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Adults are getting smarter about how smart babies are.
成年人在研究嬰兒有多聰明這個問題時，也變得越來越聰明了。
Not long ago, researchers learned that 4-day-old could understand addition and subtraction.
不久前，研究人員發現4歲的孩子能夠理解加法和減法。
Now, British research psychologist Graham Schafer has discovered that infants can learn words for uncommon things long before they can speak.
現在，英國心理學研究者格拉哈姆·謝弗發現嬰兒在他們學會說話很久之前就能夠學習一些描述罕見事物的詞語。
He found that 9-month-old infants could be taught, through repeated show-and-tell,
謝弗發現，一個九個月大的嬰兒通過展示和陳述的方法
to recognize the names of objects that were foreign to them,
能夠被教會去認知他們沒有看到過的事物。
a result that challenges in some ways the received wisdom that,
這個結果在一定程度上也挑戰了普遍接受的智慧。
apart from learning to identify things common to their daily lives,
因為要讓嬰兒能夠從日常模仿學習到自己學會分辨常見事物的跨越是很不容易的。
children don't begin to build vocabulary until well into their second year.
小孩子在兩歲之前，是不會自己在腦里形成詞庫的。
"It's no secret that children learn words,
“毫無疑問，孩子能學詞，
but the words they tend to know are words linked to specific situations in the home." explains Schafer.
但是他們試圖去了解的詞是與家里某些特定的情景相聯系的。”謝弗解釋說。
"This is the first demonstration that we can choose what words the children will learn
這是表明我們可以選擇孩子將要學習的詞語
and that they can respond to them with an unfamiliar voice giving instructions in an unfamiliar setting."
且孩子能夠在一個陌生的環境中對一個陌生的指令聲音做出反應的第一個論證。
Figuring out how humans acquire language may shed light on why some children learn to read and write later than others,
弄清人類如何習得語言也許能夠解釋為什么有一些孩子學習閱讀和寫作的時間比同齡人更晚，
Schafer says, and could lead to better treatments for developmental problems.
謝弗說，這也能夠幫助我們更好地應對孩子成長中的問題。
What's more, the study of language acquisition offers direct insight into how humans learn.
另外，研究語言習得恰好能夠深入了解“人類是如何學習的”。
"Language is a test case for human cognitive development." says Schafer.
“語言是人類認知發展的一個測試用例。”謝弗說。
But parents eager to teach their infants should take note:
但是那些渴望教孩子的父母應該注意：
even without being taught new words, a control group caught up with other infants within a few months.
即使沒有教他們新詞，一個對照組在幾個月內便能追趕上其他嬰兒。
"This is not about advancing development." he says.
“這不是關于如何促進發展的研究。”他說。
"It's just about what children can do at an earlier age than what educators have often thought."
“它僅僅是關于孩子在早期能做什么，而不是教育者常常認為孩子能做什么。”
