单选题 William Shakespeare described old age as "second childishness" — no teeth, no eyes, no taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, has been 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 Italy, shows that frontotemporal 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, a disease usually found with old people, 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 judgment.
Two of such patients intrigued 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 lawyer, 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 frontotemporai dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal- dementia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities are known. And in another case, 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 nervous system 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, there is no accounting for taste.

单选题 The writer quotes Shakespeare mainly to______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】分析推理题。短文一开始就引用莎翁的话语，说他将老年描述成“第二个童年”：没有牙齿、眼睛和味觉(taste)。我们通读下文后发现，短文主旨谈论的却是一种跟 taste(品位)相关的大脑疾病。根据篇章结构知识，我们不难推知作者引用莎翁话语的作用就是引入短文主旨，由此开始讨论这一疾病，因此本题答案就是[C]。其余各项都属于抓住原文中的词句进行的发挥，不是作者引用的目的。
单选题 The word "regression" in the first paragraph is best replaced by______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】词句理解题。本题理解的关键是该词后的部分，它补充解释了该词的意思：if not to infancy, then at least to a patient's teens(即便不到婴儿时期，至少也会到病人的十几岁时)，说明regression指的是一种“倒退，退化”，因此正确答案就是[A]。事实上，regression本身就是指“退化，衰退到不完美或较不发达的状态”。有些考生误选了[B]项，多是因为没有掌握好选项中inclination(倾向，爱好，倾斜)这个词。其余两项中，[C]指“快速发展”，[D]指“意料之外的恢复”。
单选题 After contracting frontotemporal dementia, the 68-year-old lawyer______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。对应的信息位于第四段第一句：…started listening to the Italian pop band“883”，即他患病前认为流行音乐“纯属噪音”，而患病后却开始听起了流行音乐。而在该段第二句又进一步说明：hecontinued to listen to the band at full volume for many hour a day(他每天都把音量开到最大．持续听该乐队的音乐数小时)。能概括这一情况的是[D]：他开始喜欢听响亮的意大利流行音乐。其余各项都与此不符。
单选题 Frontotemporal dementia is a disease______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。对应的信息位于第五段第二句：And other studies…gain new talents(其他的研究已经表明前颞痴呆症患者有时会获得新的才能)。该句前一段所举律师和主妇的例子、该句后补充列举的患例都是说明前颞痴呆症会让患者获得新的才能，因此本题答案就是[C]。其余各项都与原文不符：[A]项与第三段第三句中的Both had undamaged memories…一处不符；[B]项与第二段第一句中的因果关系相反； [D]与第五段第一句中…was not seen in anjyr of the Alzheimer's patlents一处不符。
单选题 Dr Frisoni attributed the patients' changing music taste to______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。对应的信息位于最后一段第四句：Alternatively，the damage…to appreciate certain kinds of music(这一损伤可能选择性地影响了某些特定的、用于欣赏某些音乐种类的神经系统)。其他各项均与原文不符：[A]指“人类的猎奇渴望”，只是抓住了原文中novel experiences一处进行发挥，它显然不是病人改变音乐品味的原因．[B]指“左侧大脑损伤”，它具有一定的迷惑性，但原文说的是(damage)to the latter,而latter指的则是前面所说的the left fontal lobe(左大脑前叶)，因此属于概念扩大；[C]指“由右大脑前页占主导转向左大脑前叶占主导”，则正好与最后一段第三句前半部分的意思相反。