山东2014年成人学士学位英语考试样题及答案
Passage Three
Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.
Is language, like food, a basic human need? Judging from the result of the violent experiment by a German King, Frederick II, in the 13th century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.
All the infants(婴儿) died before the first year. But clearly there was more than language deprivation(剥夺,丧失) here. What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity(能力,容量) to survive(幸免于,活下来) is seriously affected.
Today no much violent deprivation exists as that by Frederick II. Nevertheless(然而,仍然), some children are still backward(向后的,向后) in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive (不敏感的)to the signals(信号) of the infant, whose brain(脑力,智能) is programmed to map up language rapidly. There are critical(紧要的,关键性的) times, it seems, when children learn more readily. If these sensitive(敏感的,灵敏的) periods are neglected(忽略,忽视), the ideal time for acquiring(取得,获得,学到) language skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again.
Linguists(语言学家)suggest that speech stages(阶段) are reached in a fixed sequence(连续,继续) and at a constant(经常的) age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually(终于,后) turns out to be of high IQ.
Recent evidence(根据) suggests that an infant is born with the capacity(能力) to speak. What is special about Man’s brain(脑力,智能) compared(比较,对照) with that of the monkey, is the complex (复杂的)system which enables(使能够,使可能) a child to connect the sight and feel of , say, a teddy-bear(玩具熊)with the sound pattern (式样)“teddy-bear”.
But speech has to be stimulated(刺激,激发), and this depends on interaction (相互作用,干扰)between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals(信号) in the child’s babbling(牙牙学语), grasping(贪心的,贪婪的), crying, smiling, and responds(响应) to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls(枯燥的,不鲜明的) the interaction because the child gets discouraged (泄气的)and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity(敏感) to the child’s non-verbal signals is essential(必要的) to the growth and development language.
11. Frederick II’s experiment was violent because_________.
A) he wanted to prove children are born with ability to speak
B)he ignored the importance of mothering to the infant
C) he was unkind to the nurse
D) he wanted his nurses to say no mother tongue
12. The reason some children are backward in speaking today that_________.
A) their mothers do not respond to their attempts to speak
B) their mothers are not intelligent(聪明的,理智的) enough to help them
C) they do not listen carefully to their mothers
D) their brains have to absorb(吸收) too much language at once.
13. By “critical(紧要的,关键性的) times” in Paragraph 3 the author means__________.
A) difficult periods in the child’s life
B) moments when the child becomes critical to its mother
C) important stages(阶段) in the child’s development
D) times when mothers often neglect(忽视,忽略,疏忽) their children
14. Which of the following in NOT implied in the passage?
A) Ability to learn to speak a language is inborn(天生的,天赋的) in man
B) Children do not need to be encouraged to learn to speak
C) Early language starters are not necessarily highly intelligent
D) Most children learn their language in definite(明确的,肯定的) stages
15. If the mother does not respond to her child’s signals_________.
A) the child will never be able to speak properly(适当地,彻底地)
B) the child will stop giving out signals
C) the child will invent a language of his own
D) the child will make little effort(努力) to speak