首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Passage Four Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world.
Passage Four Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world.
admin
2022-09-27
63
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.
Which of the following can account for better performance of bilinguals in doing non-inhibition tasks?
选项
A、An ability to ignore distractions.
B、An ability to monitor surroundings.
C、An ability to perform with less effort.
D、An ability to exercise suppression.
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IFBK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Whatdoyouneedtodoinordertounderstandthelecture?NowtherearefourthingsthatI’mgoingtotalkabout.Thefirstthi
Whatdoyouneedtodoinordertounderstandthelecture?NowtherearefourthingsthatI’mgoingtotalkabout.Thefirstthi
SomeTheoriesofHistoryI.TheproblemsofunderstandinghistoryHistorywithwrittenrecords:therecordsmaybe【T1】______
SomeTheoriesofHistoryI.TheproblemsofunderstandinghistoryHistorywithwrittenrecords:therecordsmaybe【T1】______
A、Toturnoutanadequatenumberofeliteforthesociety.B、Topreparestudentsfortheirfuturecareer.C、Toofferpracticala
WritingExperimentalReportsI.Contentofanexperimentalreport,e.g.—studysubject/area—studypurpose【T1】______【T1】______
WritingExperimentalReportsI.Contentofanexperimentalreport,e.g.—studysubject/area—studypurpose【T1】______【T1】______
PASSAGEFIVE
PASSAGETHREEWhatisAlbertHoffman’sdiscovery?
随机试题
A、 B、 C、 D、 A
A.与相应的椎骨平面相差2节B.与相应的椎骨平面相差1节C.与相应的椎骨平面相差3节D.胸椎10~12之间E.胸椎12到腰1之间颈髓位于
银行与客户的关系本质上讲是一种()。
依据香港、澳门特别行政区的基本法,下列哪些是特别行政区的对外事务权限内的事项?
根据我国现行规定,下列关于财务效益构成的说法中,正确的是()。
进口日期栏应填______。备案号栏应填______。
有效市场假说的特征包括()。Ⅰ.将资本市场划分为弱式有效市场、半强式有效市场和强式有效市场三种形式Ⅱ.证券的价格能充分反映该证券的所有可获得的信息,即“信息有效”Ⅲ.证券的价格等于其内在价值Ⅳ.证券的价格能够根据最新信息迅速做出
某公司总裁注重强化规章制度和完善组织结构,实行任务式的管理,尽管有些技术人员反映其做法过于生硬,但几年下来企业得到很大的发展。根据管理方格理论,该总裁的做法最接近于()。
收到银行汇票的查询应当在当日进行查复,有特殊原因不能查复的,查复时间最迟不得超过()。
有以下程序:INPUTTOAS=0IFA=10S=1ENDIFS=2?S假定从键盘输入的A值是数值型,则程序的运行结果是:
最新回复
(
0
)