【题目】 As to the question what is a best age to learn a language, many would rush to the conclusion that it’s best to start young. Though it is true to some extent, now science offers a much more complex view of how our relationship with languages evolves over a lifetime-and there is much to encourage late beginners.
Broadly speaking, different life stages give us different advantages in language learning. As babies, we have a better ear for different sounds s as toddlers(幼儿), we can pick up native accents with astonishing speed. As adults, we have longer attention spans and important skills like literacy that allow us to continually expand our vocabulary, even in our own language. And a wealth of factors beyond ageing—like social circumstances, teaching methods, and even love and friendship—can affect how many languages we speak and how well.
“Not everything goes downhill with age, “says Antonella Sorace, a professor of developmental linguistics and director of the Bilingualism Matters Centre at the University of Edinburgh. She gives the example of what is known as “explicit learning”: studying a language in a classroom with a teacher explaining the rules. “Young children are very bad at explicit learning, because they don’t have the cognitive(认知) control and the attention and memory capabilities,” Sorace says. “Adults are much better at that. So that can be something that improves with age.”
A study by researchers in Israel found, for example, that adults were better at grasping an artificial language rule and applying it to new words in a lab setting. The scientists compared three separate groups: 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and young adults. The adults scored higher than both younger groups, and the 12-year-olds also did better than the younger children. They suggested that their older participants may have benefited from skills that come with maturity—like more advanced problem-solving strategies—and greater linguistic experience. In other words, older learners tend to already know quite a lot about themselves and the world and can use this knowledge to process new information.
【1】What is the correct understanding of the underlined sentence in paragraph 1?
A.We should stay up late to learn a language.
B.Late beginners strive hard to learn a language.
C.Late beginners can also learn a language well.
D.We should give much encouragement to late beginners.
【2】According to the passage, language learning is NOT affected by .
A.our inborn abilitiesB.our native accents
C.our cognitive controlD.our attention spans
【3】Why do the adults score higher than both younger groups in the test?
A.They have already known quite a lot about the words.
B.They draw upon their existing knowledge to help.
C.They have been taught the way to learn a language.
D.They are better at learning artificial language rules.
【4】What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To compare and evaluate.B.To examine and assess.
C.To argue and discuss.D.To inform and explain.
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