Questions are based on the following passage. Bilingual (双语的) educati-考呗网

英语四级

单选题Questions are based on the following passage.
Bilingual (双语的) education in schools has long been a political hot potato--it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there' s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages.
Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don't even need to learn that second (or third, or fourth) tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive (认知的)benefits for the aging brain.
Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it' s a self-selecting crowd?
What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with? To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s.
A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those,195 said they learned it before age 18; 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability
to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better.
Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people's later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that's been tied to risk of Alzheimer' s disease and smoking habits.
These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point--you don' t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.
The phrase "hot potato" in Para.1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A． a popular topic
B． a difficult situation
C． a heated discussion
D． a delicious dish

参考答案：B进入在线模考

译文
学校双语教学在政治上一直就是一个棘手的问题——它在1998年加州的投票表决中被废除，而现在参议院又在要求选民撤销这项决议。但是抛开政治不说，越来越多的科学实验证明学习至少两门语言是有好处的。
《神经病学年报》公布的一项新的研究发现，你甚至不需要在你很小的时候就学习第二(或第三或第四)外语：即使后来才开始学习一种新的语言也对老化的大脑的认知能力有很大好处。
近来的许多研究指出，学习两种语言对大脑是一种很好的锻炼，并且日后可能会延缓老年痴呆的发作。但是万一实验对象是被挑选过的特定的一类人呢?万一这些学习两种语言的人本身就很聪明呢?为了排除这些因素，苏格兰爱丁堡大学的实验人员研究了一组叫作洛锡安出生队列1936的853人，这些人曾在1947年进行了智力测试，那时他们只有11岁，之后在2008年到2010年左右，当他们到了70岁左右的时候，又进行了一次测试。
其中一共有262人学习过除了英语之外的至少一种语言。其中195人在18岁之前学的，65人在18岁之后。研究人员给参与者一个认知能力的测试，包括语言推理测试，词汇量和阅读能力测试，言语流畅性和快速处理信息能力的测试。他们发现双语学习者的基础认知能力表现得比预期好得多．尤其是在阅读和整体智力方面。而那些学习三种或三种以上语言的人表现得更好。
学习一门语言所起到的作用就和控制老年痴呆症和吸烟习惯的基因一样重要。
这些参与者大多数都是在ll岁之后才开始学习第二种语言的。研究结果令人信服——学习一门语言．你不必说得很流利，大脑也可以受益，并且，你完全可以晚一些再学习新的语言。
词汇解析
repeal    n．／v．废除；撤销
rule…out    排除
thereafter    adv．其后；从那时以后
a battery of    一连串的
解析
词汇题。短文第一段hot potato破折号后面的信息指出it was banned in California by a l998 ballot measure, Which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal．即它在1998年加州的投票表决中被废除．而现在参议院又在要求选民撤销这项决议。据此可推断，双语教学在政治上是个棘手的问题。故选项B正确。

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1According to Para.2, a new study finds that __________.

A． learning a new language can benefit a lot when you grow old
B． you have to learn a new language at a very young age
C． picking up a new language have few benefits later in life
D． picking up a new language can cause serious health problems

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2Researchers at the University of Edinburgh tested __________.

A． a self-selecting crowd
B． the smarter crowd
C． a group of people twice
D． people who once learned two languages

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3It can be concluded from the study that __________.

A． the bilingual speakers perform worse than those who only know one language
B． learning a language may have the risk of Alzheimer' s disease or smoking habits
C． people have to speak a new language fluently in order to gain some benefits
D． people can start to learn a new language later in life and still get the benefits

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