SSS 2009-11-06
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(十一)月
How can you tell the difference between a French baby and a German baby? No, it’s not that one is wearing a saucy 1 little beret while the other is tucked into tiny pair of lederhosen. Well, maybe that’s part of it. But a new study in the journal Current Biology shows that the babies actually sound different. Because the melody of an infant’s cry matches its mother tongue.
We all know that babies start eavesdropping 2 while they’re still in the womb. So when they come out, they know their mother’s voice. When they’re older, they start to imitate the sounds they hear. Eventually they babble 3, and then start to speak and then you never hear the end of it. But long before that first burble or coo, babies are learning the elements of language.
A team of scientists recorded the cries of 60 newborns: 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 that heard German. And they found that French infants wail 4 on a rising note [baby cry sound] while the Germans favor a falling melody [baby cry sound]. Those patterns match the rhythms of their native languages. So next time you hear a baby cry, listen closely. He could be telling you where he’s from.
- He was saucy and mischievous when he was working.他工作时总爱调皮捣蛋。
- It was saucy of you to contradict your father.你顶撞父亲，真是无礼。
- We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
- Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间，一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。
- No one could understand the little baby's babble. 没人能听懂这个小婴孩的话。
- The babble of voices in the next compartment annoyed all of us.隔壁的车厢隔间里不间歇的嘈杂谈话声让我们都很气恼。