2023年12月六级第3套长篇阅读匹配原文翻译及答案

A) You may have heard that learning another language is one method for preventing or at least postponing the onset of dementia. Dementia refers to the loss of cognitive abilities, and one of its most common forms is Alzheimers disease (阿尔茨海默氏病). At this time, the causes of the disease are not well understood, and consequently, there are no proven steps that people can take to prevent it. Nonetheless, some researchers have suggested that learning a foreign language might help delay the onset of dementia.

你可能听说过，学习另一种语言是预防或至少推迟痴呆症发作的一种方法。痴呆症指的是认知能力的丧失，其最常见形式之一是阿尔茨海默病（阿尔茨海默氏病）。目前，该病的病因尚不明确，因此没有已证实的预防步骤。尽管如此，一些研究者认为学习外语可能有助于延迟痴呆症的发作。

B) To explore this possibility more deeply, let's look at some of the common misconceptions about dementia and the aging brain. First of all, dementia is not an inevitable part of the normal aging process. Most older adults do not develop Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. It is also important to remember that dementia is not the same thing as normal forgetfulness. At any age, we might experience difficulty finding the exact word we want or have trouble remembering the name of the person we just met. People with dementia have more serious problems, like feeling confused or getting lost in a familiar place. Think of it this way: If you forget where you parked your car at the mall, that's normal; if you forget how to drive a car, that may be a signal that something more serious is going on.

为了更深入地探讨这种可能性，让我们看看关于痴呆症和衰老大脑的一些常见误解。首先，痴呆症不是正常衰老过程的必然部分。大多数老年人不会患上阿尔茨海默病或其他形式的痴呆症。同样重要的是要记住，痴呆症与正常的健忘不同。在任何年龄，我们都可能遇到找不到确切词汇或记不住刚见面的人的名字的困难。痴呆症患者有更严重的问题，比如感到困惑或在熟悉的地方迷路。这样想：如果你在购物中心忘记车停在哪里，那是正常的；如果你忘记如何开车，那可能是更严重问题的信号。

C) The idea that dementia can be prevented is based on the comparison of the brain to a muscle. When people talk about the brain, they sometimes say things like "It is important to exercise your brain" or "To stay mentally fit, you have to give your brain a workout." Although these are colorful analogies, in reality the brain is not a muscle. Unlike muscles, the brain is always active and works even during periods of rest and sleep. In addition, although some muscle cells have a lifespan of only a few days, brain cells last a lifetime. Not only that, but it has been shown that new brain cells are being created throughout one's lifespan.

痴呆症可以预防的想法基于将大脑比作肌肉。当人们谈论大脑时，他们有时会说“锻炼大脑很重要”或“为了保持心理健康，你必须让大脑锻炼”。尽管这些是生动的类比，但现实中大脑不是肌肉。与肌肉不同，大脑始终活跃，即使在休息和睡眠期间也在工作。此外，尽管一些肌肉细胞只有几天的寿命，但脑细胞持续一生。不仅如此，研究表明，在人的一生中，新的脑细胞一直在被创建。

D) While it makes for a colorful analogy, comparing the brain to a muscle is inaccurate and misleading. So, if the brain is not a muscle, can it still be exercised? Once again, researchers don't know for sure. There are now many computer, online, and mobile device applications that claim to be able to "train your brain," and they typically tap into a variety of cognitive abilities. However, research suggests that although this type of training may improve one's abilities at the tasks themselves, they don't seem to improve other abilities. In other words, practicing a letter-detection task will, over time, improve your letter-detection skills, but it will not necessarily enhance your other perceptual abilities.

虽然这是一个生动的类比，但将大脑比作肌肉是不准确和误导的。那么，如果大脑不是肌肉，它还能被锻炼吗？再次强调，研究人员尚不确定。现在有许多计算机、在线和移动设备应用程序声称能够“训练你的大脑”，它们通常涉及各种认知能力。然而，研究表明，尽管这种训练可能提高任务本身的能力，但似乎不能提高其他能力。换句话说，练习字母检测任务会随着时间的推移提高你的字母检测技能，但不一定能增强你的其他感知能力。

E) However, there is some reason to believe that learning languages might be different. The best evidence that foreign language learning confers cognitive benefits comes from research with those who are already bilingual (双语的). Bilingualism most commonly occurs when children are exposed to two languages, either in the home(mom speaks Dutch, dad speaks Spanish) or more formally in early schooling. But bilingualism certainly occurs in adulthood as well.

然而，有一些理由相信学习语言可能不同。外语学习能带来认知益处的最好证据来自对那些已经是双语者的研究。双语现象最常见于儿童在家庭中接触两种语言（母亲说荷兰语，父亲说西班牙语），或更正式地在早期学校教育中。但双语现象当然也发生在成年期。

F) Bilingualism and multilingualism are actually more common than you might think. In fact, it has been estimated that there are fewer monolingual speakers in the world than bilinguals and multilinguals. Although in many countries most inhabitants share just one language, other countries have several official languages. Switzerland, for example, has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Throughout large parts of Africa, Arabic, Swahili, French, and English are often known and used by individuals who speak a different, native language in their home than they do in the marketplace. So bilingualism and multilingualism are to be found throughout the world. And with regard to cognitive abilities, the research on those who speak more than one language paints an encouraging picture.

