Nobody likes stress. Not only can it cause sleepless nights and irritable days, we all suspect, at some level, that it can’t be

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问题     Nobody likes stress. Not only can it cause sleepless nights and irritable days, we all suspect, at some level, that it can’t be good for our health. Now we can add another reason to reduce the stress in our lives; It may impair our thinking when we’re older, adding tarnish to the luster of our golden years.
    A recent study in the journal Neurology concludes that people who experience chronic psychological distress, such as anxiety or depression, are up to 40 percent more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment(MCI)than people not prone to distress. What is MCI? Well, it’s not dementia, but it does represent a measurable decline in thinking ability and may affect more than 30 percent of the older population. It was found that psychological distress did not appear to correlate with age, education, or gender. But people with higher distress scores tended to have more depressive symptoms. And those who are prone to chronic distress have been shown to be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. They also are more likely to have their thinking decline at a faster rate.
    What this study doesn’t tell us is how chronic distress leads to the development of MCI. The authors of the study have some ideas: Perhaps being prone to chronic distress is one of the earliest signs of having MCI. I find this idea less than appealing, because it suggests that the horse is already out of the barn when it comes to chronic distress and the development of MCI. Fortunately, the authors believe there is a more likely explanation.
    Their leading theory is that stress has adverse effects on the parts of our brains that help us form and keep memories. They point out that there is evidence that stress has been shown to reduce our ability to form memories, and that severe stress—like post-traumatic stress disorder—may cause changes in the memory-forming parts of the brain. I find this a far more appealing theory, as it’s based on studies of how our brains work and gives us a chance to "turn things around" by dealing with chronic distress in a positive way.
    So for now, let’s focus on what we do know: that reducing the stress in our lives is good for lots of reasons. It’s good for our complexions, probably good for our hearts, and maybe even good for our brains.
It is suggested in Paragraph 4 that______.

选项 A、loss of memory can be attributed to stress
B、post-traumatic stress is a kind of brain disorder
C、severe stress may hinder memory forming
D、chronic distress has not been correctly dealt with

答案C

解析 推断题。本文第四段介绍了研究者关于压力与认知障碍联系的假说。根据本段第二句,研究已经显示压力会降低我们形成记忆的能力,并指出严重的压力可能会导致大脑记忆形成区域发生变化。由此可见,[C]符合原文,为本题答案。[A]是对第四段首句的过度推断,原文只是说,压力对记忆形成和保持的区域有不良影响,但并不能说记忆的丧失应该归因于压力。[B]曲解了原文关于创伤后压力症候群的表述,原文是说这种病症可能会引发脑部记忆区的变化,而并非说这种病症就是脑部疾病,故[B]排除。[D]也属于过度推断,原文最后一句说,只要对慢性心理烦恼进行适当干预,就有机会防止认知能力的衰退,但不能由此推断现在不能对心理烦恼进行恰当处理,故[D]错误。
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