1 . Chinese speakers have got a new thing to be proud of. The language they are speaking is more difficult than English.
Understanding Chinese requires both sides of the brain, but English speakers listen with only half their minds on the job, UK scientists say.
UK psychologist Sophie Scott and researchers from hospitals in Oxford and London performed brain scans on volunteers as they listened to their native languages. When English speakers heard the sound of their language, the left parts of their brains lit up on screen. When Chinese speakers heard their native tongue, there was an action in both the right and left sides.
“We were very surprised to discover that people who speak different sorts of languages use their brains to decode speech in different ways.” said Scott.
The left side is normally connected with putting sounds together into words; the right with processing melody (音调) in music and speech, so this part “lights up” when English speakers hear music. The researchers do not yet know whether the right side is active in English speakers when they hear Chinese.
In Chinese, a different intonation (语调) delivers a different meaning, the syllable (音节) “ma”, for instance, can mean mother, hemp (麻), horse or scold according to its musical sound.
“Speech really is a complex sound,” said Scott. “As well as understanding words, the brain uses the way in which words are spoken, such as intonation and melody, to turn spoken language into meaning.”
“We think Chinese speakers interpret intonation and melody in the right sides of their brains to give correct meaning to the spoken words.”
The study suggests that language itself might affect the way the brain develops in a young child. It could explain why native speakers of English find it so extraordinary hard to learn Chinese.
1. What does the underlined “volunteers” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Chinese speakers. | B．English speakers. |
| C．People who speak different languages. | D．Researchers and Chinese and English speakers. |
| A．Music. | B．Meanings. |
| C．Intonation and melody. | D．The way the brain develops. |
| A．The left sides of their brains are not used for language. |
| B．They can hardly understand words when there is music. |
| C．The right sides of their brains are never used in childhood. |
| D．They can hardly understand words in the right side of the brain. |
| A．How the Brain Responds to Music |
| B．How the Brain Responds to Chinese |
| C．The Brain Responds to Languages Differently |
| D．The Two Sides of the Brain Work Differently |
