How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare with adults learning a foreign 11.______ language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds to a complete 12.______ master of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed 13.______ mental powers, in most cases, may end up in a faulty and inex- 14.______ act command. What accounts of this difference? 15.______ Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion lies partly with the child himself, partly in the behavior. of the 16.______ people surround him. In the first place, the time of learning the 17.______ mother tongue is the most favorably of all, namely, the first 18.______ years of life. A child hears it speak from morning till night and, 19.______ what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation, right use of words and right structure. He drinks all the words and expressions which come to 20.______ him in a fresh, ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance: there is perfect assimilation. (61)