四级选词填空历年真题

When Toni Morrison died in 2019， the world lost one of its most influential authors. But Morrison was not an early success. Her first novel was not published until she was 39， and her last appeared when she was 84. And Morrison was not 【26 】（） in this regard. Numerous writers produce masterpieces well into their 70s and beyond. Such 【27 】（） accomplishments highlight an important point. Our capacity to speak, write and learn new vocabulary does not seem to 【28 】（） with age. Our eyesight may dim and our recall may weaken, but, by comparison, our ability to produce and to【29 】（） language is well preserved into older adulthood.

Indeed, the latest research that has emerged on language and aging shows that language mastery is a 【30 】（） that we begin as infants and continue on for the rest of our lives. Some aspects of our language abilities, such as our knowledge of word meanings, 【31 】（） improve during middle and late adulthood. One study, for example, found that adults over sixty had an average vocabulary size of over 21,000 words. The researchers also studied a 【32 】（） of college students and found that their average vocabulary contained 【33 】（）16,000 words. In another study, older adults, with an average age of 75， 【34 】（） better than participants in their youth or middle years on tasks that required them to determine the meaning of words. Thus, language seems to be a skill that, contrary to what many might 【35 】（）， does not weaken with age.

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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 pattens, Kanold said.“We 【35】（） that it may have to do with what the mice are paying attention to while they are in the dark."