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They may be small and not able to speak, but babies are proving their amazing cleverness. Scientists
began finding infants' skills are more than they are supposed to be.
_________
Speaking of music, babies can't seem to resist it. Not only are their ears turned to the beats, babies
can actually dance to the music.
To test babies' dancing ability, the researchers played recordings of classical music, rhythmic beats
and speech to infants, and recorded the results. They also invited professional dancers to analyze how
well the babies matched their movements to the music. The babies moved their arms, hands, legs feet
and heads in response to the music, much more than to the speech. The finding suggests this dancing
ability is innate(与生俱来的) in humans, though the researchers aren't sure why it becomes weaker
later in their life.
Learning Quickly while Sleeping
Babies can learn even while asleep, according to a 2011 study. In experiments with 26 sleeping
infants, each just 1 to 2 days old, scientists played a musical tone followed by a puff of air to their eyes
200 times over the course of a half-hour. 124 electrodes(电极) stuck on the head and face of each
baby recorded brain activity during the experiments. The babies rapidly learned to foretell a puff of air
upon hearing the tone, showing a four-time increase on average in the chances of tightening their eyelids
in response to the sound by the end of the experiments.
As newborns spend most of their time asleep, this newfound ability might be crucial to rapidly
adapting to the world around them and help to ensure their survival, researchers said.
Judging Characters Well
Judging another person helpful or harmful is crucial when choosing friends. And that ability starts
early. Kiley Hamlin of Yale University showed both 6-and 10-month-olds a puppet(木偶) show, in
which one character helped another climb a hill. In another scene a third character pushed the climber
down. The little ones then got to choose which character they preferred. For both age groups, most
babies chose the helper character. This character-judging ability could be baby's first step in the
formation of morals, Hamlin thought.
1. Which of the following subtitles can fill in the underlined blank?
A. Dancing to Music
B. Babies' Amazing Abilities
C. Learning to Dance Quickly
D. Born to Dance
2. The underlined word "it" in the third paragraph refers to______.
A. the finding
B. the dancing ability
C. the response
D. the baby
3. The experiment with 26 sleeping infants prove that_______.
A. babies can learn even while asleep
B. babies can respond to the world around them
C. babies can tighten their eyelids in response to the sound
D. babies can communicate with others while asleep
4. In the last experiment, most babies chose the helper character, showing that________.
A. babies can judge a person helpful or harmful
B. babies love to see a puppet show
C. babies were born to help others
D. babes have learned to help others
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