As to the issue of research with infants, the
text mentions a study involving babies who were

Question

T E X T     SPEAKING two languages rather than just
one has obvious practical benefits in an
increasingly globalized world. But in recent years,
scientists have begun to show that the advantages
of bilingualism are even more fundamental than
being able to converse with a wider range of
people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you
smarter. It can have a profound effect on your
brain, improving cognitive skills not related to
language and even shielding against dementia in
old age.      This view of bilingualism is remarkably
different from the understanding of bilingualism
through much of the 20th century. Researchers,
educators and policy makers long considered a
second language to be an interference, cognitively
speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and
intellectual development.     They were not wrong about the
interference: there is ample evidence that in a
bilingual’s brain both language systems are active
even when he is using only one language, thus
creating situations in which one system obstructs
the other. But this interference, researchers are
finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a
blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve
internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that
strengthens its cognitive muscles.     Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more
adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of
mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the
psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle MartinRhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were
asked to sort blue circles and red squares
presented on a computer screen into two digital
bins — one marked with a blue square and the
other marked with a red circle.     In the first task, the children had to sort
the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin
marked with the blue square and red squares in
the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did
this with comparable ease. Next, the children were
asked to sort by shape, which was more
challenging because it required placing the images
in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The
bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.     The collective evidence from a number of
such studies suggests that the bilingual experience
improves the brain’s so-called executive function
— a command system that directs the attention
processes that we use for planning, solving
problems and performing various other mentally
demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring
distractions to stay focused, switching attention
willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a
sequence of directions while driving.     Why does the tussle between two
simultaneously active language systems improve
these aspects of cognition? Until recently,
researchers thought the bilingual advantage
stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition
that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one
language system: this suppression, it was thought,
would help train the bilingual mind to ignore
distractions in other contexts. But that explanation
increasingly appears to be inadequate, since
studies have shown that bilinguals perform better
than monolinguals even at tasks that do not
require inhibition, like threading a line through an
ascending series of numbers scattered randomly
on a page.    The key difference between bilinguals and
monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened
ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals
have to switch languages quite often — you may
talk to your father in one language and to your
mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a
researcher at the University of PompeuFabra in
Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes
around you in the same way that we monitor our
surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing
German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals
on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues
found that the bilingual subjects not only
performed better, but they also did so with less
activity in parts of the brain involved in
monitoring, indicating that they were more
efficient at it.     The bilingual experience appears to
influence the brain from infancy to old age (and
there is reason to believe that it may also apply to
those who learn a second language later in life).     In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of
the International School for Advanced Studies in
Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two
languages from birth were compared with peers
raised with one language. In an initial set of trials,
the infants were presented with an audio cue and
then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both
infant groups learned to look at that side of the
screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later
set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on
the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed
to a bilingual environment quickly learned to
switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction
while the other babies did not.     Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the
twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly
Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the
neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University
of California, San Diego, found that individuals
with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured
through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in
each language — were more resistant than others
to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of
bilingualism, the later the age of onset.     Nobody ever doubted the power of
language. But who would have imagined that the
words we hear and the sentences we speak might
be leaving such a deep imprint? Source: www.nytimes.com As to the issue of research with infants, the
text mentions a study involving babies who were Alternativa A: raised in the International School for
Advanced Studies until the age of seven
months.exposed to two languages for seven months in
a language laboratory. Ou Alternativa B: seven months old and had lived in a twolanguage environment since they were born. Ou Alternativa C: raised in the International School for
Advanced Studies until the age of seven
months. Ou Alternativa D: seven weeks old and had been exposed to two
languages from birth.

Qconcursos · Accepted Answer

Alternativa [B] seven months old and had lived in a twolanguage environment since they were born. Gabarito: BFundamento decisivo: O critério decisivo é a correspondência literal com o trecho “7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth”, indicado pelo enunciado ao tratar do estudo com bebês; como o texto afirma que eram bebês de sete meses expostos a duas línguas desde o nascimento, apenas a alternativa B preserva esses dois dados centrais.Tema central: estudo com bebês bilínguesAnálise das alternativasAErradaEstá errada porque introduz informações que o texto não fornece: que os bebês teriam sido criados na International School for Advanced Studies até os sete meses e expostos a duas línguas em laboratório por sete meses. O texto apenas identifica a instituição ligada ao estudo e diz que os bebês eram de sete meses e estavam expostos a duas línguas desde o nascimento.BCertaA alternativa B está correta porque reproduz com fidelidade os dois elementos centrais do trecho citado: a idade dos participantes (“7-month-old” = sete meses de idade) e a condição linguística (“exposed to two languages from birth” = expostos a duas línguas desde o nascimento).CErradaEstá errada porque transforma a International School for Advanced Studies em local de criação dos bebês. Pela base, essa instituição é o vínculo institucional do estudo, não o lugar onde os participantes foram criados. Além disso, a alternativa omite o dado decisivo da exposição a duas línguas desde o nascimento.DErradaEstá errada por divergência factual direta: o texto diz “7-month-old”, isto é, sete meses de idade, e não sete semanas. Embora preserve “from birth”, erra um dos dois dados centrais exigidos pela questão, o que a invalida.Pegadinha da questãoA banca explora duas confusões reais: trocar “7-month-old” por sete semanas e confundir a instituição mencionada no estudo com o local onde os bebês teriam sido criados.Dica para questões semelhantesQuando a questão cobrar pesquisa ou estudo citado no texto, localize o trecho exato e confira idade, condição e comparação sem aceitar aproximações.Em inglês, leia com precisão marcadores como “7-month-old” e “from birth”, porque a troca de months por weeks ou de “desde o nascimento” por exposição posterior muda o fato descrito.Separe dado sobre participantes de dado sobre instituição: o nome da escola ou centro de pesquisa não autoriza concluir que os sujeitos viviam ali.Elimine alternativas com parte correta e parte inventada; em leitura literal, um acréscimo indevido já torna a opção errada.

As to the issue of research with infants, the text mentions...

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Gabarito: B

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