Question

Researchers in the 1960s found bilingual（雙語的）people scored higher on intelligence （智力）tests than monolinguals—people who speak only one language. The latest studies show that being bilingual does not necessarily make people cleverer, but it probably does make you better at certain skills.

Imagine driving down the highway. There are many things that could attract your attention and you really need to be able to watch all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?

The answer is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention—a function（功能）called the executive control system. It’s quite possibly the most important system we have because it’s where all of your decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore（忽視），what to process are made.

The best method to measure（測(cè)量）the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. Suppose you would have the word blue written in red but you have to say the colour red. But “blue” is so eye-catching, and you really want to say “blue”. You need to ignore it so that you can say the colour red. That’s the Stroop Test.

Bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to ignore one to be able to speak in the other. This exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are more likely to have trends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing Alzheimer’s disease.

1.What did the recent research find about bilingual people?

A. They can safely drive their cars.

B. They can well manage their attention.

C. They can have a better control of imagination.

D. They can easily pick out the colours they want.

2.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. Red. B. Blue. C. Test. D. System.

3.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Bilingualism may do harm to people’s health.

B. Bilingualism helps children make more foreign friends.

C. People must practice speaking two languages continually.

D. People use more active words from their mother languages.

4.What might be the best title for the text?

A. How does the Stroop Test work?

B. What is executive control system?

C. Are monolingual people smarter?

D. Are bilingual people better at some skills?

Answer 1