Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men’s minds decline more than women’s, according to the results of a worldwide survey. Certain differences seem to be inherent in male and female brains: Men are better at maintaining and dealing with mental images (useful in mathematical reasoning and spatial skills), while women tend to excel at recalling information from their brain’s files (helpful with language skills and remembering the locations of objects).

　　Many studies have looked for a connection between sex and the amount of mental decline people experience as they age, but the results have been mixed.

　　Some studies found more age-related decline in men than in women, while others saw the opposite or even no relationship at all between sex and mental decline. Those results could be improper because the studies involved older people, and women live longer than men. The men tested are the survivors, “so they’re the ones that may not have shown such cognitive decline,” said study team leader Elizabeth of the University of Warwick in England.

　　People surveyed completed four tasks that tested sex-related cognitive skills: matching an object to its rotated form, matching lines shown from the same angle, typing as many words in a particular category as possible in the given time, e.g. “objects usually colored gray”, and recalling the location of objects in a line drawing. The first two were tasks at which men usually excel; the latter are typically dominated by women.

　　Within each age group studied, men and women performed better in their separate categories on average. And though performance declined with age for both genders, women showed obviously less decline than men overall.

　　1.The underlined word in the first paragraph means .

　　A. natural

　　B. great

　　C. obvious

　　D. absolute

　　2.According to the passage, which of the following can NOT be typed into the same category?

　　A. Cloud.

　　B. Sheep.

　　C. Trees.

　　D. Goose.

　　3.Which of the following statements is true according the article?

　　A. Men do better than women when it comes to learning English.

　　B. Women stand out at remembering people’s names.

　　C. Men excel at typing as many words in a particular category as possible in the given time.

　　D. Women excel at dealing with mathematical problems.

　　4.One important factor that affects the correctness of the results is that .

　　A. the old men tested may not have shown such cognitive decline

　　B. people surveyed are all old

　　C. people taking part in this test came from all over the world

　　D. women live longer than men

　　5.The author aims to tell us that .

　　A. women’s minds perform better than men’s

　　B. men’s minds decline more with age

　　C. everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older

　　D. a survey on humans’ mind decline was done recently

　　参考答案

　　1.

　　[考点]词语理解题

　　【精析】A 根据第一段第二句中的“in male and female brains”可推知，男女大脑的思维在某些方面的差异是天生的。inherent意为“固有的，天生的”，A项natural与之意义最接近。great:伟大的;obvious:明显的;absolute:绝对的。故选A。

　　2.

　　[考点]推理判断题

　　【精析】C cloud(云)， sheep(羊)和goose(鹅)都是属于白色系的，而tree(树)是绿色的，与其他三项不属于同一色系。故选C。

　　3.

　　[考点]推理判断题

　　【精析】B 根据第一段最后一句“…Men are better at maintaining and dealing with mental images (useful in mathematical reasoning and spatial skills), while women tend to excel at recalling information from their brain’s files (helpful with language skills and remembering the locations of objects).”可推知，男性在数学推理和空间思维方面占优势，女性在提取大脑中储存的记忆信息方面占优势。由此可推知，在记人名方面，女性表现更突出。故选B。

　　4.

　　[考点]事实细节题

　　【精析】A 根据第三段第二、三句“Those results could be improper because the studies involved older people…they’re the ones that may not have shown such cognitive decline…”可知，女性通常比男性更长寿，接受调查的是那些比同性更长寿的男性，他们可能还没有出现认知衰退的迹象，因此会影响调查的准确性。故选A。

　　5.

　　[考点]主旨大意题

　　【精析】B 文章首段首句指出随着年龄增长，男性的大脑比女性衰退得更多，随后又举例说明男性和女性均有各自擅长的领域，最后再次指明从整体看，随着年龄增长，男性大脑更容易衰退。故选B。

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