speech sounds is unknown.

　　Scientists have known that about 10 weeks before birth，a fetus can hear sounds outside its world.But Christine Moon，a psychologist，found that unborn babies may also start to learn languages.So Christine Moon and her coworkers tested the newborn babies' responses (反应) to different vowel sounds，which are the loudest in human speech.

　　It might seem difficult for scientists to learn anything about newborn babies，because of their poor language ability.But for their experiment，Christine Moon and her coworkers found a good method-they used special pacifiers(安抚奶嘴)connected with computers.The researchers studied 80 healthy newborn babies.Half of those babies lived in the United States，the other half in Sweden.Each baby had a pair of soft headphones next to his or her ears.When a baby sucked (吮吸) on the pacifier，the computer would send sounds through the headphones.

　　Christine Moon's team recorded each baby's responses.American babies were more likely to continue sucking on their pacifiers when they heard Swedish vowel sounds than when they heard English vowel sounds.Swedish babies were more likely to continue sucking on their pacifiers when American vowels were played.The babies' responses show that they stopped to pay more attention to vowel sounds like those from their parents' language.

　　Christine Moon also suggests that new parents should be careful about trying to give language lessons to unborn babies.Playing extra sound might actually disturb them.They hear plenty already.

　　【语篇解读】　研究表明，婴儿在出生前就开始学习语言了。

　　5．The underlined word "fetus" probably means________．

　　A．a famous psychologist B．a developing baby

　　C．a former researcher D．an unborn baby

　　解析：词义猜测题。根据第一段"It suggests that language learning begins before their birth."可知，这项研究显示婴儿在出生前就开始学习语言了，结合画线词所在语境"Scientists have known that about 10 weeks before birth，...can hear sounds outside its world."可知，fetus为胎儿之意。

　　答案：D

　　6．Why did Christine Moon use vowel sounds in her study?

　　A．Because they are important parts of a language.

　　B．Because they are the loudest in human speech.

　　C．Because the pronunciation rules of all vowel sounds are the same.

　　D．Because vowel sounds are used more often than the other sounds.

　　解析：推理判断题。根据第二段"So Christine Moon and her coworkers tested the newborn babies' responses to different vowel sounds，which are the loudest in human speech."可知，克里斯汀·穆恩用元音来测试新生儿主要是因为元音发音是人类语言中声音最大的。

　　答案：B

　　7．What conclusion can be drawn from Christine Moon's study?

　　A．English is more meaningful than Swedish.

　　B．Babies can understand outside sounds before their birth.

　　C．American babies are cleverer than Swedish babies.

　　D．Newborn babies pay more attention to their native language.

解析：推理判断题。根据倒数第二段"The babies' responses show that they stopped to pay