Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word “obey” is hardly right as a kind of the wanting and happy understanding usually shown by the children. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gestures（手势）and by making questioning noises.

Any attempt（尝试）to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words, leads to great difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises divide themselves as particularly（特别 ；尤其）expressive as pleasure, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s meaning to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation leads on to easy imitation（模仿）of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises（发生；出现）as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

It is a problem we need to get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at seven months, of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at another time for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.

【小题1】How do most children behave before learning the language at an early age?

A．They ask questions by repeating the words.

B．They take in language through different amounts of listening.

C．They understand and respond to adults’ oral instructions.

D．They are eager and delighted to cooperate with the adults.

【小题2】Children who start speaking late ________.

A．may have difficulty in their listening

B．probably do not hear enough language spoken around them

C．often take a long time in learning to listen properly

D．usually pay close attention to what they hear

【小题3】The problem of deciding when a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech is not important because ________.

A．words have different meanings for different people

B．the changeover（变更）takes place gradually

C．the meaning of words changes with age

D．children’s use of words is often meaningless

【小题4】What can we learn from the underlined sentences in the last paragraph?

A．Parents need not teach their children new sounds.

B．Children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak.

C．Children still enjoy imitating after they can speak.

D．Children who are good at imitating no longer need parents’ help.