When Adrian Black met his Italian partner 10 years ago, he was determined to learn her mother language. Having successfully picked up French a decade earlier when he lived in France, he felt the challenge was attainable.
Black, who is now50, explains,“I feel like French is deep down in my head somewhere, but with Italian it will take a lot more efforts for me to get to that level. I've noticed that my brain isn't as good as it was. ”
It's often said that you cant teach an old dog new tricks. Actually this saying is, for the most part, not true. It was generally believed that the adult brain was a fixed structure that, once damaged , could not be repaired. But research published since the 1960s has challenged this assumption（假设）, showing that it is actually a highly dynamic structure, which changes itself in response to new experiences, and adapts to injuries.
This research also suggests that young men can learn something new easily, but that the older they are, the harder it is for them to do so.
Some aspects of language learning become more difficult with age. Others may get easier. Picking up a new language's vocabulary is much easier for adults than learning the rules that govern its grammar. This is because new words can be easily connected with a learner's pre -existing knowledge. But older learners are less likely to have good pronunciation （发音）or accents, since the sound of a new language is picked up naturally by children.
Despite the difficulties, Black regards learning foreign languages as fun. “I'm doing it partly to keep my brain active,”he says. “When you have some success and can express yourself, it feels like you're using different parts of your brain that you weren't using before. ”
【小题1】When Adrian Black decided to learn Italian, ___________.
| A．he lived in France with his wife |
| B．he was then forty years old |
| C．he achieved success in his work |
| D．he wanted to make Italian friends |
【小题2】The author mentioned a saying in Paragraph 3 to ___________ .
| A．show the old dogs are too foolish to teach |
| B．prove the true meaning of the saying |
| C．suggest Black is different from others |
| D．show the saying is not suitable for Black |
【小题3】The difficulty for an adult to learn a new language is that he can't ___________ .
| A．remember so many new words |
| B．pronounce the words correctly |
| C．memorize the grammar rules easily |
| D．understand the language fully |
【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?
| A．An old dog will learn no new tricks. |
| B．It's never too old to learn. |
| C．Nothing comes from nothing. |
| D．Never offer to teach fish to swim. |
