Read the text below and identify at least five statements that are opinions or suggestions.
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A newborn baby can see, hear and feel. By the age of five, a child can talk, ride a bike and invent imaginary friends. How does this development happen? We don’t understand the way language, thinking and planning develop very well. Now scientists are using new technology to ‘see’ into children’s brains. And they seem to be discovering new information about the way a baby’s brain develops.
A study in 2010 showed that the experiences a child has in their first few years affects the development of the brain. It showed that children who received more attention seemed to have higher IQs. The brain of a newborn baby has nearly a hundred billion neurons. This is the same number as an adult’s brain. As they grow, a baby receives information through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This information creates connections between different parts of the brain. At the age of three, there are a hundred trillion connections.
One experiment looked at images of babies’ brains while they were listening to different sounds. The sounds were in different sequences. For example, one sequence was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern ‘A-B-B’. Another sequence was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern ‘A-B-C’. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech seemed more active during ‘A-B-B’ patterns. This probably shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. This experiment is interesting because sequences of words are important to grammar and meaning. Compare two sentences with the same words in a different order: ‘John killed the bear’ is very different from ‘The bear killed John.’ So, it looks like that babies learn grammatical rules from the beginning of life.
Researchers also know that babies need to hear a lot of language in order to understand grammar rules. But there is a big difference between listening to television, audio books or the internet, and interacting with people. One study compared two groups of nine-month-old American babies. One group watched videos of Mandarin Chinese sounds. In the other group, people spoke the same sounds to the babies. The test results showed that it is possible that the second group could recognize different sounds, however the first group learned nothing. The scientist, Patricia Kuhl, said this result was very surprising. It suggests that social experience is essential to successful brain development in babies.
Answers
Answer:
1. The purpose of the article is to explain new studies into the development of babies’ brains.
2. Experiments focusing on language have given researchers new information
3. _ the main conclusion from the study described in the last paragraph is Social interaction has a big influence on the brain.
4. According to the first paragraph some five-year-olds have imaginary friends
5. The second paragraph explained about the Early experiences have an effect on brain development
Explanation:
The sentences that are opinions or suggestions are:
1. And they seem to be discovering new information about the way a baby’s brain develops.
Here, the word ‘seem’ indicates that it is an opinion.
2. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech seemed more active during ‘A-B-B’ patterns.
Here, the word ‘seemed’ is responsible for making it an opinion and not a fact.
3. This probably shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns.
The word ‘probably’ suggests that there is a lack of evidence and so, the sentence needs to be treated as an opinion and not a fact.
4. So, it looks like that babies learn grammatical rules from the beginning of life.
The phrase ‘looks like’ indicates that it is an opinion, because it looks like the babies are learning, but it cannot be said for sure.
5. It suggests that social experience is essential to successful brain development in babies.
The word ‘suggests’ clearly indicates that the sentence is a suggestion and not a fact.