2024年4月11日发(作者：)

Unit 2 Initial Education启蒙教育

Text 1 A Baby’s Perception

A few years ago a young mother watched her husband diaper(尿布) their

first-born son.“You don’t have to be so grim (严厉的) about it,”she protested.

“You can talk to him and smile a little,” the father, who happened to be a

psychologist, answered firmly, “he has nothing to say to me, and I have nothing to

say to him.”

Psychologists now know how wrong that father was. From the moment of

birth, a baby has a great deal to say to his parents, and they to him. But a decade

or so ago, these experts were describing the newborn as a primitive creature who

reacted only by reflex(影像), a helpless victim of its environment without capacity

to influence it. And mothers accepted the gospel(真理). Most thought (and some

still do) that a new infant could see only blurry(模糊的) shadows, that his other

senses were undeveloped, and that all he required was nourishment, clean diapers,

and a warm bassinet(摇篮). Today university laboratories across the country are

studying newborns in their first month of life. As a result, psychologists now

describe the new baby as perceptive, with remarkable learning abilities and an

even more remarkable capacity to shape his environment — including the

attitudes and actions of his parents. Some researchers believe that the neonatal (初

生的) period may even be the most significant four weeks in an entire lifetime.

Far from being helpless, the newborn knows what he likes and rejects what he

doesn’t. He shuts out unpleasant sensations by closing his eyes or averting(转移)

his face. He is a glutton(酷爱…的人) for novelty(新奇的事物). He prefers animate(鼓

舞) things over inanimate and likes people more than anything.

When a mere nine minutes old, an infant prefers a human face to a

head-shaped outline. He makes this choice despite the fact that, with delivery

room attendants masked and gowned, he has never seen a human face before. By

the time he’s twelve hours old, his entire body moves in precise synchrony(同步性)

to the sound of a human voice, as if he were dancing. A non-human sound, such as

a tapping noise, brings no such response.

[A] firmly [B] victim [C] outline [D] delivery [E] precise [F] protested [G]

perceptive [H] primitive [I] rejects [J] significant [K] shadows [L] tapping

婴儿的感知能力

几年前，一位年轻的母亲看到她的丈夫给大儿子换尿布的情形。“你不该对他这样板着

脸，”她抗议道：“你可以跟他交谈并带点微笑。”那位父亲正好是一名心理学家，他非常坚

决地回答道：“他没有什么要跟我说的，我也没有什么要跟他说的”。

心理学家们现在知道这位父亲的错有多严重了。从出生的一刻开始，婴儿就有许多事

情要对父母讲，父母也有许多事情要对孩子说。但十几年前，这些专家将新生儿描绘成一

个只对影像有反应的原始生命，一个没有能力影响周围环境的无助的受难者。而母亲们却

接受了真理。许多人认为(一些人仍然这样认为)一个新生儿只能看见模糊的影子， 他的其

他感观尚未充分发育，而且他的全部需要就是营养品、干净的尿布和一个温暖的摇篮。今