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William Shakespeare described old age as "second childishness" - sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, have been even more perceptive than he realized. A paper in Neurology by Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues at the National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer's Disease in Brescia, Italy, shows that one form of senile dementia can affect musical desires in ways that suggest a regression, if not to infancy, then at least to a patient's teens.
Frontotemporal dementia is caused, as its name suggests, by damage to the front and sides of the brain. These regions are concerned with speech, and with such "higher" functions as abstract thinking and judgement. Frontotemporal damage therefore produces different symptoms from the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer's disease, a more familiar dementia that affects the hippocampus and amygdale in the middle of the brain. Frontotemporal dementia is also rarer than patients; it has seen only 46 with frontotemporal dementia.
Two of those patient interested Dr. Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia —— a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning.
About two years after he was first diagnosed the lawyers, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as "mere noise", started listening to the Italian pop band "883". As his command of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyer's love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in the past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her 11-year-old granddaughter was listening to.
This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimer's patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal-demetia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities known. And in another lapse of musical taste, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs.
Dr. Frisoni speculates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain's right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr. Frisoni puts it in his article, "de gustibus non disputandum est". Or, in plainer words, there is no accounting for taste.
11. For Shakespeare, old age as "second childishness" for they have the same .
[A] favorite
[B] memory
[C] experience
[D] sense
12. Which one is not a symptom of Frontotemporal dementia?
[A] the loss of memory
[B] the loss of judgement
[C] the loss of abstract thinking
[D] the loss of speech
13. From the two patients mentioned in the passage, it can be concluded that .
[A] their command of language has deteriorated
[B] their emotional attachments to friends and family are being lost
[C] the Frontotemporal dementia can bring new gifts
[D] Frontotemporal dementia can cause patients to change their musical tastes.
14. The "novel" in the last paragraph means .
[A] historical
[B] special
[C] story-like
[D] strange
15. From the passage, it can be inferred that .
[A] the damage of the left frontal lobe may affect some specific neural circuit
[B] the lawyer patient has the left frontal lobe damaged
[C] the damage of the left frontal lobe decreased the appreciation certain kinds of music
[D] every patient has the same taste
答案：D A D D B
題目分析
11．答案為D，屬推理判斷題。文章第一句"莎士比亞把老年人比作人生第二個(gè)幼年期"，緊接著后面"sans teech, sans eyes, sans taste"是補(bǔ)充說明的，sans不知道是什么意思，但可以推斷老人和嬰兒在牙齒、眼睛、味覺方面的特點(diǎn)就是在這些方面都不敏感，（sans是法語，意思是"沒有"）那么答案中"A愛好"、"B記憶"、"C經(jīng)歷"、"D感覺"，根據(jù)原文應(yīng)該是D，因牙齒、眼睛、味覺都和感官有關(guān)。
12．答案為A，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段腦周損傷癡呆顧名思義腦前和腦周受到破壞。它會(huì)影響語言表達(dá)能力、抽象思維能力和判斷能力，因此答案中只有"A喪失記憶"是文章沒有提到的。
13．答案為D，屬推理判斷題。文章第五段中提到"這種對(duì)音樂品味的變化在Alzheimer's病人中是看不到的。它好像是腦周癡呆病人特有的癥狀。"而且文中提到的這兩個(gè)人都是在愛好的音樂類型上發(fā)生了變化，所以答案中"A駕馭語言的能力衰退"、"B對(duì)朋友和家人的感情疏遠(yuǎn)"、"C腦周癡呆可能會(huì)對(duì)病人引發(fā)出新的興趣和天分"、"D癡呆可使病人在音樂品味上有變化"，答案D最為切合。雖然第五段也提到了這種病可以讓人產(chǎn)生新的天分，但是其他的研究所發(fā)現(xiàn)的。
14．答案為D，屬猜詞題。最后一段Frisoni論述到疾病使人對(duì)新鮮事物產(chǎn)生興趣"Apredominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience."答案"A歷史的"、"B特別的"、"C特殊的、故事般的"、"D新奇的、稀奇的"，這四個(gè)答案中D最為符合。
15．答案為B，屬推理判斷題。文章最后一段解釋了為什么病人會(huì)對(duì)一些新奇的經(jīng)驗(yàn)有新的態(tài)度。"Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain's right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music.""研究表明，大腦的右前體控制人追求稀奇事務(wù)的作為。一旦左前體受損，右前腦體作用突出，隨即引發(fā)人對(duì)新事物的興趣�；蛘哒f，這種損傷會(huì)影響用來欣賞某種音樂的特殊神經(jīng)電路。"答案A"左半腦體受損影響一些特殊神經(jīng)電路"，根據(jù)文章有兩種可能，這一點(diǎn)不能確定；答案B"那位律師病人的左前腦體受損了"，律師對(duì)音樂的喜好發(fā)生了變化，這證明了是左前腦體受損了；答案C"左半腦體受損能減少對(duì)音樂的喜好"，文中只提到會(huì)影響，至于是增加還是減少對(duì)音樂的喜還就不一定了；答案D"每個(gè)病人有不同樣的品味"，從文章最后一句可以看出，每個(gè)人品味是不同的。
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