humans gesture when they talk. They gesture even if they have never seen gestures before - people who have been blind since birth do it - and they gesture even if they're talking to someone on the phone and know no one can see them. When speech is interrupted, so is gesture. In fact, gesture is so tightly bound to language that differences between languages show up as differences in gesture. In other words, the way you package your thoughts into speech is also how you package them into movement.

　　Researchers are especially interested in the times when gestures don't match speech. The mismatch can be a valuable window to what's going on in the mind. For example, until about 7 years of age, children don't understand that if you pour a tall glass of water into a shorter, wider glass, the amount of water stays the same. They think the shorter glass contains less water. When asked to explain their reasoning, some children will say, "This one is shorter，" while gesturing that the glass is wider. That discrepancy (矛盾) shows they subconsciously grasp that both dimensions are important.

　　When we speak, we put our thoughts into words, and when we gesture, we put our thoughts into our hands. But gestures don't just show what we're thinking - they actually help us think. Toddlers (初学走路的孩子) who are encouraged to gesture tend to start producing more words. Adults involved in various problem­solving tasks do better when they are encouraged to gesture. Putting ideas into motions brings us closer to grasping what we need to grasp.

　　5．Which can best replace the underlined word "queer" in Paragraph 1?

　　A．Strange. B．Terrible.

　　C．Boring. D．Funny.

　　解析：选A　词义猜测题。由下文那位女士做手势、讲话、翻译的情节及段末的"that moment of confusion"可推断，那位女士的表现很奇怪。

　　6．What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?

　　A．Newborn babies don't gesture.

　　B．Gesture and language are closely related.

　　C．Babies learn to gesture from their parents.

　　D．People gesture when they talk face to face.

　　解析：选B　段落大意题。由第二段中的"how movements are tied to speech"及"gesture is so tightly bound to language that"以及所举例子可推断，本段主要是说手势和语言是紧密联系的。

7．Through kids' gestures in the example of glasses, researchers know ________.