Question

Playing with toy blocks (积木) may lead to improved language development in young children, a new study reported.

    Early childhood is an important period in the development of young minds. The newborn brain grows three times in size between birth and age 2. Scientists have said that certain activities during this important period may promote (促进) healthy development while others may hold it back, and development of memory and language may especially be helped by imaginative play.

    After six months, language scores among half of the 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks, according to the study by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.

    Parents were given ideas about how to help their children play with the blocks, then were told to keep diaries of their children’s activities over four days. Finally, all the parents filled out questionnaires that judged their children’s vocabulary, grammar, and other language abilities. Study author Dimitri Christakis said unstructured play with blocks motivated children’s thinking, memory and physical skills at a time when a child’s brain is growing rapidly. “They are the foundation of thought and language,” he wrote of the skills learned from building blocks. “Older children begin to make up stories for these objects .”

Such play may also take the place of less helpful activities such as watching TV, he said, adding parents ought to have doubts about some toy-makers’ words. “An increasing number of media-based products are making ungrounded (无根据的) claims that they can make children smarter, more literate, and more musical,” Christakis said.

1.What can we learn from the second paragraph?

A. Parents should allow their children to play as long as they want.

B. The brains of kids develop very quickly before they are two years old.

C. Playing blocks can help children do well in sports at school.

D. Activities, like imaginative play, may delay the development of the brain.

2.According to the study, about ________ children’s language scores were 15 percent higher than those of children who didn’t play with blocks.

A. 87         B. 55     C. 23       D. 157

3.Building blocks helps kids gain language skills because _________.

A. young children always talk to themselves while building blocks

B. their parents can teach them when they are playing with blocks

C. their parents are given ideas on how to develop their brains

D. it can help them improve thinking, memory and physical skills

4.The aim of the passage is probably to _______.

A. raise the present level of children’s language ability

B. encourage parents to let their babies play with blocks

C. improve parents’ knowledge of raising children

D. encourage makers of blocks to develop more toys

5.We can infer from what Mr Christakis said that _____.

A. television will be definitely replaced by blocks

B. the market will be full of media-based toys

C. we can’t always believe what toy makers say

D. toy makers care about kids’ development very much

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.B

5.C

【解析】略