Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent ye

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问题     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 bilingual-ism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns 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 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 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.
    A collective evidence from a number of 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.
    And 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 Pompeu 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 on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.
Researchers, educators and policy makers through much of the 20th century thought that bilin-gualism________.

选项 A、developed children’ s learning ability
B、impeded children’ s development in learning
C、improved children’ s intelligence
D、strenghtened children’ s cognitive skills

答案B

解析 细节题。根据题干关键词定位到文章第二段第二句Researchers,educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development。由关键词hinder可知,研究人员、教育工作者和决策者对双语持消极的态度,而A、C、D三项的中心词分别为develop,improve和strengthen,都表达了双语对小孩的积极影响,与文意不符,故均错误。且D项意为“双语增强孩子的认知能力”,“认知能力”一词出现在文章第一段最后一句,与孩子没有关系,故错误。B项意为“双语阻碍了孩子学习的发展”,是对第二段第二句academic development的同义替换。故本题选B。
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