第四篇：The Bilingual Brain

When Karl Kim immigrated to the United States from Korea as 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)在他英語講得很流利，并且有一個獨特的機會來審視我們的大腦是如何適應第二語言的。adapt to：適應。

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

3.Broca’S area&Wernicke’S area：Broca’s area,即布洛卡區(qū)，也譯為布羅卡區(qū)，是大腦的一區(qū)，它主管語言信息的處理、話語的產(chǎn)生。Wemicke’s area，即韋尼克區(qū)，也譯為威尼克區(qū)，是大腦寫中樞，視覺性語言中樞。Broca’s area與Wernicke’s area共同形成語言系統(tǒng)。布洛卡區(qū)與韋尼克區(qū)通常位于腦部的優(yōu)勢半腦(通常位于左側)，這是由于大多數(shù)人(97%)是右利的緣故。1861年法國神經(jīng)學家兼外科醫(yī)生保羅?布洛卡(Paul Broca,1824--1880)對一些失語癥患者進行研究及治療時發(fā)現(xiàn)此一區(qū)域，位于大腦皮層額下回后部的441區(qū),45區(qū)，故以發(fā)現(xiàn)者的名字命名為布洛卡區(qū)。

練習：

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 leaming.

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相呼應。

2.B 依據(jù)本空的后一句The other consisted of people wh0，like Kim，learned their second language later in life.one…the other是固定搭配，用來比較同類事物。

3.A整段講的是對大腦的兩個語言中心的分析，得出兩組測試人員都使用Wernicke’S area中同一部位，緊接著即談到測試者們使用Broca’S area的情況。

4.C本段的開頭談到孩子學習第一和第二語言都用Broca’S area相同的部位;而成人學習第二語言時使用Broca’s area不同的部位。后面都是Hirsch對這一現(xiàn)象的解釋;Hirsch believes...根據(jù)上下文C是恰當?shù)摹?/p>

5.E該句是全文的結束語。本段前兩句都講成年人與小孩習得語言方式的不同，Hirsch認為，母親教小孩說話是通過使用不同的方法，涉及觸覺、聽覺和視覺。different是關鍵詞，所以，我們在高中或大學的課堂上學習語言的方法和母親教孩子的方法是不同的。

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（責任編輯：vstara）

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