首页
登录
职称英语
Passage Four Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious pra
Passage Four Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious pra
游客
2024-11-03
4
管理
问题
Passage Four
Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turned out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia (痴呆) in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.
The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function—a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind—like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.
Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.
The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. "Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often—you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language," says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompea Fabra in Spain. "It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving. " In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals in completing monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were efficient at it.
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age, and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life. [br] What is the role of Paragraph Four in relation to Paragraph Three?
选项
A、It provides counter evidence to Paragraph Three.
B、It offers another example of the role of interference.
C、It serves as a transitional paragraph in the passage.
D、It further illustrates the point in Paragraph Three.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3829472.html
相关试题推荐
PassageTwo(1)Thetopperformersintheirfields—fromLeBronJamesto
PassageOne(1)Arthurwastakentothehugemediaevalfortressatthe
PassageOne(1)Arthurwastakentothehugemediaevalfortressatthe
PassageTwo[br]What’stheauthor’ssuggestioninthelastparagraph?Helpy
PassageTwo[br]Whatdoestheauthormeanbysaying"Tiethefirststepto
PassageTwo[br]Accordingtotheauthor,whatisthereasonforprocrastina
PassageThree(1)Youdonotneedtoplayinabandtobepartofthebu
PassageThree(1)Youdonotneedtoplayinabandtobepartofthebu
PassageThree(1)Youdonotneedtoplayinabandtobepartofthebu
PassageThree(1)Youdonotneedtoplayinabandtobepartofthebu
随机试题
[originaltext]M:Soyouarrivedjustontime!W:Yes.Solet’sbegindiscussing
Priceisamajor(considerate)______forpeopleinbuyinganything.consideration本
RobSapp,27,fromKent,lovedgameswhenhewasattendingschool.Infact,
在均衡经济周期模型中,假设劳动和资本的供给固定不变,政府支出的暂时性下降()。
为防止木地板翘曲,一般实铺木地板均设通风洞,关于通风洞的设置位置下列哪一项是不正
公共安全防范管理服务是物业服务企业协助政府相关部门,为维护公共治安、施工安全等采
一般而言,心理测验的分数属于( )A.类别量表 B.等级量表 C.等距量表
社会政策的类型包括( )。A.教育政策 B.基本公共服务均等化政策 C.就
路基填筑压实的主要施工机械不包括( )。A.压实机械 B.平整机械 C.洒
亚基解聚时( )。A.二硫键破坏 B.一级结构破坏 C.二级结构破坏 D
最新回复
(
0
)