Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Scientists have known that depriving adult mice of vision can increase the sensitivity of individual neurons (神经元) in the part of the brain devoted to hearing. New research from biologists at the University of Maryland 26 that sight deprivation also changes the way brain cells 27 with one another, shifting the mice’s sensitivity to different frequencies.
“This study 28 what we are learning about how manipulating vision can have a 29 effect on the ability of an animal to hear long after the window for auditory (听觉的) learning was thought to have 30 ,” said Patrick Kanold, senior author of the study.
It was once thought that the sensory regions of the brain were not 31 after a critical period in childhood. This is why children learn languages much more 32 than adults. Kanold’s earlier research disproved this idea by showing that depriving adult mice of vision for a short period increased the sensitivity of individual neurons in the auditory cortex (皮质), which is devoted to hearing.
Young brains wire themselves according to the sounds they hear frequently, assigning areas of the auditory cortex to 33 frequencies based on what they are used to hearing. The researchers found that, in adult mice, a week in the dark also changed the 34 of space to different frequencies.
“We don’t know why we are seeing these patterns,” Kanold said. “We 35 that it may have to do with what the mice are paying attention to while they are in the dark.”
A) adaptable B) closed C) distribution D) interact E) narration F) neutral G) permanently H) prescribes I) readily J) registered K) reinforces L) revealed M) significant N) specific O) speculate
