Many of us believe that a person’s mind becomes less active as he grows older. But this is

Many of us believe that a person’s mind becomes less active as he grows older. But this is not true, according to Dr Jarvik, professor of psychiatry at the University of California. She has studied the mental functioning of aging persons for several years. For example, one of her studies concerns 136 pairs of twins (双胞胎), who were first examined when they were already 60 years old. As Dr Jarvik continued the study of the twins into their 70s and 80s, their minds did not generally decline (衰弱) as was expected.
　　However, there was some decline in their psycho-motor speed. This means that it took them longer to finish mental tasks than it used to. But when speed was not a factor, they lost very little intellectual (智力的) ability over the years. In general, Dr Jarvik’s studies have shown that there is no decline in knowledge or reasoning ability. This is true not only with those in their 30s and 40s, but with those in their 60s and 70s as well.
　　It is true that older people themselves often complain that their memory is not as good as it once was. However, much of what we call “loss of memory” is not that at all. There usually was incomplete learning in the first place. For example, the older person perhaps had trouble hearing, or poor vision, or was trying to learn the new thing at too fast a speed. In the cases where the older person’s mind really seems to get worse, it is not necessarily a sign of decline due to old age. Often it is simply a sign of a sad emotional state.
【小题1】 This passage is mainly about .A．what caused mental declineB．a new discovery about mental declineC．the difference between middle-aged and older personsD．how Dr Jarvik studied mental functioning of the twins【小题2】The word “psychiatry” in paragraph 1 most probably means .A．the study of diseases of the mindB．the study of physical diseasesC．the study of twins’ growthD．the study of human behavior【小题3】More often than not, what we call mental decline is actually a sign of .A．a worsening state of healthB．old ageC．nervous tensionD．a state of unhappinessB

(答案→)B 解析：人们往往认为随着年龄的增长，人的智力有所下降，而且大脑功能也变得不再活跃。然而加利福尼亚大学的Dr Jarvik却通过研究发现人大脑的知识和推理能力不会随着人的年龄而减弱，只不过在思考问题的速度上有所减缓，而且表面上记忆力的衰退也不过是因为他们对事情没有全面了解而已。【小题1】B主旨大意题。在文章开头作者提出人们对大脑的错误认识，然后介绍了大学的Dr Jarvik的研究结果，随后两段均围绕这一话题展开行文，由此可知文章中心内容是介绍一项关于大脑智力下降的研究报告，所以B选项正确。【小题2】A词意猜测题。根据下文可知Dr Jarvik是从事大脑方面疾病研究的，由此推断psychiatry意思为“精神病学”所以A选项正确。【小题3】D细节理解题。根据文章末句Often it is simply a sign of a sad emotional state.可知人们往往认为metal decline 只是一种不快乐状态的征兆、表现。所以D选项正确。

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