赖世雄英语新闻听力通 第54期:八个月婴儿认字

 (NEW YORK, Reuters)New research suggests that babies start to recognize words as early as 8 months of age.

（路透社纽约电）新的研究显示，婴儿在八个月大的时候就开始认字。

Investigators¹ found that young infants can distinguish when a word begins and ends.

研究人员发现，小婴儿可以辨别出一个字的开始与结尾。

Words that begin with a consonant² sound were easier to learn.

以辅音开头的字比较容易学。

Recognizing words is the first step toward learning a language.

认字是学习语言的第一步。

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。