2020考研英語閱讀理解模擬自測題Text 3

Text 3

William Shakespeare described old age as “second childishness”—sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, have been even more perceptive than he realized. A paper in Neurology by Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues at the National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer’s Disease in Brescia, Italy, shows that one form of senile dementia can affect musical desires in ways that suggest a regression, if not to infancy, then at least to a patient’s teens.

Frontotemporal dementia is caused, as its name suggests, by damage to the front and sides of the brain. These regions are concerned with speech, and with such “higher” functions as abstract thinking and judgment. Frontotemporal damage therefore produces different symptoms from the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a more familiar dementia that affects the hippocampus and amygdala in the middle of the brain. Frontotemporal dementia is also rarer than Alzheimer’s. In the past five years the centre in Brescia has treated some 1,500 Alzheimer’s patients; it has seen only 46 with frontotemporal dementia.

Two of those patients interested Dr Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia—a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning.

About two years after he was first diagnosed the lawyer, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as “mere noise”, started listening to the Italian pop band “883”. As his command of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyer’s love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in the past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her 11-year-old granddaughter was listening to.

This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimer’s patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal-dementia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities are known. And in another lapse of musical taste, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs.

Dr Frisoni speculates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain’s right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr Frisoni puts it in his article, “de gustibus non disputandum est.” Or, in plainer words, there is no accounting for taste.

11. Shakespeare described old age as “second childishness”（Line 1, Paragraph 1）, for they have the same ______.

A) favorite

B) memory

C) experience

D) sense

12. Which one is NOT a symptom of Frontotemporal dementia?

A) The loss of memory.

B) The loss of judgment.

C) The loss of abstract thinking.

D) The loss of speech.

13. From the two patients mentioned in the passage, it can be concluded that ______.

A) their command of language has deteriorated

B) their emotional attachments to friends and family are being lost

C) the Frontotemporal dementia can bring new gifts

D) Frontotemporal dementia can cause patients to change their musical tastes

14. The “novel” in the last paragraph means ______.

A) historical

B) special

C) story-like

D) strange

15. From the passage, it can be inferred that ______.

A) the damage of the left frontal lobe may affect some specific neural circuit

B) the lawyer patient has the left frontal lobe damaged

C) the damage of the left frontal lobe decreased the appreciation certain kinds of music

D) every patient has the same taste

題目分析

11. D 細節(jié)題。文章第一句“莎士比亞把老年人比作人生第二個幼年期”，緊接著后面“sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste”是補充說明，sans不知道是什么意思，但可以推斷老人和嬰兒在牙齒、眼睛、味覺方面的特點，即在這些方面都不敏感（sans是法語，意思是“沒有”），那么A（愛好）、B（記憶）、C（經(jīng)歷）、D（感覺）中，符合原文的應該是D，因為牙齒、眼睛、味覺都和感官有關(guān)。

12. A 細節(jié)題。文章第二段提到腦周損傷癡呆，顧名思義，腦周受到破壞后會影響語言表達能力、抽象思維能力和判斷能力，因此答案中只有A“喪失記憶”是文章沒有提到的。

13. D 推理題。文章第五段中提到“這種音樂品味的變化在Alzheimer’s病人中是看不到的。它好像是腦周癡呆病人特有的癥狀?！倍椅闹刑岬降倪@兩個人都是在愛好的音樂類型上發(fā)生了變化，所以答案A（駕馭語言的能力衰退）、B（對朋友和家人的感情疏遠）、C（腦周癡呆可能會引發(fā)出新的興趣和天分）、D（癡呆可使病人在音樂品味上發(fā)生變化）中，D最為適合。雖然第五段也提到了這種病可以讓人產(chǎn)生新的天分，但這是其他的研究所發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

14. D 語義題。最后一段Frisoni論述到疾病使人對新鮮事物產(chǎn)生興趣“A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience.”A（歷史的）、B（特別的）、C（特殊的，故事般的）、D（新奇的，稀奇的），這四個答案中，D最為符合。

15. B 推理題。文章最后一段解釋了為什么病人會對一些新奇的經(jīng)驗有新的態(tài)度。“Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain’s right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music.”“研究表明，大腦的右前體控制人追求稀奇事務的行為。一旦左前體受損，右前腦體作用突出，隨即引發(fā)人對新事物的興趣?；蛘哒f，這種損傷會影響用來欣賞某種音樂的特殊神經(jīng)電路?！盇“左半腦體受損影響一些特殊神經(jīng)電路”，根據(jù)文章，這種損傷能導致兩種結(jié)果，不一定會影響神經(jīng)電路；B“那位律師病人的左前腦體受損了”，律師對音樂的喜好發(fā)生了變化，這證明是左前腦體受損了；C“左半腦體受損能減少對音樂的喜好”，文中僅提到會影響，至于是增加還是減少對音樂的喜好就不一定了；D“每個病人有同樣的品位”，從文章最后一句可以看出，每個人的品位是不同的。