雅思阅读文章都来源于各大著名的报刊杂志和网站，比如经济学人、美国地理杂志、新科学人等等。所以，小编整理了一些来自于这些网站的文章，仅供参考。今天分享的就是雅思阅读人类研究类文章——儿童的大脑有喜欢读书的早期迹象。
Study finds early signs of bookishness in a child’s brain
研究发现儿童的大脑有喜欢读书的早期迹象
At just 9 months old, my younger daughter is captivated by books. She reaches out and turns pages, grunts at the pictures and chews on the corners. This is a relief because as the second kid, she didn’t have as much quiet reading time as my older daughter, especially in those first few months. It was hard to find time to sit still and read to our nearsighted newborn while chasing a careening toddler around.
I’ve forgiven myself for this lapse, even though I knew that last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that parents begin reading to children as soon as they are born.
There are plenty of good reasons to start reading to kids early. Even for newborns, time spent quietly connecting with a loved one is packed with goodness. Babies listen to parents’ voices, smell their comforting scent and get used to the sound of words. An early start (and loose expectations) makes reading time more likely to cement into ritual, one that’s good for both parents and kids.
A house packed with books may also influence a child’s brain, suggests an interesting study published August 10 in Pediatrics. Researchers led by pediatrician John Hutton used functional MRI to scan the brains of 19 children from ages 3 to 5. While in the scanner, the kids listened to a story that included tantalizing plot twists like, “The frog jumped over the log.” All the while, the kids’ brains chugged away while they imagined this action.
These preschoolers came from homes with varying levels of bookishness, measured by a questionnaire that asked about the number and variety of books in the home, visits to the library and amount of reading per week.
Compared with kids with few books in their lives, kids who came from more book-friendly homes showed signs of higher brain activation in a particular stretch of neural tissue on the back left side of the brain, the researchers found. Called the parietal-temporal-occipital region, this particular patch of brain real estate has been linked to mental imagery and story comprehension, jobs that let kids vividly imagine the frog jumping over the log.
As with all studies, this one comes with caveats. Because the study caught kids at a single point in time, the scientists can’t say whether a home full of books actually caused these differences in brain behavior. “Our study, the way it’s designed, can only show association,” says Hutton, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. “It provides a signal for areas that we think are going to be important.”
The study raises other questions, too: It’s not clear just how this pattern of brain activity relates to reading behavior, or whether it lasts as children grow. What’s more, the MRI signal relies on changes in blood movement as a proxy for brain activity, and some studies are starting to hint that this proxy may not be totally reliable in kids.
Another lingering question: Do digital books on screens have similar effects? These days, reading can take many forms, and it’s unknown how books on iPads or computers influence a child’s brain. Although scientists are still struggling to understand how technology influences kids, Hutton says digital books are probably OK, assuming that the parent and child are still engaged with each other. “I think there is value to all of them as long as the parent stays involved in the process with the child, and the child is encouraged to use his imagination as much as possible.”
The results of this early study are definitely interesting, but there’s so much more to learn about how books worm their way into growing brains.
一、词汇背记：
1. captivated(v.被迷惑)
2. lapse(v. 失效;流失)
3. cement(n. 粘合剂)
4. ritual(n. 仪式，礼节，惯例)
5. pediatrician (儿科医师)
6. tantalizing (诱人的，引起好奇心的)
7. caveat(n. 警告)
8. worm (vt. 缓慢前进)
二、长难句赏析：
1. Compared with kids with few books in their lives, kids who came from more book-friendly homes showed signs of higher brain activation in a particular stretch of neural tissue on the back left side of the brain, the researchers found.
句子结构分析：Compared with作状语，表示比较，who引导定语从句修饰kids。
译文：研究人员发现，相比在生活中有几本书的孩子, 那些来自拥有更多书籍家庭的孩子们的大脑左侧背面的一个特定神经组织显示出更活跃的大脑活动。
2. I think there is value to all of them as long as the parent stays involved in the process with the child, and the child is encouraged to use his imagination as much as possible.
句子结构分析：there be句型，be value to 对……有价值，as long as只要，as much as possible金尽可能多的，as……as短语。
译文： 我觉得只要父母与孩子保持参与这一过程,并鼓励孩子尽可能多地使用他的想象力，就是有价值的。
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