PASSAGE 9
Why is the Native Language Learnt So Well

　　How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery of the language. A grown-up person with fully¹ developed mental powers, in most cases, may end up with a faulty and inexact command. What accounts for this difference?
　　Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself, partly in the behaviour of the people around him. In the first place, the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favourable² of all, namely, the first years of life. A child hears it spoken from morning till night and, what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation³, right use of words and right structure. He drinks in all the words and expressions which come to him in a fresh. Ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance: there is perfect assimilation.
　　Then the child has, as it were, private lessons all the year round, while an adult language-student had each week a limited number of hours which he generally shares with others. The child has another advantage: he hears the language in all possible situations, always accompanied by the tight kind of gestures and facial expressions. Here there is nothing unnatural⁴, such as is often found in language lessons in schools, when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching⁵ heat in January. And what a child hears is generally what immediately interests him. Again and again, when his attempts at speech are successful, his desires are understood and fulfilled.
　　Finally, though a child's "teachers" may not have been trained in language teaching, their relations with him are always close a personal. They take great pains to make their lessons easy.

1. Compared with adults learning a foreign language, children learn their native language with ease.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

2. Adults' knowledge and metal powers hinder their complete mastery of a foreign language.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

3. The reason why children learn their mother tongue so well lies solely⁶ in their environment of learning.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

4. Plenty of practice in listening during the first years of life partly ensures children's success of learning their mother tongue.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

5. A child learning his native language has the advantage of having private lessons all the year round.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

6. Gestures and facial expressions may assist a child in mastering his native language..
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

7. So far as language teaching is concerned, the teacher's close personal relationship with the student is more important than the professional language teaching training he has received.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned

KEY：ACBABAC a

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