Two years ago, Wendy Hasnip, 47, experienced a brain injury that left her speechless for two weeks. When she finally recovered, she found herself talking with what seemed to be a French accent. “I phoned a friend the other day, and she spent the first ten minutes laughing,” Hasnip said at the time. “While I have nothing against the French.”

Hasnip suffered from foreign accent syndrome (外国口音综合症), a rare condition in which people find themselves speaking their own language like someone from a foreign country. The condition usually occurs in people who have experienced a head injury or a stroke(中风) — a sudden loss of consciousness, sensation, or movement caused by a blocked or broken blood vessel (血管) in the brain.

The condition was first identified during the Second World War in a Norwegian woman whose head was injured during an attack by the German military. The woman recovered but was left with a German-sounding accent, to the horror of fellow villagers who avoided her after that.

Researchers have discovered that the combined effect of the damage to several parts of the brain makes victims lengthen certain syllables, mispronounce sounds, and change the normal

pitch (音高) of their voice. Those changes in speech add up to what sounds like a foreign accent.

Another researcher, a phonetician (语言学者), says victims of the syndrome don’t acquire a true foreign accent. Their strangely changed speech only resembles the foreign accent with which it has a few sounds in common.

When an English woman named Annie recently developed foreign accent syndrome after a stroke, she spoke with what seemed to be a Scottish accent. However, Annie’s Scottish coworkers said she didn’t sound at all like a Scot.

49. According to the passage, people          may have foreign accent syndrome.

A. whose parent has experienced a head injury

B. who have lived in a foreign country for a long time

C. who have lost their consciousness owing to a stroke

D. who have learned foreign language from their coworkers

50. All of the following are the causes of seeming foreign accent EXCEPT         .

A. a softer voice                          B. change in length of syllables

C. mispronounced sounds                  D. changed pitch of voice

51. If a person suffers foreign accent syndrome,           .

A. his coworkers will be afraid of him and avoid contacting with him

B. he has more chance of suffering stroke again

C. he will speak a fluent foreign language like native speakers

D. his speech only has a few sounds in common with the foreign accent

52. Writing this passage, the writer’s main purpose is to         .

A. introduce foreign accent syndrome and some related information

B. warn people not to be at the risk of experiencing a stroke

C. make it clear that foreign accent syndrome can be cured

D. tell a story of an injured woman during the Second World War

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