2 . “Baby signing”classes established to improve language skills actually make little difference to children’s development, according to new research. Scholars claimed there was no evidence that the lessons —in which babies are taught simple gestures to communicate their everyday needs —enable children to talk quicker than others.

In a three-year study, it was claimed that the method could make mothers more responsive to their children’s behaviors but failed to actually increase babies’vocabulary. An active home environment in which parents regularly talk to their children was much more effective, researchers warned. The findings will cast doubt on the movement —born in the United States—which has proved hugely popular among middle-class parents.

Baby signing is now a multi-million pound industry, with thousands of mothers and fathers paying for classes, books and DVDs, Young children are taught simple gestures for words and phrases to communicate their everyday needs, such as“milk”“more”“all gone”“food”and “tired”. It is claimed that the technique brings great benefits, including improving the relationship between mother and child, helping language development and even increasing a child’s intelligence.

But research from Hertfordshire University has found no evidence that using baby signing helps to improve their language development. The scholars added,“Baby signing has become big business and mothers,particularly first-time mums or less confident parents, feel the pressure to do it. Some even think if I don’t do it and everyone else does, I must be a bad mother.”

However, baby signing experts hardly sustained the findings. Wendy Moat, 45, who has been running baby signing classes for three years, said that the classes encouraged speech development, and may help develop a higher IQ. She said“So many mums say that their children talk so well because they did baby signing when they were babies. Parents wouldn’t say it if they didn’t believe it.”

1. Which of the following may help improve children’s language skills?

A．Talking to them as much as possible	B．Using simple words and phrases
C．Buying them more books and DVDs	D．Creating a serious home environment

2. The underlined word“sustained”in the last paragraph means ________

A．found

B．got rid of

C．supported

D．quit

3. What's the main idea of the text?

A．Baby signing classes fail to improve children's language skills.

B．Baby signing classes increase children's intelligence.

C．How to improve the relationship between mother and child

D．How to teach children to communicate effectively.

6 . Some are concerned that AI tools are turning language learning into a weakening pursuit. More and more people are using simple, free tools, not only to decode text but also to speak. With these apps’ conversation mode, you talk into a phone and a spoken translation is heard moments later; the app can also listen for another language and produce a translation in yours.

Others are less worried. Most people do not move abroad or have the kind of on-going contact with a foreign culture that requires them to put in the work to become fluent. Nor do most people learn languages for the purpose of humanising themselves or training their brains. On their holiday, they just want a beer and the spaghetti without incident.

Douglas Hofstadter, an expert in many languages, has argued that something profound (深刻的) will disappear when people talk through machines. He describes giving a broken, difficult speech in Chinese, which required a lot of work but offered a sense of satisfaction at the end.

As AI translation becomes an even more popular labor-saving tool, people can be divided into two groups. There will be those who want to stretch their minds, expose themselves to other cultures or force their thinking into new pathways. This group will still take on language study, often aided by technology. Others will look at learning a new language with a mix of admiration and puzzlement, as they might with extreme endurance (耐力) sports: “Good for you, if that’s your thing, but a bit painful for my taste.”

But a focus on the learner alone misses the fundamentally social nature of language. It is a bit like analysing the benefits of close relationships to heart-health but overlooking the inherent (固有的) value of those bonds themselves. When you try to ask directions in broken Japanese or ruin a joke in broken German, you are making direct contact with someone. And when you speak a language well enough to tell a story with perfect timing or put delicate differences on an argument, that connection is more profound still. The best relationships do not require a medium.

1. What is the first two paragraphs mainly about?

A．Communicating through apps is simple.

B．Apps provide a one-way interactive process.

C．Using apps becomes more and more popular.

D．AI tools weaken the needs of language learning.

2. What is Douglas’ attitude to language learning?

A．Favorable.

B．Objective.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear

3. What do we know about the second group mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．They are keen on foreign culture.

B．They long to join in endurance sports.

C．They find Al tools too complex to operate.

D．They lack the motivation to learn language.

4. How does the author highlight his argument in the last paragraph?

A．By providing examples.	B．By explaining concepts.
C．By stating reasons.	D．By offering advice.

7 . What was the woman doing just now?

A．Making a phone call.

B．Recording a word’s pronunciation.

C．Looking up a word in the dictionary.

8 . “Lei ming m ming baak ngo gong ge waa ah? Do you understand what I am saying?” I stare back at the speaker dumbly, my lips parted, the ideas clear in my mind but a response unable to express itself in a language in my distant range. After an uncomfortable pause, a bunch of words spill out of my mouth, sounding forced and unnatural.

