Question

B

What happens inside the skull of a soccer player when repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.

For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.

Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.

According to the data they presented at Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.

This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.

The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.

1.The passage is most probably a ________.

A．news report                           B．research report

C．story for soccer players                   D．text for doctors

2. In which way can researchers find the structural changes in the brain?

A．Computerized test                       B．Questionnaire

C．Scanning                              D．M.R.I. technique

3. From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have ________.

A．significant effect on brain                 B．little effect on one’s brain

C．nothing to do with the brain injury           D．one’s memory improved

4.What is likely to be the cause of memory loss?

A．Playing soccer frequently                 B．Tests of their memory

C．White matter loss                       D．Information processing

5.The underlined word “fumbling” is closest in meaning to ________?

A．remembering      B．misunderstanding   C．recalling          D．missing

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.A

4.C

5.D

【解析】

试题分析：本文关于顶足球对青少年大脑的影响的科普文章，作者简要描述了一些研究数据分析结果，得出结论，一年顶球超过 1100 次以上会对大脑结构有影响。

1.B。考查推理判断能力。要根据文章第一段的最后一句话That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.

和第二段来分析理解。

2.D。考查细节理解能力。根据文章第三段Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.和其他内容的理解。

3.A。考查推理判断能力。根据全文内容的简单推理。

4.C。考查细节理解能力。根据倒数第三段According to the data they presented at Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.的理解。

5.D。考查猜测词义的能力。根据文章最后一段The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.本句出现的关键词 forgetting 和句义内容等整体把握。

考点：考查科普类短文阅读