In families with two working parents, fathers may have more impact ____1____ a child’s language development than mothers, a new study ____2____.

Researchers ____3____ 92 families from 11 child care centers before their children were a year old, interviewing each to establish income, ____4____ of education and child care arrangements. ____5____, it was a group of well-educated middle-class families, ____6____ married parents both living in the home.

When the children were 2, researchers videotaped them at home in free-play sessions with both parents, recording all of their ____7____. The study will appear in the November ____8____ of The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

The scientists ____9____ the total number of utterances of the parents, the number of different words they used, the ____10____ of their sentences and other aspects of their speech. ____11____ average, fathers spoke less than mothers did, but they did not ____12____ in the length of utterances or proportion of questions asked.

Finally, the researchers ____13____ the children’s speech at age 3, using a standardized language test. The only predictors of high ____14____ on the test were the mother’s level of education, the ____15____ of child care and the number of different words the father used.

The researchers are ____16____ why the father’s speech, and not the mother’s, had an effect. “It’s well ____17____ that the mother’s language does have an impact,” said Nadya Pancsofar, the lead author of the study. “It ____18____ be that the high-functioning mothers in the study had already had a strong infl uence ____19____ their children’s speech development, or it may be that mothers are ____20____ in a way we didn’t measure in the study.”

1. A. in  B. at  C. on  D. with

2. A. reports B. informs  C. assumes  D. suggests

3. A. appointed  B. recruited  C. enrolled  D. admitted

4. A. level  B. standard  C. years  D. degree

5. A. Moreover  B. Overall  C. In all  D. Luckily

6. A. and  B. or  C. with  D. without

7. A. speech  B. action  C. expression  D. response

8. A. publication  B. version  C. edition  D. issue

9. A. recorded   B. measured  C. included   D. estimated

10. A. simplicity  B. complexity  C. easiness  D. diffi culty

11. A. On  B. In  C. For  D. At

12. A. change  B. speak  C. differ  D. specialize

13. A. videotaped  B. predicted  C. compared  D. analyzed

14. A. values  B. scores  C. standards  D. qualities

15. A. effect  B. intensity  C. quality  D. strength

16. A. aware  B. unaware  C. sure  D. unsure

17. A. understood  B. constituted  C. established  D. informed

18. A. should  B. could  C. had to  D. used to

19. A. with  B. in  C. at  D. on

20. A. contributing  B. cultivating  C. instructing  D. enlightening