by forcing it to perform other tasks while language is heard, and treating subjects with drugs that impair activity in that brain region.
Their efforts paid off when adults tried very hard to understand units of language and basic sequence of elements.
选项
答案
F
解析
本题意为当努力了解语言单位和基础的成分顺序安排时,就会有收获。题干中的关键词是units of language and basic sequence of elements定位到F段Wefound that effort helps you in most situations,for things like figuring out what the unitsof language that you need to know are,and basic ordering of elements.“研究发现,多数情况下,努力有所作用,比如,你想要解出你需要知道的是那种语言单位及基础的成分顺序安排。”题干中efforts paid off和effort helps是对应点。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/jbh7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Prohibitingthesalesoftobaccoproductsinthemarket.B、Encouragingtobaccofarmerstoplantothercrops.C、Forbiddingpeop
A、Colorsdon’talwaysreflectpeople’sfeelingsandattitudes.B、Peoplewhoarecreativeandaggressivemaylikebrightyellow.
A、Membershipinafoodco-op.B、Thebenefitsofhealthfood.C、Shoppinginthesupermarket.D、Thecurrentcostoffood.A对话开门见山地
A、Sheworkedinasupermarketfortuition.B、Shehelpedsomeonetolearntoread.C、Shegavesinglemothersthehelpthattheyn
A、ThelecturefornextMondayiscancelled.B、Thelecturewasn’tassuccessfulasexpected.C、Thewomanhasnochanceforthele
A、Shestartedtodoexperimentwithmakingprints.B、SheparticipatedintherebelliousImpressionists.C、Shehadherpaintings
A、TheyproducedmorecarsthanAmericanmanufacturers.B、Theyreducedcar-productioninAmerica.C、Theygaveupmoremarketshar
A、Theywantedtodowhattheyweretoldnotto.B、Thenoticewasclosertothepath.C、Theyhatedtoseethenotice.D、Thenotic
Amidweakjobandhousingmarkets,consumersaresavingmoreandspendinglessthantheyhaveindecades,andindustryprofessio
Thebiggestsafetythreatfacingairlinestodaymaynotbeaterroristwithagun,butthemanwithaportablecomputerinbusin
随机试题
某人民法院对被告人曹某等共同抢劫一案作出一审判决。曹某对犯罪事实供认不讳,仅以量刑过重为由提出上诉,其他被告人未提出上诉,人民检察院也未抗诉。二审法院经审理认为曹某构成犯罪,但曹某在二审作出裁判前因病死亡。二审法院应当如何处理该案件?(2004—卷二—33
室间隔缺损患者心脏杂音消失,只听到P2亢进及分裂,说明室间隔缺损愈合了。
某研究者对某工厂3801名工人的职业伤害事故发生进行追踪调查2年。控制疲劳、睡眠及工作满意度等可能的混杂因素后,发现人机工效分值高和体重指数高的工人发生职业伤害事故的危险性高4~6倍。该项研究属于
A.心尖部舒张期震颤B.胸骨左缘第2肋间收缩期震颤C.胸骨左缘第3、4肋间收缩期震颤D.胸骨右缘第2肋间收缩期震颤E.胸骨左缘第2肋问连续性震颤室间隔缺损,可出现的是()
()是指国家行政机关在行使行政权力、进行行政活动过程中,所遵循的法定方式、步骤和顺序。
变压器过电流保护的灵敏系数最小应该等于()。
应列入营业外支出的项目主要有()。
3岁儿童常常表现出各种反抗行为或执拗现象,这是儿童心理发展中的()现象。
【国际货币基金组织】
结合格拉古兄弟改革、马略改革谈罗马共和国晚期制度危机。
最新回复
(
0
)