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By adopting a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can greatly increase their children's language development. It is surprising but true. How parents talk to their children makes a big difference in the children's language development. If a parent encourages a child to actively respond to what the parent is reading, the child's language skills increase.

A study was done with 30 three-year-old children and their parents. Half of the children participated in the experimental study; the other half acted as the control group. In the experimental group, the parents were given a two-hour training session in which they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-or-no questions. For example, the parents should ask,“What is the doggie doing?” rather than “Is the doggie running away?” The parents in the experimental group were also instructed in how to help their children find answers, how to suggest alternative possibilities and how to praise correct answers.

At the beginning of the study, the children did not differ in measures of language development, but at the end of one month, the children in the experimental group showed 5.5 months ahead of the control group on a test of verbal expression and vocabulary. Nine months later, the children in the experimental group still showed an advance of 6 months over the children in the control group.

1．Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．Children who talk a lot are more intelligent.

B．Parents who listen to their children can teach them more.

C．Active children should read more and be given more attention.

D．Verbal ability can easily be developed with proper methods.

2．“It”（Line 2, Para. 1）can most probably be replaced by____.

A．parents'increasing children's language development

B．reading techniques being simple

C．parents' reading to children

D．children's intelligence development

3．According to the author, which of the following questions is the best type to ask children about?

A．Do you see the elephant?

B．Is the elephant in the cage?

C．What animals do you like?

D．Shall we go to the zoo?

4．The difference between the control group and the experimental group was____.

A．the training that parents received

B．the age of the children

C．the books that were read

D．the number of the children

5．The best conclusion we can draw from the passage is that____.

A．parents should be trained to read to their children

B．the more children read, the more intelligent they will become

C．children's language skills increase when they are required to respond actively D. children who read actively seem six months old

1．【答案】D

【精析】答案在第一段第一句：“By adopting a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can greatly increase their children's language development.”（父母为孩子读书的时候，通过采用一些简单的方法可以大大提高孩子的语言能力。）因此可以得出这样的结论，语言能力可以通过适当的方法来提高。D项为正确答案。

2．【答案】A

【精析】根据上下文，it指前一句所说的父母能提高孩子的语言能力，故选A项。

3．【答案】C

【精析】答案在第二段：“In the experimental group, the parents were given a two-hour training session in which they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-or-no questions.”（实验组给家长进行两小时的培训，让他们学会向孩子们提一些开放式的而不是用“是”或“不是”来回答的问题。）选项A、B、D均是要用“是”或“不是”来回答的问题，因此家长提出的最好的问题应该是：“What animals do you like?”（你喜欢什么样的动物？）故C项为正确答案。

4．【答案】A

【精析】由第二段可知，两组的区别在于实验组里的家长接受了培训，故选A项。

5．【答案】C

【精析】答案在第一段最后一句话：“If a parent encourages a child to actively respond to what the parent is reading, the child's language skills increase.”（如果父亲或母亲鼓励孩子对其朗读的东西做出积极反应的话，孩子的语言能力就会提高。）因此C项为正确答案。