Question

Hey girls, if the boys in your class are acting silly, you might as well leave them alone. You are far more sensible than them, aren’t you?

There is science to back up this theory. Scientists from Newcastle University, UK, and Seoul University, South Korea, found that the brain matures (成熟) earlier in girls than in boys. This is partly because of the way children’s brains are “pruned.”

As the brain matures, it begins to cut out unimportant information and focus on important information. This process is called “pruning.”

In order to learn more about this process, scientists scanned the brains of 121 people aged between 4 and 40. They found that pruning began much earlier in girls. Between the ages of 10 and 12, a girl’s brain will start to see a lot of activities as the pruning process starts. But for boys, this doesn’t start until the age of 15 to 20.

During this process, the brain will turn off memories, sounds or sights that appear several times. But important connections, like linking the sound of a familiar person’s voice to their face, are kept.

“The loss of connectivity during brain development can help to improve brain function,” scientist Sol Lim told the Daily Telegraph.

To understand this more easily, imagine you are at a party and everyone is talking. You can’t concentrate. But if you “turn off” some of the voices, it is easier to hear the others. The brain works in a similar way.

1.What did the scientists find?

A. Boys usually focus on unimportant information.

B. Girls never focus on unimportant information.

C. Girls mature earlier than boys.

D. Connectivity helps improve brain function.

2.What does the underlined word “pruned”probably mean?

A. 刪減 B. 成長 C. 改變 D. 損失

3.What happens during the process “pruning”?

A. The brain doesn’t work for a moment.

B. You can’t remember, hear or see.

C. The connections between things disappear.

D. Brains develop to focus on important information.

4.What can we know from the passage?

A. Boys are more silly than girls.

B. Boys are less sensible than girls.

C. You can never concentrate at the parties.

D. Brains function better after losing some connections.

Answer 1