Question

Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?

To see whether babies know objects are solid, T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could reach out and touch, and then to show them the illusion. If they knew that objects are solid and they reached out for the illusion and found empty air, they could be expected to show surprise in their faces and movements. All the 16- to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.

Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence, We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?

Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to reappear. If the experimenter took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch. Thus, the 16-week-old babies seem to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.

1. The passage is mainly about          .

A．babies’ understanding of objects	B．effects of experiments on babies
C．babies’ sense of sight	D．different tests on babies’ feelings

2. In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, an object         .

A．still exists

B．keeps its shape

C．still stays solid

D．is beyond reach

3.. What did Bower use in his experiments?

A．A chair.

B．A screen.

C．A film.

D．A box.

4.. Which of the following statements is true?

A．The babies didn’t have a sense of direction.

B．The older babies preferred toy trains to balls.

C．The younger babies liked looking for missing objects.

D．The babies couldn’t tell a ball from its optical illusion.

Answer

1.A

2.A

3.B

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：

1.A文章理解题。前两段讲的是儿童能否认识到objects are solid"物体实体性"（第一段第一句引出），后两段讲的是儿童能否认识到object permanence“物体永存性”（第三段第一句引出）。都是讲儿童对物体的认识，所以选A。  

2.A第三段开始讲object permanence；答案从第三段开始找，文章说the box will still be there when we come back. 同义代换知道选A。

3.B实验用到了ball、toy train 、screen。所以选B。

4.D.A文章没讲sense of direction，B文章没讲喜好问题，C，最后一段原文说The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train.所以是older babies寻找，而非选项中的The younger babies 。D其实是第二段的概括，第二段中讲给儿童个real ball，然后又给他们影像虚拟的球，结果儿童还是伸手去摸而且表情很惊讶，说明他们误以为是真实的球了。 所以选D

考点：考查科普类短文阅读