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Things You Didn’t Know Babies Could Do
大部分人都认为，刚出生的小宝宝对世界一无所知。他们可爱有趣，但在真正能被称为有认知能力的“人”之前，他们就像在努力进化着的原始生物一样。然而，研究表明，小宝宝们能做的事远比我们想象的多。他们究竟有哪些出人意料的“特异功能”呢？
1. essentially： 本质上，实质上。
2. 当然，他们很可爱，他们什么都好，但是最终我们会发现，在有资格成为有认知水平的人类之前，他们还是一群在开发自身基本功能的原始生物。primitive： 原始的，远古的；organism： 有机体，生物体；cognitive： 认知的，认识的。
3. give... credit for： 相信某人具有，为……而称赞某人。
4. sound frequency： 声频，音频。
5. assume： 假定，假设。
6. tune： 调整，调到……的频率。
7. simultaneously： 同时地。
8. infant： 婴儿；bandwidth： 带宽，频宽。
9. 这种能力可能是远古时期的人类遗留下来的，那时能听到所有的动静绝对是一种在野外得以生存的优势。remnant： 剩余； definite： 一定的。
10. apparently： 显然地，明显地。
11. indicator： 标志，这里指面部特征；vestigial： 残留的。
12. built in： 固有的；trait： 特征。
13. hunter-gatherer： 狩猎采集者； belongings： 财产，所有物。
14. crucial： 重要的；be inclined to： 倾向于。
15. puppet show： 木偶剧。
16. respectively： 分别地，各自地。
17. hinderer： 破坏者。
18. informed： 有依据的；drooling： 流口水的；blankly： 茫然地； register： 注意到，记住。
19. womb： 子宫。
20. perfect： 使熟练，使完美； converse： 交谈，谈话。
21. verbal cue： 语言暗示； subtle： 微妙的；wink： 使眼色；master： 精通，掌握。
22. vowel： 元音。
23. plug into： 与……连接； pacifier： 安抚奶嘴。
24. vice versa： 反之亦然。
25. 结果显示，当播放他们的母语时，婴儿们能够辨认出来，这表明我们至少生来就有基本的概念，知道我们的母语听起来什么样。rudimentary： 基本的，初步的。
26. add up： 合乎情理，说得通。
27. violate： 违反，违背。
28. suspicion： 怀疑；run： 运行，进行；defy： 藐视，违抗。
There’s simply no better way to put it： Babies are essentially1 vegetables. Sure， they’re cute and everything， but at the end of the day， we all know that they’re primitive organisms who’re yet to develop the basic functions to qualify as cognitive human beings.2 As the babies grow， they will slowly develop various functions necessary to survive in the world.
But as research is gradually finding out， babies are capable of much more than we usually give them credit for3.
1. Hearing All the Sound Frequencies4 at the Same Time
We assume5 that a baby’s sense of hearing is just a primitive version of an adult’s. Sure， they turn around when you make a sound， but they can’t really understand the difference between talking and other sounds. While that’s true for the most part， it’s not because babies are not as good at hearing as we are but because they’re tuned6 to a whole different type of hearing. As scientists at the University of Washington found out， babies hear all the sound frequencies simultaneously7. 4. Learning Language in the Womb19
Learning a whole new language is a process that takes a long time to perfect， especially when it comes to conversing in a social environment.20 The verbal cues， gestures， subtle winks， and other aspects of communicating take years to master.21 While it is something that we get better at as we grow older， this development starts much earlier than you’d think： before you’re even born.
Babies apparently learn their native language from their mothers in the womb and can identify their mother tongue when they’re barely hours old. Researchers recorded the vowel22 sounds in the native tongues of some 30-hour-old babies and studied their reactions to see if they recognized the sounds. The researchers plugged a pacifier into a computer and made the babies suck on it.23 Sucking for a shorter period of time meant that the sound was familiar， and vice versa24. As it turned out， the babies appeared to recognize the sounds played in their mother tongue， indicating that we’re born with at least a rudimentary sense of what our native language sounds like.25
5. Knowing When the Physics Don’t Add Up26
When you see babies staring hard at something， you don’t tend to think so much of it. They might be hungry， sleepy， or just staring at things for no reason. They’re babies， after all. What we fail to realize， however， is that babies are humans in training and are observing their surroundings to learn how everything works. Moreover， they can tell when the physical rules they’ve previously observed are violated27.
