問題詳情：
It’s a saying favored by grandparents, a comeback beloved enough to make an appearance on countless T-shirts, “I’ve forgotten more than you know.”
Now, a team of researchers has offered some support for the idea that the slowed-down recall we associate with getting older may sometimes be a side effect of a mind that’s filled with decades of information --- not a symptom of certain cognitive (認知的) decline. The findings are based on a series of computer simulations (模擬) of learning and memory, not tests of actual people.
The basic idea is that “the larger the library you have in your head, the longer it usually takes to find a particular word,” Benedict Carey says. The researchers propose that over time, you store more and more data in your mind, making recalling a needed item (條目) --- whether that’s a word, a name, or information to make a decision --- harder and slower as you get older.
But Michael Ramscar, a famous scientist, says computer simulations can only be trusted after years of testing on thousands of humans. “We not only found that a researcher’s choice of test can determine whether cognitive functioning appears to decline or improve with age, we also found that the results of the same cognitive test can suggest age-related declines or improvements.”
Patrick Rabbitt says even the study’s idea --- “that old brains contain more information than young brains”--- is unfounded. “It is also arguable because it requires an extra assumption that all the information that our brains ever process is permanently recorded and becomes progressively (漸進地) less accessible only because mental congestion (擁堵) increases,” he says, “those who have larger vocabularies and more knowledge of the world must be slower” “In fact,” Rabbitt writes, “the opposite is the case.”
12. The first paragraph serves as a(n) ______.
A. explanation B. introduction C. comment D. background
13. What does Benedict agree with?
A. We can store as much information in our mind as a big library does.
B. Remembering too much information slows down our decision-making process.
C. The information we store in our mind will reduce slowly as we grow old.
D. All the information in our mind is a mixture of names and words.
14. Ramscar considers the results of many cognitive tests ______.
A. completely wrong B. convincing C. controversial D. impressive
15. We can know from the last paragraph that Rabbitt think ______.
A. old brains have more data than young brains
B. people with large vocabularies are slower
C. the information in our brain is permanently stored
D. those who have more knowledge are quicker
【回答】
BBCD
知識點：日常生活類閲讀
題型：閲讀理解
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