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  3. Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent ye

Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent ye

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问题     Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people.【B6】__________________
    This view of bilingualism  is remarkably different from  the  understanding of bilingualism  through much of the 20th century.【B7】____________________________
    They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other.【B8】_______________________
    Collective evidence from a number of studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function—a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind—like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.
    Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of
    cognition?【B9】___________________________________________
    But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.
    The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment.【B10】___________In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only per-formed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it,
    Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism—measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language—were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.
    [A]   Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, im-proving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
    [B]   "Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often," says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompea Fabra in Spain. "It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving."
    [C]   Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
    [D]   Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
    [E]  Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts.
    [F]  But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.
    [G]  These bilinguals seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles and their bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age.
【B9】
选项
答案E
解析 空格前是本段首句，提出问题：为什么两个语言系统同时活跃、相互争斗能改善认知能力呢?这个问句的作用是引出下文论述。再根据空格后的that explanation，可知空格处应为对上述提问的回答。空格后指出这种解释与研究发现的结果不符：双语者即使是在不需要用到抑制能力的任务中也表现得比单语者好。因此，空格处的内容应与双语者的抑制能力相关。E提到双语者的抑制能力(an ability for inhibition、suppression)，指出双语者通过不断抑制某种语言系统磨练出一种抑制能力，能够更有效地忽视其他语境中的干扰因素。这正好可以解释空格前的疑问，也与空格后所讲内容的逻辑吻合。另外，E指出这个解释是研究人员一直以来的想法(Until recently，researchers thought，)，过去时态的运用也说明该解释现在已经不足以说明问题，对应了空格后的that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate。故本题选E。
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