# How baby talk gives infant brains a boost: answers and explanations

Cambridge IELTS 13, Test 3, Reading Passage 2

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from Cambridge IELTS 13, Test 3, Reading Passage 2. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 14 | B | it really matters whether you use baby talk in a one-on-one context |
| 15 | C | it means the baby brain is engaged in trying to talk back right from the start |
| 16 | A | a kid gets to practice a certain kind of speech with mom and another kind of speech with dad |
| 17 | B | The more parents use baby talk one-on-one, the more babies babble |
| 18 | recording devices | equipped parents with recording devices and speech-recognition software |
| 19 | fathers | Dads didn't raise their pitch or fundamental frequency when they talked to kids. |
| 20 | bridge hypothesis | Their role may be rooted in what is called the bridge hypothesis |
| 21 | repertoire | so the kid then has a wider repertoire of kinds of speech to practice |
| 22 | vests | fitting 26 children with audio-recording vests that captured language and sound |
| 23 | vocabulary | they found that frequent baby talk had dramatically boosted vocabulary |
| 24 | F | the brains of the older infants worked harder at the motor activations of non-native sounds compared to native sounds |
| 25 | A | prompting some hopeful parents to play classical music to their pregnant bellies |
| 26 | E | babies seem to like listening to each other rather than to adults |

## Why these answers are right

**14. B.** Individual attention means speaking to one baby at a time. In paragraph D, Ramirez-Esparza says it really matters whether baby talk is used in a one-on-one context, so the idea belongs to researcher B.

**15. C.** The idea links listening with a baby's attempts to produce speech. Kuhl, in paragraph F, says motor areas of the brain activate when infants simply listen, meaning the brain is already trying to talk back. That makes C correct.

**16. A.** The idea is about a benefit of two parents who speak differently. In paragraph C, VanDam explains that a child practices one kind of speech with the mother and another with the father, giving a wider range, so the answer is A.

The why and the trap for questions 17 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/how-baby-talk-gives-infant-brains-a-boost/answers).

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