The anecdote (轶事) above is a semi-conversation I had in Malaysia years ago. A three-week stay in Malaysia once every few years was often the highlight of my summers—what more can you ask from a food paradise? But besides the family, food, and escape that Malaysia offered, trips also brought accompanying feelings of guilt that I just couldn’t seem to translate. For one month every few summers, I got a taste of what it feels to be an outsider in my own culture, peering in. I was a girl lost in translation, passively absorbing the various tongues shouted between the stalls in the wet markets, quietly nodding along at my grandparents’ huge family dinners.

In America though, I am a different person. I don’t think twice about my grammar when speaking. I don’t struggle with the words and fear that my logic and stories won’t get through to people. So as a native English speaker, I do not have to worry daily about whether I’m judged for having an accent or whether I’m misunderstood across languages. In Malaysia, I naturally burst out “have you eaten?” instead of recalling the Malaysian equivalent “you makan already?” In Malaysia, everything about the way I speak-my accent, intonation, sentence structure, slang-gives me away. My American-ness is seen in the way I talk, dress, and act. Maybe my face could pass for a Malaysian local, but once I open my mouth to speak I am so clearly not. It is uncomfortable and awkward, and sometimes I wonder if I did not look Asian at all would it be better, since there would be no more language expectation for me than for a white tourist.

1. How did the author feel in the anecdote?

A．Confused and scared.	B．Embarrassed and nervous.
C．Curious and surprised.	D．Upset and puzzled.

2. Why did the author feel guilt according to Paragraph 2?

A．Because she had to stay away from her family

B．Because she didn’t enjoy speaking the language

C．Bccause she had to accept what grandparents said

D．Because she found it hard to understand the culture.

3. What can we learn about the author from the last paragraph?

A．She was a good language learner.	B．She didn’t like being an Asian.
C．She was judged unfairly in Malaysia	D．She spoke English unconsciously in Malaysia.

4. From which column of the website does this article probably come from?

A．Opinion

B．News.

C．Education.

D．Humor

9 . The unusual whistle language used as a means of communication by villagers in the remote and mountainous northern Turkey has been added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The language is a highly developed high-pitch system of whistling to communicate in rugged areas where people mostly cannot see each other. It can allow people to communicate across great distances, up to 5 kilometers. Compared with other similar whistle languages in Spain's Canary Islands, in Mexico, or in Greek villages, it has a higher tone and larger vocabulary.

This unusual form of communication, which dates some 500 years ago, to the Ottoman Empire, was born from sheer necessity and widespread across the Black Sea regions.

But 50 years ago, the bird language suffered greatly due to the impact of the progression of technology and nowadays the rapid growth of cellular mobile systems has put this cultural heritage under serious threat.

For centuries, the language has been passed on from grandparent to parent, from parent to child. Now, though, many of its most skilful speakers who use their tongue, teeth and fingers are aging and becoming physically weak. Young people are no longer interested in learning the language or in finding ways to update its vocabulary with new words, and in a few generations it may be gone for good.

“Our bird language is very convenient and efficient to communicate across the valleys. It has many benefits over yelling, which is bad for our throats.” said Avni Kocek, head of the bird village adding that despite setbacks because of technology, “Bird language is still used by many of us. Whistle language is transmitted from our elders to us and we have the duty to transmit it to our children. We are making efforts to keep our culture alive through the yearly Bird Language Festival.”

Besides, the bird language has been required to be taught at primary schools since 2014 by district authorities in order to put the practice in younger generations.

1. What is probably the meaning of the underlined word in Paragraph 2?

A．crowded

B．suitable

C．unsmooth

D．impressive

2. What's the biggest threat to the bird language?

A．Other whistle languages are more effectively protected.

B．The need to use it in everyday life is disappearing.

C．Many of its most skilful speakers are growing old.

D．Young people find it too difficult to learn well enough.

3. What's the most effective measure so far taken to protect the bird language?

A．It has become a subject at primary schools.

B．Bird Language Festival is celebrated every month.

C．Cellular mobile systems are not allowed in the area.

D．All parents are required to transmit it to their children.

4. What's the main idea of the text?

A．It is about how to preserve the endangered bird language.

B．It is about a story of a bird language speaker.

C．It describes the way to celebrate the bird language festival.

D．It describes the disappearance of bird language.