企源知识库

Read the following passage and choose the most likely answer to each of the following questions.

    Teens and young adults often turn up the volume on their iPods or smartphones or stand near the speakers at concerts or nightclubs, all in the name of having a good time. Even if they realize this could be damaging to their hearing, what neither they nor their parents know is that this kind of behavior could be altering their brain function for life. A study in a 2018 issue of the journal eNeuro found that young adults with subtle hearing loss——a deficit that's so slight that they're not even aware of it (they reported they had normal hearing)——are placing demands on their brains that don't normally occur until later in life.
    In the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (磁共振成像扫描) to monitor brain activity, while healthy men and women listened to various sentences that varied in their complexity and the demands required to process and understand them. Before performing the scans, the researchers tested the participants' hearing ability and found that some of them had subtle hearing deficits, but were still clinically in the normal range.
    What the researchers found is that listeners with poorer hearing had activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, which was surprising because usually the left hemisphere of the brain is completely responsible for regulating and managing speech and language comprehension. And the altered brain function was still the same no matter how simple or complex the sentence structure was.
    The good news is that the brain is an amazingly plastic organ, meaning it has the ability to change and adapt throughout life, explains Yune Lee, an assistant professor of chronic brain injury at Ohio State University. As people age, they begin to use more of their right frontal brain to process language, but "we don't usually see that in younger people," Lee explains. "That is worrisome because they start using up these resources too early in life. It's like withdrawing money from a retirement account too early; these resources need to be kept for later in life."
    The findings are especially significant, says Sarah Sydlowski, audiology director of a Hearing Implant Program, because "hearing involves hearing sound but also processing it and extracting meaning in the brain. Exposure to loud sound can cause clinical damage to 'synaptic ribbons'——the connections between the sensory cells in the inner ear and the hearing nerve. People with this damage suffer from 'hidden hearing loss' because often they will appear to have normal hearing on a standard hearing test, yet they may complain that they have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments."
    The long-term concern is that a growing amount of evidence has shown a significant link between hearing loss and dementia. In fact, a review of studies in the June 2018 issue of Maturitas found that hearing damage at midlife is associated with a 50 percent higher risk of developing dementia later in life. The theory is "If you put all your energy into hearing, you drain cognitive resources that could be used for other things such as memory and attention," Lee says.
    If you suspect that you're struggling to hear clearly or process what you hear comfortably or accurately, get your hearing checked, including your ability to hear and understand speech against background noise, Sydlowski advises. The researchers don't recommend routine hearing checks for adults, but the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association calls for adults to be checked for hearing loss every decade through age 50, then every three years after that. The sooner you detect a hearing problem, the better; that way, you can take steps to handle it, whether that means modifying your environment to minimize distractions, adding protection for your hearing, doing auditory training (listening exercises) or considering a hearing device, Sydlowski says.

What should you do to protect your hearing according to the last paragraph?（ ）

To develop your ability to adjust to noisy environment.

To keep in touch with well-known hearing associations.

To detect hearing problems as early as possible.

To have your hearing checked frequently.

本题考查文章最后一段中保护听力的方式。
定位到最后一段，本段大意为“如果你怀疑你的听力存在问题，那么建议你去检查一下。但不建议成年人做常规的听力检查。专业机构呼吁50岁之前的成年人每10年检查一次听力损失情况，50岁之后每3年检查一次。你越早发现听力问题越好；这样，你就可以采取措施来应对它。”A选项“发展你适应噪声环境的能力”和B选项“与著名的听力协会保持联系”本段均未提及，A、B两项不正确。C选项“尽可能早地发现听力问题”与文章描述相符，D选项“经常对听力进行检查”，文中描述为每10年(50岁之前)及每3年(50岁之后)，并不需要经常检查，D选项不正确。故选择C选项。