双语和多语现象实际上比你想象的更常见。事实上，据估计，世界上单语者比双语者和多语者少。尽管在许多国家，大多数居民只共享一种语言，但其他国家有几种官方语言。例如，瑞士有四种官方语言：德语、法语、意大利语和罗曼什语。在非洲的大部分地区，阿拉伯语、斯瓦希里语、法语和英语经常被那些在家说不同于市场的本地语言的人所了解和使用。因此，双语和多语现象在全世界都能找到。关于认知能力，对那些说多种语言的研究描绘了一幅令人鼓舞的图景。

G) For one thing, bilinguals are better at multitasking. One explanation of this superiority is that speakers of two languages are continually inhibiting one of their languages, and this process of inhibition confers general cognitive benefits to other activities. In fact, bilingual individuals outperform their monolingual counterparts on a variety of cognitive tasks, such as following complex instructions, and switching to new instructions. For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the advantages of being bilingual are not universal across all cognitive domains. Bilingual individuals have been shown to have smaller vocabularies and to take longer in retrieving words from memory when compared to monolinguals. In the long run, however, the cognitive and linguistic advantages of being bilingual far outweigh these two drawbacks.

首先，双语者更擅长多任务处理。这种优越性的一种解释是，双语者持续抑制其中一种语言，而这种抑制过程为其他活动带来了普遍的认知益处。事实上，双语个体在各种认知任务上表现优于单语对手，如遵循复杂指令和切换到新指令。为了完整起见，应该注意双语的优势并非在所有认知领域都普遍。研究表明，与单语者相比，双语个体词汇量较小，从记忆中检索单词的时间更长。然而，从长远来看，双语的认知和语言优势远远超过这两个缺点。

H) If the benefits of being bilingual spill over to other aspects of cognition, then we would expect to see a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease in bilinguals than in monolinguals, or at least a later onset of Alzheimer's for bilinguals. In fact, there is evidence to support this claim. The psychologist Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues obtained the histories of 184 individuals who had made use of a memory clinic in Toronto. For those who showed signs of dementia, the monolinguals in the sample had an average age of 71.4 years at time of onset. The bilinguals, in contrast, received their diagnosis at 75.5 years, on average. In a study of this sort, a difference of four years is highly significant, and could not be explained by other systematic differences between the two groups. For example, the monolinguals reported, on average, a year and a half more schooling than their bilingual counterparts, so the effect was clearly not due to formal education.

如果双语的优势溢出到认知的其他方面，那么我们期望看到双语者中阿尔茨海默病的发病率低于单语者，或者至少双语者的阿尔茨海默病发作较晚。事实上，有证据支持这一主张。心理学家Ellen Bialystok和她的同事获取了184位使用多伦多记忆诊所的个人历史。对于那些表现出痴呆症状的人，样本中的单语者在发病时的平均年龄为71.4岁。相比之下，双语者平均在75.5岁时得到诊断。在这种研究中，四年的差异具有高度显著性，不能用两组之间的其他系统差异来解释。例如，单语者报告的平均教育年限比双语对手多一年半，所以效果显然不是由于正规教育。

I) A separate study, conducted in India, found strikingly similar results: bilingual patients developed symptoms of dementia 4.5 years later than monolinguals, even after other potential factors, such as gender and occupation, were controlled for. In addition, researchers have reported other positive effects of bilingualism for cognitive abilities in later life, even when the person acquired the language in adulthood. Crucially, Bialystok suggested that the positive benefits of being bilingual were only found in those who used both languages all the time.

在印度进行的另一项研究发现了惊人的相似结果：双语患者比单语者晚4.5年出现痴呆症状，即使在控制了其他潜在因素如性别和职业之后。此外，研究人员报告了双语对晚年认知能力的其他积极影响，即使该语言是在成年期习得的。关键的是，Bialystok提出，双语的积极益处只在那些一直使用两种语言的人中发现。

J) But encouraging as these kinds of studies are, they still have not established exactly how or why differences between bilinguals and monolinguals exist. Because these studies looked back at the histories of people who were already bilingual, the results can only say that a difference between the two groups was found, but not why that difference occurred. Further research is needed to determine what caused the differences in age of onset between the two groups.

尽管这类研究令人鼓舞，但它们尚未确切确立双语者和单语者之间差异的存在方式或原因。因为这些研究回顾了已经是双语者的历史，结果只能说发现了两组之间的差异，但不能说为什么发生这种差异。需要进一步研究来确定导致两组之间发病年龄差异的原因。

K) Other studies of successful aging suggest that being connected to one's community and having plenty of social interaction is also important in delaying or even preventing the onset of dementia. Once again, however, the results are far less clear than the popular media might lead you to believe. Older individuals who lead active social lives are, almost by definition, healthier than their counterparts who rarely leave their homes or interact with others. So we can't really say whether being socially active prevents the onset of dementia, or if people who don't have dementia are more likely to be socially active.

其他关于成功老龄化的研究表明，与社区保持联系并拥有丰富的社交互动在延迟甚至预防痴呆症发作方面也很重要。然而，再次强调，结果远不如大众媒体可能让你相信的那么清晰。几乎根据定义，拥有活跃社交生活的老年人比很少离家或与他人互动的对应者更健康。所以我们不能真正说社交活跃是否能预防痴呆症的发作，还是没有痴呆症的人更可能社交活跃。

L) But even if studying a foreign language is not a magical cure-all, there is one thing it will do: It will make you a better speaker of a foreign language. Doing that confers a whole host of advantages we do know about.

但即使学习外语不是神奇的万能药，有一件事它会做到：它会让你成为更好的外语使用者。这样做会带来一系列我们确实知道的好处。