1、智課網(wǎng)托福備考資料匕d 新托?？荚囬喿x練習(xí)：人會(huì)越老越聰明在大家的固有觀念中，人隨著年齡的增長會(huì)越來越糊涂。因此老人家的健忘和反應(yīng)遲緩也被視為理所當(dāng)然。但在我們今天的托福考試閱讀練習(xí)中卻要為老人們平 反。Ever traip sed to the shops only to find once there you've comp letely forgotte n what you went for? Or struggled to remember the n ame of an old acqua intan ce? For years we've acce pted th

2、at a scatty brain is as much a part of age ing as wrin kles and grey hair.But now a new book suggests we've got it all wrong.走到商店卻忘記要買什么了 ？老熟人的名字怎么都想不起來？數(shù)年來我們以為腦功能下降和皺紋叢生、頭發(fā)花白一樣，是人類老去現(xiàn)象的組成部分，然而日前一部新 書告訴我們一切都不是那么回事。Accord ing to the Secret Life Of The Grow n-up Brai n, by scie nee writer BarbaraS

3、trauch, whe n it comes to the imp orta nt stuff, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that a raft of new studies have found that our brain hits its p eak betwee n our 40s and 60s-much later tha n p reviously thought.科學(xué)作家芭芭拉在其新書成熟大腦的秘密生活中寫道，在重大事情處理方 面，我們的大腦隨年齡變得更聰明。她稱實(shí)際上已經(jīng)有一系列

4、研究發(fā)現(xiàn)人類腦功能 在40歲到60歲時(shí)達(dá)到巔峰狀態(tài)一一遠(yuǎn)比我們?cè)?jīng)認(rèn)為的要晚。Furthermore, rather tha n losi ng many brain cells as we age, we retain them, and eve n gen erate new ones well into middle age. For years it's bee n assumed that the brain, much like the body, decli nes with age. But the Ion gest, largest study into what h

5、appens to people as they age suggests otherwise.而且,隨著年齡增大，我們并不會(huì)損失腦細(xì)胞，相反，我們會(huì)保留它們甚至在中年階 段產(chǎn)生出新的腦細(xì)胞。數(shù)年來人們以為大腦和身體一樣會(huì)隨著年齡退化。然而一項(xiàng) 關(guān)于年齡和功能的規(guī)模最大時(shí)間也最長的研究表明 ，事實(shí)并不是這樣。This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testi ng them every seve n years. It has found that, on average, p artic ipants p

6、erformed better on cog nitive tests in their late 40s and 50s tha n they had in their 20s.該研究自1956年起跟蹤調(diào)查了 6000名受試者,每隔七年對(duì)他們進(jìn)行一次測試。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，在認(rèn)知測試中的表現(xiàn)方面，平均而言受試者在40歲末以及50歲末比 他們?cè)?0多歲時(shí)表現(xiàn)要好。Sp ecifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, sp atial orie ntati on skills (imag ining what an object w

7、ould look like if it were rotated 180 degrees, verbal memory (how many words you can remember and p roblem sol ving.具體來說,年長者在這幾方面表現(xiàn)更好：詞匯量測試、空間方向技能（將物體旋轉(zhuǎn)180度，看該物體像什么，詞匯記憶（能記住多少個(gè)單詞以及問題解決能力。Where they fared less well was nu mber ability (how quickly you can multi ply, add, subtract and divide and p erc

8、e ptual sp eed-how fast you can p ush a butt on whe n promp ted.However, with more complex tasks such as p roblem-solvi ng and Ian guage, we are at our best at middle age and bey ond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scie ntific proof of that we do get wiser with age.年長者表現(xiàn)不太好的方面則是：（數(shù)字能力加

9、減乘除運(yùn)算的速度以及感知速度聽到指令按下按鈕的速度。盡管如此，在處理復(fù)雜任務(wù)例如問題解決以及語言方面，我們?cè)谥心晟踔聊昙o(jì)更大時(shí)表現(xiàn)最佳。一言概之，研究人員正在以科學(xué)證據(jù)證明：我們?cè)谧兝?，但同時(shí)也變得更力卩智慧。Neuroscie ntists are also finding that we are happ ier with age.A rece nt US study found older people were much better at con trolli ng and bala ncing their emoti ons.此外，神經(jīng)學(xué)家還發(fā)現(xiàn)人們?cè)嚼显娇鞓贰Ｃ绹罱囊豁?xiàng)研究表

10、明，年長者能夠更好地控制和平衡情緒。It is thought that whe n we're youn ger we n eed to focus more on the n egative asp ects of life in order to lear n about the p ossible dan gers in the world, but as we get older we've learnt our less ons and are subc on sciously aware that we have less time left in life-a nd it therefore becomes more imp orta nt for