Researchers have found that impossible events， like a ball passing through a wall or gravity working in the opposite manner， are picked up by babies as young as 11 months old. Babies were found to stare extra hard at something that didn’t add up. Not just that， but in order to confirm their suspicions， these babies ran experiments of their own， like dropping the ball when it was earlier shown to be defying gravity.28
大部分人都认为，刚出生的小宝宝对世界一无所知。他们可爱有趣，但在真正能被称为有认知能力的“人”之前，他们就像在努力进化着的原始生物一样。然而，研究表明，小宝宝们能做的事远比我们想象的多。他们究竟有哪些出人意料的“特异功能”呢？
1. essentially： 本质上，实质上。
2. 当然，他们很可爱，他们什么都好，但是最终我们会发现，在有资格成为有认知水平的人类之前，他们还是一群在开发自身基本功能的原始生物。primitive： 原始的，远古的；organism： 有机体，生物体；cognitive： 认知的，认识的。
3. give... credit for： 相信某人具有，为……而称赞某人。
4. sound frequency： 声频，音频。
5. assume： 假定，假设。
6. tune： 调整，调到……的频率。
7. simultaneously： 同时地。
8. infant： 婴儿；bandwidth： 带宽，频宽。
9. 这种能力可能是远古时期的人类遗留下来的，那时能听到所有的动静绝对是一种在野外得以生存的优势。remnant： 剩余； definite： 一定的。
10. apparently： 显然地，明显地。
11. indicator： 标志，这里指面部特征；vestigial： 残留的。
12. built in： 固有的；trait： 特征。
13. hunter-gatherer： 狩猎采集者； belongings： 财产，所有物。
14. crucial： 重要的；be inclined to： 倾向于。
15. puppet show： 木偶剧。
16. respectively： 分别地，各自地。
17. hinderer： 破坏者。
18. informed： 有依据的；drooling： 流口水的；blankly： 茫然地； register： 注意到，记住。
19. womb： 子宫。
20. perfect： 使熟练，使完美； converse： 交谈，谈话。
21. verbal cue： 语言暗示； subtle： 微妙的；wink： 使眼色；master： 精通，掌握。
22. vowel： 元音。
23. plug into： 与……连接； pacifier： 安抚奶嘴。
24. vice versa： 反之亦然。
25. 结果显示，当播放他们的母语时，婴儿们能够辨认出来，这表明我们至少生来就有基本的概念，知道我们的母语听起来什么样。rudimentary： 基本的，初步的。
26. add up： 合乎情理，说得通。
27. violate： 违反，违背。
28. suspicion： 怀疑；run： 运行，进行；defy： 藐视，违抗。
There’s simply no better way to put it： Babies are essentially1 vegetables. Sure， they’re cute and everything， but at the end of the day， we all know that they’re primitive organisms who’re yet to develop the basic functions to qualify as cognitive human beings.2 As the babies grow， they will slowly develop various functions necessary to survive in the world.
But as research is gradually finding out， babies are capable of much more than we usually give them credit for3.
1. Hearing All the Sound Frequencies4 at the Same Time
We assume5 that a baby’s sense of hearing is just a primitive version of an adult’s. Sure， they turn around when you make a sound， but they can’t really understand the difference between talking and other sounds. While that’s true for the most part， it’s not because babies are not as good at hearing as we are but because they’re tuned6 to a whole different type of hearing. As scientists at the University of Washington found out， babies hear all the sound frequencies simultaneously7. 4. Learning Language in the Womb19
Learning a whole new language is a process that takes a long time to perfect， especially when it comes to conversing in a social environment.20 The verbal cues， gestures， subtle winks， and other aspects of communicating take years to master.21 While it is something that we get better at as we grow older， this development starts much earlier than you’d think： before you’re even born.
Babies apparently learn their native language from their mothers in the womb and can identify their mother tongue when they’re barely hours old. Researchers recorded the vowel22 sounds in the native tongues of some 30-hour-old babies and studied their reactions to see if they recognized the sounds. The researchers plugged a pacifier into a computer and made the babies suck on it.23 Sucking for a shorter period of time meant that the sound was familiar， and vice versa24. As it turned out， the babies appeared to recognize the sounds played in their mother tongue， indicating that we’re born with at least a rudimentary sense of what our native language sounds like.25
5. Knowing When the Physics Don’t Add Up26
When you see babies staring hard at something， you don’t tend to think so much of it. They might be hungry， sleepy， or just staring at things for no reason. They’re babies， after all. What we fail to realize， however， is that babies are humans in training and are observing their surroundings to learn how everything works. Moreover， they can tell when the physical rules they’ve previously observed are violated27.
Researchers have found that impossible events， like a ball passing through a wall or gravity working in the opposite manner， are picked up by babies as young as 11 months old. Babies were found to stare extra hard at something that didn’t add up. Not just that， but in order to confirm their suspicions， these babies ran experiments of their own， like dropping the ball when it was earlier shown to be defying gravity.28