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

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 bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people.【B6】__________________
    This view of bilingualism  is remarkably different from  the  understanding of bilingualism  through much of the 20th century.【B7】____________________________
    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.【B8】_______________________
    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.
    Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of
    cognition?【B9】___________________________________________
    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.【B10】___________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 per-formed 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,
    Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism—measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language—were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.
    [A]   Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, im-proving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
    [B]   "Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often," 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."
    [C]   Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
    [D]   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.
    [E]  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.
    [F]  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.
    [G]  These bilinguals seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles and their bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age.
【B8】
选项
答案F
解析 空格前提到．有很多证据表明上一段关于interference的看法没有错。双语者大脑中确实存在两个语言系统互相干扰的情况。空格后是下一段，讲有证据表明使用双语的经历能增强大脑的执行功能。这两处内容呈对立关系：前者讲通双语的劣势，后者讲通双语的优点，而空格后的语句没有明显表达转折的词，可见空格处填的内容应该能够起到从劣势向优点过渡的作用。F以转折词But过渡，指出this interference也不一定是缺陷(handicap)，从一个角度看，它也有好处。F填入空格后，与空格前的内容形成转折关系，逻辑合理，过渡自然，故确定本题选F。
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