60. The best title
of this passage is .
A. A Friend in
Need Is a Friend Indeed
B. Honesty Is the Best Habit
C. How to Be a
Friend
D. Three Important Points in Life
DDACC
科学知识类
1(湖南龙山皇仓中学高一9月月考) If
English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange
pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter
since you started to learn a language?
According to a new
study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an
increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages
changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information.
It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also
found the effect is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A
team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group
of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early
bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as
a number of later learners.
Scans showed that
grey matter density (密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a
second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new
language, the smaller the difference.
“Our findings
suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of
learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the
change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan
Vaughan Jones of the University
of Wales, has researched
the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you
two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的),” he said. “You are actually
going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were
matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a
second language between the ages of two and thirty-four. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all
tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better.
“Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the
scientists.