Why Is the Native Language Learnt So Well1[综合类职称英语教材]
How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language2,we often find this interesting fact.A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery3of the language.A grown-up person with fully developed mental powers,in most cases,may end up with4 a faulty and inexact command.What accounts for5this difference?
Despite other explanations,the real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself6,partly in the behaviour of the people around him.In the first place，the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favourable 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 intonation,right use of words and right structure.He drinks in7all 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 were8,private lessons all the year round,while an adult language-student has 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 right kind of gestures and facial expressions.Here there is nothing unnatural,such as is often found in language lessons in schools9,when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching 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 fulfilled10.
Finally,though a child’s“teachers”may not have been trained in language teaching,their relations with him are always close and personal.They take great pains to11make their lessons easy.
词汇：
tongue n.(1)语言(2)舌头
genuine adj.真正的
adult n.成年人；adj.成年人的
experience n.(1)经验(2)经历
mastery n.掌握,精通
grown-up adj.成熟的,成人的
faulty adj.有错误的,不完善的
behaviour n.行为,举止
pronunciation 发音,发音法
intonation n.语调
bubble vi.冒泡
assimilation n.吸收
gesture n.手势
facial adj.面部的
注释：
1.learnt so well：“learnt”是动词learn的过去分词,也可用learned。
2.adults learning a foreign language：这里的“learning a foreign language”是分词词组做定语,修饰前面的adults,意为“学习一门外语的成年人”。
3.succeeds in a complete mastery：不及物动词succeed后接名词作宾语时,需加介词in,如其后接动词时,该动词需以动名词形式出现；而介词in则可省略。如：She succeeded (in)passing the final examination.她顺利地通过了期末考试。
4.end up with：以……告终,结束。The experiment ended up with failure.实验以失败告终。
5.account for：是……的原因。What accounts for this difference?造成这种差异的原因是什么?
6.the real answer...1ies partly in the child himself：lie in：在于,位于,这里也表示原因：真正的答案……部分在于孩子本身。
7.drink in：本意是饮用,这里作比喻用,表示如饥似渴地吸取或吸收。
8.as it were：插入语
