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Section B
Passage One
Mothers have been warned for years that sleeping with their newborn infant is a bad idea because it increases the risk that the baby might die unexpectedly during the night. But now Israeli researchers are reporting that even sleeping in the same room can have negative consequences, not for the child, but for the mother. Mothers who slept in the same room as their infants, whether in the same bed or just the same room, had poorer sleep than mothers whose babies slept elsewhere in the house: They woke up more frequently, were awake approximately 20 minutes longer per night, and had shorter periods of uninterrupted sleep. These results held true even taking into account that many of the women in the study were breast-feeding their babies. Infants, on the other hand, didn't appear to have worse sleep whether they slept in the same or different room from their mothers. The researchers acknowledge that since the families they studied were all middle-class Israelis, it's possible the results would be different in different cultures. Lead author Liat Tikotzky wrote in an email that the research team also didn't measure fathers' sleep, so it’s possible that their sleep patterns could also be causing the sleep disruptions for moms. Right now, to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers not sleep in the same beds as their babies, but sleep in the same room. The Israeli study suggests that doing so may be best for baby, but may take a toll on Mom.
9 What is the long-held view about mothers sleeping with newborn babies?
10 What do Israeli researchers' findings show?
11 What does the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend mothers do?
Passage Two
The US has already lost more than a third of the native languages that existed before European colonization and the remaining 192 are classed by the UNESCO as ranging between unsafe and extinct. "We need more funding and more effort to return these languages to everyday use," says Fred Nahwooksy of the National museum of the American Indian, "we are making progress, but money needs to be spent on revitalizing languages, not just documenting them." Some 40 languages mainly in California and Oklahoma where thousands of Indians were forced to relocate in the 19th century have fewer than 10 native speakers. Part of the issue is that tribal groups themselves don't always believe their languages are endangered until they are down to the last handful of speakers. "But progress is being made through immersion schools, because if you teach children when they are young, it will stay with them as adults and that's the future." says Mr Nahwooksy, a Comanche Indian. Such schools have become a model in Hawaii, but the islanders' local language is still classed by the UNESCO as critically endangered because only 1,000 people speak it. The decline in the American Indian languages has historical roots: In the mid-19th century, the US government adopted a policy of Americanizing Indian children by removing them from their homes and culture. Within a few generations most had forgotten their native tongues. Another challenge to language survival is television. It has brought English into homes, and pushed out traditional storytelling and family time together, accelerating the extinction of native languages.
12 What do we learn from the report?
13 For what purpose does Fred Nahwooksy appeal for more funding?
14 What is the historical cause of the decline in the American Indian Languages?
15 What does the speaker say about television?
