第四篇：The Bilingual Brain

When Karl Kim immigrated to the United States from Korea s a teenager, he had a hard time learning English. Now he speaks it fluently, and he had a unique opportunity to see how our brains adapt to a second language. As a graduate student, Kim worked in the lab of Joy Hirsch, a

neuroscientist in New York. 1 They found evidence that children and adults don't use the same parts of the brain when they learn a second language.

The researchers used an instrument called an MRI( magnetic resonance imaging) scanner to study the brains of two groups of bilingual people. 2 . The other consisted of people who, like Kim, learned their second language later in life. People from both groups were placed inside the MRI scanner. This allowed Kim and Hirsch to see which parts of the brain were getting more blood and were more active. They asked people from both groups to think about what they had done the day before, first in one language and then the other. They couldn't speak out loud because any movement would disrupt the scanning.

Kim and Hirsch looked specifically at two language centers in the brain - Broca's area~ , which is believed to control speech production, and Wernicke's area, which is thought to process

meaning. Kim and Hirsch found that both groups of people used the same part of Wernicke's area no matter what language they were speaking. 3

People who learned a second language as children used the same region in Broca's area for both their first and second languages. People who learned a second language later in life used a different part of Broca's area for their second language. 4 Hirsch believes that when

language is first being programmed in young children, their brains may mix the sounds and structures of all languages in the same area. Once that programming is complete, the processing of a new language must be taken over by a different part of the brain.

A second possibility is simply that we may acquire languages differently as children than we do as adults. Hirsch thinks that mothers teach a baby to speak by using different methods involving touch, sound, and sight. 5

注釋：

1.Now he speaks it fluently，and he had a unique opportunity to see how our brains adapt to a second language.現(xiàn)在他說一口流利的英語(yǔ)，并且有一獨(dú)特的機(jī)會(huì)來審視我們的大腦是如何適應(yīng)第二語(yǔ)言的。adapt to：適應(yīng)

2.MRj(magnetic resonance imaging)：磁共振成像

3.Broca’s area：布洛卡區(qū)，也譯為布羅卡區(qū)是大腦的一區(qū)，它主管語(yǔ)言訊息的處理、話語(yǔ)的產(chǎn)生。與Wernicke’s area共同形成語(yǔ)言系統(tǒng)。布若卡區(qū)與韋尼克區(qū)通常位于腦部的優(yōu)勢(shì)半腦 (通常位于左側(cè))，這是由于大多數(shù)人(97%)是右利的緣故。1861年法國(guó)神經(jīng)學(xué)家兼外科醫(yī)生保羅.布羅卡(Paul Broca，1824--1880)對(duì)一些失語(yǔ)癥患者進(jìn)行研究及治療時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)此一區(qū)域，位于大腦皮層額下回后部的44、45區(qū)，故以其發(fā)現(xiàn)者的名字命名為布羅卡區(qū)。

練習(xí)：

A But their use of Broca's area was different.

B One group consisted of those who had learned a second language as children.

C How does Hirsch explain this difference?

D We use special parts of the brain for language learning.

E And that is very different from learning a language in a high school or college class.

F Their work led to an important discovery.

答案與題解：

1.F根據(jù)本空的后一句：They found evidence that children and adults don’t use the same parts of the brain when they learn a second language.其中they found evidence與discovery相互應(yīng)。

2.B 依據(jù)本空的后一句The other consisted of people who，like Kim，learned their second langaage later in life.one…the other是一固定搭配，用來比較同類事物。

3.A整段講的是Kim他們對(duì)大腦的兩個(gè)語(yǔ)言中心的分析，得出兩組被試都用Wernicke’s area中同一地帶，緊接著該談被試們使用Broca's area的情況。

4.C本段的開頭談到孩子學(xué)習(xí)第_和第二語(yǔ)言都用Broca’s area相同的地帶;而成人學(xué)習(xí)第二語(yǔ)言時(shí)使用Broca’s area不同的地帶。后面都是Hirsch對(duì)這一現(xiàn)象的解釋;He believes….根據(jù)上下文C是恰當(dāng)?shù)摹?/p>

5.E該句是全文的結(jié)束語(yǔ)。本段前兩句都講成年人與小孩習(xí)得語(yǔ)言的不同，Hirsch認(rèn)為，母親教小孩說話用不同于成人的方法，比如用觸摸、聲音和情景。Different是一關(guān)鍵詞，所以，我們?cè)谥袑W(xué)和大學(xué)課堂學(xué)語(yǔ)言的方法和母親教孩予的方法是不同的。

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（責(zé)任編輯：vstara）

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