阅读理解。
Canadian scientists have found a method to help aging people get less forgetful by improving their
cognitive (认知) abilities through well-designed training. Everyone experiences some degree of memory
loss and cognitive decline as they get older. The decline usually becomes noticeable after 50, when
people may find it slightly more difficult to focus on tasks, organize everyday jobs and remember how
to do things in the right order.
A team of psychologists (心理学家) in Toronto created a strategy (策略) of cognitive training to help
people preserve these abilities."Our primary emphasis was on improving the use of general strategic abilities
because they are particularly weak to the aging process," Dr. Donald Stuss, director of the study, said in
a press release. The team examined 49 healthy older adults with normal cognitive decline. All of the
participants were between the ages of 71 and 87. Over the course of 12 weeks, psychologists taught them
methods to improve their strategic abilities. Afterwards, researchers saw a 15 to 40 percent improvement
in the memories of all participants."Over a period of six months their improvement not only maintained, but
increased," said Dr. Gordon Winocur, coordinator of the study.
The 12-week course was broken up into three four-week sections, focusing on a different skill involved
in strategic abilities: memory, goal management and psychosocial function.
The memory training emphasized how to preserve and recover information, while goal management
focused on methods to lower the chance of memory slips. Psychosocial training was aimed at increasing
the participants' confidence in their mental abilities.
"We wanted to develop a cognitive training program that would produce improvement over a relatively
short period of time, so participants could benefit more on that while they're still functional and slow down
the rate of decline," said Winocur. "If we can work with people in the early stages of cognitive decline, then
we can slow down the rate of this decline and help them maintain a higher level of function for a longer period
of time."
1. What can be a suitable title for the passage?
A. Canadian scientists help aging people preserve memory.
B. A new way to develop a good memory.
C. Cognitive abilities are essential to memory.
D. Say no to the memory decline.
2. According to the psychologists, what causes the bad memory when a man becomes old?
A. Forgetfulness.
B. Psychosocial function.
C. General strategic abilities.
D. Goal management.
3. The underlined word "maintained" means"_____".
A. weakened
B. kept
C. changed
D. improved
4. How many strategic abilities do the psychologists mainly focus on?
A. Two.
B. Three.
C. Four.
D. Five.
5. From what Winocur said in the last paragraph, we can learn that ________.
A. the cognitive training program has been proved successful
B. the training can prevent one's memory from declining
C. the earlier they begin the training, the better the result will be
D. Winocur aims to help aging people suffer less from memory loss and cognitive decline
