Question

【題目】Hey girls, if the boys in your class are acting silly, you might as well leave them alone. You are far more sensible than them, aren’t you?

There is science to back up this theory. Scientists from Newcastle University, UK, and Seoul University, South Korea, found that the brain matures (成熟) earlier in girls than in boys. This is partly because of the way children’s brains are “pruned.”

As the brain matures, it begins to cut out unimportant information and focus on important information. This process is called “pruning.”

In order to learn more about this process, scientists scanned the brains of 121 people aged between 4 and 40. They found that pruning began much earlier in girls. Between the ages of 10 and 12, a girl’s brain will start to see a lot of activities as the pruning process starts. But for boys, this doesn’t start until the age of 15 to 20.

During this process, the brain will turn off memories, sounds or sights that appear several times. But important connections, like linking the sound of a familiar person’s voice to their face, are kept.

“The loss of connectivity during brain development can help to improve brain function,” scientist Sol Lim told the Daily Telegraph.

To understand this more easily, imagine you are at a party and everyone is talking. You can’t concentrate. But if you “turn off” some of the voices, it is easier to hear the others. The brain works in a similar way.

【1】What did the scientists find?

A. Boys usually focus on unimportant information.

B. Girls never focus on unimportant information.

C. Girls mature earlier than boys.

D. Connectivity helps improve brain function.

【2】What does the underlined word “pruned”probably mean?

A. 刪減B. 成長C. 改變D. 損失

【3】What happens during the process “pruning”?

A. The brain doesn’t work for a moment.

B. You can’t remember, hear or see.

C. The connections between things disappear.

D. Brains develop to focus on important information.

【4】What can we know from the passage?

A. Boys are more silly than girls.

B. Boys are less sensible than girls.

C. You can never concentrate at the parties.

D. Brains function better after losing some connections.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】A

【3】D

【4】D

【解析】

這篇短文介紹的是，英國紐卡斯爾大學的科學家和韓國首爾大學的科學家們發(fā)現(xiàn)女生的大腦成熟比男生早。

【1】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第二段Scientists from Newcastle University, UK, and Seoul University, South Korea, found that the brain matures earlier in girls than in boys 可知，英國紐卡斯爾大學的科學家和韓國首爾大學的科學家們發(fā)現(xiàn)女生的大腦成熟比男生早，故應選C。

【2】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)第三段的內(nèi)容，As the brain matures, it begins to cut out unimportant information and focus on important information可以判斷出是大腦刪減信息，cut out與pruned意思相同，故應選A。

【3】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第五段the brain will turn off memories, sounds or sights. But important connections are kept可知并不是大腦停止運轉，所以選項ABC錯誤，選項D正確。

【4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)短文第六段“The loss of connectivity during brain development can help to improve brain function,” scientist Sol Lim told the Daily Telegraph.可知，在大腦發(fā)展期間失去一些聯(lián)系，有助于提高大腦的功能。由此可知應選D。

這是一篇科普說明文，短文中給我們介紹了科學家們的一個發(fā)現(xiàn)，即女孩大腦成熟比男孩早。短文主題明確，但文章中所涉及的話題對學生們比較難以理解。做題時，應先閱讀短文，掌握大意，并盡量獲得更多的信息；然后根據(jù)題目所問，鎖定文章相關段落或語句，結合選項作答。例如第2小題，這是一個猜詞題，短文第三段是對pruned這個詞的解釋，根據(jù)As the brain matures, it begins to cut out unimportant information and focus on important information可以判斷出是大腦刪減信息，cut out與pruned意思相同，故應選A。