Question

    It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-satisfaction. And that may set you up for poor choices in your self-care and finances.

A new study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology asked excellent endurance athletes to overtrain for three out of nine weeks, and compared them to a group who did a normal 9-week training program.

Not only did those overworked athletes perform worse on a cycling test at the end of the overtraining MRls(核磁共振) of their brains during behavioral tasks showed more exhaustion in the cognitive control part of the brain system. “Cognitive control in this situation is the capacity to maintain exercise despite things like muscle pain,” said study author Bastien Blain, a research associate at University College London. “And what we found is that there is an intelligence factor involved in exercising and it has a limited capacity. You cannot use it forever.”

In other words, your brain will burn out and affect your body’s ability to exercise. But that’s not all. Overworking that part of the brain also reduced the athletes’ abilities to resist temptation of an immediate reward, “For example, they were asked whether they preferred $10 now or $50 in six months,” Blain said. “And those who overtrained were more likely to choose the immediate reward, which is interesting. It could provide a mechanism to explain why some athletes are using drugs to improve their performance.”

One caution about the exercise study is that it only looked at endurance athletes, said. Dr. Marc-Andre Cornier, who is associate director of Colorado University’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. “This is potentially very important for the higher end athlete who is overdoing it,” Cormier said. “But does this have anything to do with the average Joe going to the gym? You can’t conclude that from this study.”

1.What does the underlined word “it” in the third paragraph refer to?

A.The brain system. B.A limited capacity.

C.An intelligence factor. D.The cognitive control.

2.Why did overworked athletes tend to choose the immediate reward?

A.Because they were too eager to succeed.

B.Because all parts of their brain burned out.

C.Because overtraining led to their bad decisions.

D.Because they took drugs to improve their performance.

3.What is the passage mainly about?

A.A study about self-satisfaction.

B.Negative effects of too much exercise.

C.The relation between brain and exercise.

D.Poor choices in people’s self care and finances.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A.There is a limit to the brain.

B.Higher end athletes have great potential.

C.Top athletes may suffer from overtraining.

D.Delaying self-satisfaction results in better performance.

Answer

1.C

2.C

3.C

4.C

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲述了一项新的调查研究：无论是身体上的还是精神上的锻炼，让你的大脑超负荷运转都会降低你延迟自我满足的能力。这可能会让你在自我照顾和财务方面做出糟糕的选择。

1.词义猜测题。根据划线代词所在句“it has a limited capacity”中it为主语，可以推知“it”应是前一句提及的物质名词，且前文内容“And what we found is that there is an intelligence factor involved in exercising(我们发现在运动中有一个智力因素)”可知，it应指本句中提及的“an intelligence factor involved in exercising”。故选C项。

2.细节理解题。根据第四段第1，2句In other words, your brain will burn out and affect your body’s ability to exercise. But that’s not all. Overworking that part of the brain also reduced the athletes’ abilities to resist temptation of an immediate reward(换句话说，你的大脑会消耗殆尽，影响你身体的运动能力。但这还不是全部。大脑的这部分过度训练也降低了运动员抵制即时奖励诱惑的能力)可知，大脑运动部分的过度使用会使运动员降低抵制即时奖励诱惑的能力，从而做出错误的决定。故选C项。

3.主旨大意题。通过阅读全文可知，文章结构为总分结构。因此第一段提出了本文的中心主旨：It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-satisfaction. And that may set you up for poor choices in your self-care and finances.(事实证明，无论是身体上的还是精神上的锻炼，让你的大脑超负荷运转都会降低你延迟自我满足的能力。这可能会让你在自我照顾和财务方面做出糟糕的选择。)可知，本文主要描述了过度运动与大脑决策之间的关系。C项The relation between brain and exercise.(大脑和运动的关系。)概括了主旨。故选C项。

4.推理判断题。根据文章末段内容One caution about the exercise study is that it only looked at endurance athletes，said Dr. Marc-Andre Cornier，who is associate director of Colorado University’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. “This is potentially very important for the higher end athlete who is overdoing it,”(关于运动研究的一个警告是，它只关注耐力运动员，马克-安德烈·科尼尔博士认为“这对过度训练的高端运动员来说可能非常重要”)可推知，高端运动员在进行过度训练。C项Top athletes may suffer from overtraining.(顶级运动员可能会遭受过度训练。)属于合理推理。故选C项。