阅读理解

　　Any foreigner who has tried to learn Chinese can tell how hard it is to master the tones required to speak and understand．And anyone who has tried to learn to play the violin or other instruments can report similar challenges．

　　Now researchers have found that people with musical training have an easier time learning Chinese．Writing in the online edition of Nature Nenroscieme, researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on the same parts of the brain that help people discover changes in pitch(音调)．

　　One of the study's authors, Nina Kraus, said the findings suggested that studying music "actually tunes our sensory system"．This means that schools that want children to do well in languages should hesitate before cutting music programs．Dr．Kraus said．She said music training might also help children with language problems．

　　Mandarin(普通话)speakers have been shown to have a more complex encoding(编码)of pitch patterns in their brains than English speakers do．This is because in Mandarin and other Asian languages, pitch plays a central role．A single syllable word can have several meanings depending on how it is intoned．

　　For this study, the researchers looked at 20 non Chinese speaking volunteers, half with no musical background and half who have studied an instrument for at least six years．

　　As they were shown a movie, the volunteers also heard an audio tape of the Mandarin word "mi" in three of its meanings：squint, bewilder and rice．The researchers recorded activities in their brain stems to see how well they were processing the sounds．Those with a music background showed much more brain activities in response to the Chinese sounds．

　　The lead author of the study, PatrickC．M．Wong, said it might work both ways．It appear? That native speakers of tonal languages may do better at learning instruments．

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　　Two year s ago, Wendy Ha snip, 47，experienced a brain injury that left her speechle s s for two week s．When she finally recovered, she found her self talking with what seemed to be a French accent．“I phoned a friend the other day, and she spent the fir st ten minute s laughing, ” Ha snip said at the time, “while I have nothing again st the French．”

　　Ha snip suffered from foreign accent syndrome(外国口音综合症), a rare condition in which people find them selve s speaking their own language like someone from a foreign country．The condition u sually occur s in people who have experienced a head injury or a stroke-a sudden lo s s of con sciou sne s s, sen sation, or movement cau sed by a blocked or broken blood ve s selin the brain．

　　The condition wa s fir st identified during the Second World War in a Norwegian woman who se head wa s injured during an attack by the German military．The woman recovered but wa s left with a German-sounding accent, to the horror of fellow villager s who avoided her after that．

　　Re searcher s have di scovered that the combined effect of the damage to several part s of the brain make s victim s lengthen certain syllable, mi spronounce sound s, and change the normal pitch(音高)of their voice．Tho se change s in speech add up to what sound s like a foreign accent．

　　Another re searcher, a phonetician, say s victim s of the syndrome don't acquire a true foreign accent．Their strangely changed speech only re semble s the foreign accent with which it ha s a few sound s in common．

　　When an Engli sh woman named Annie recently developed foreign accent syndrome after a stroke, she spoke with what seemed to be a Scotti sh accent．However, Annie' s Scotti sh coworker s said she didn't sound at all like a Scot．

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