导读：在大多数人的眼里，会说两种语言的人似乎更聪明。这种说法是否科学呢？看看下面的文章一探究竟吧！
一、语篇泛读
New research suggests that speaking a second language doesn’t affect overall intelligence, upending the conventional wisdom.
Perfect fluency in a second language can make someone seem so worldly and intelligent. But does knowing more than one language really make a person smarter?
The answer is a matter of debate, and the pendulum has swung back and forth. In the first half of the 20th century, hearing two languages at the same time was considered to be a bewildering experience for small children. In fact, many experts thought that speech delays and cultural confusion would be inevitable; bilingual education would thus create social and cognitive Frankensteins, as two psycholinguists put it.
But by the time I was a psychology student in the late 1970s, an about-face was under way. Early exposure to two languages was considered not a handicap but a cognitive advantage. My professors at McGill University, Wallace Lambert and Fred Genesee, published reams of studies showing that truly bilingual children did better than monolingual children on intelligence tests, were more able to inhibit unwanted thoughts and actions, and were more sophisticated abstract thinkers.
Now the consensus is changing again. A vast online study published last month in the journal Psychological Science suggests that bilingualism can be handy but doesn’t make you a whit more intelligent.
“If you ask people on the street, they will say that people who speak two or more languages are smarter,” said Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Ontario and a senior author of the study. “I’m interested in challenging intuitive ideas. It’s fun to take on a bit of folk psychology.”
Emily Nichols, the lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario, told me that the study enlisted 11,000 people to complete 12 online cognitive tests. Participants included “people who hadn’t finished high school and others with professional degrees.” The researchers then selected 372 pairs comprising one bilingual and one monolingual subject, matching people who were equivalent in age, education, income and gender. Satisfied that they had controlled for these confounding factors, the researchers compared the performance of the pair in online tests of their intelligence.
The study found almost no cognitive differences between people who speak just one language and those who said they speak at least two. Bilinguals had a slight leg up on Digit Span, a task that requires a person to remember increasingly long strings of numbers by heart. Otherwise, the performance of the two groups was a wash.
That “no difference” finding might be partly explained by the fact that the study “treated all bilinguals as a single group,” said Prof. Genesee. In a 2015 study, he and his colleagues looked at neural differences between children who learned two languages simultaneously in infancy and those who learned a second language later. The very early learners, Prof. Genesee said, “engaged neural areas related to language but also areas of executive control,” such as planning and problem solving.
The degree of mastery of a second language also matters, said Richard Haier, author of “The Neuroscience of Intelligence” and a professor emeritus in pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine. “Proficiency can range from barely adequate to excellent; lumping everyone into the same group obscures effects.”
Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, as the aphorism goes. We don’t know all the details about this new study’s participants, so we can’t yet close the book on whether their bilingualism boosts their smarts. But there are clearly other benefits, said Prof. Owen: “You can speak to more people, qualify for more jobs and fall in love with more people.” And for most of us, that’s enough.
选自《华尔街日报》
二、语篇精读
New research suggests that speaking a second language doesn’t affect overall intelligence, upending the conventionalwisdom.
l intelligence n. 智力，智慧
l upend v. 颠覆，使颠倒
l conventional wisdom大多数人的看法，普遍信念=received wisdom
【长难句解析】
New research suggests that speaking a second language doesn’t affect overall intelligence, upending the conventional wisdom.
译文：
新研究表明，会说两种语言不会影响人的整体智力，这颠覆了大多数人的认知。
解析：
New research是主句主语，suggests主句谓语，后面接的是that引导的宾语从句；宾语从句中，speaking a second language是现在分词作主语；upending the conventional wisdom是现在分词作结果状语，修饰整个句子。
Perfect fluency in a second language can make someone seem so worldly and intelligent. But does knowing more than one language really make a person smarter?
l fluency n. 流畅，流利
l worldly adj. 世故的；世俗的
The answer isa matter of debate, and the pendulum has swung back and forth. In the first half of the 20th century, hearing two languages at the same time was considered to be a bewildering experience for small children. In fact, many experts thought that speech delays and cultural confusion would be inevitable; bilingual education would thus create social and cognitiveFrankensteins, as two psycholinguists put it.
l pendulumn. 钟摆
l swing back and forth 来回摆动
l bewilderingadj. 令人困惑的，使人糊涂的
l delayn. 延期，耽搁，延误 v. 延迟，推迟
l bilingual adj. 双语的
l cognitiveadj. 认知的
l Frankenstein 源自玛丽·雪莱的小说《科学怪人》，其中的科学家弗兰肯斯坦用尸体的不同部位拼成了一个怪物并赋予它生命。引申为失控的受造物（常毁灭创造者）。
l psycholinguistn. 语言心理学家
But by the time I was a psychology student in the late 1970s, an about-face was under way. Early exposure to two languages was considered not a handicap but a cognitive advantage. My professors at McGill University, Wallace Lambert and Fred Genesee, published reamsof studies showing that truly bilingual children did better than monolingual children on intelligence tests, were more able to inhibit unwanted thoughts and actions, and were more sophisticated abstract thinkers.
l about-facen. 彻底改变
l under way 已经开始，在进行中
l exposuren. 面临，遭受，经历
l handicapn. 生理缺陷；障碍，阻碍
l reams of 大量
l unwanted adj. 不需要的，多余的，无用的，不受欢迎的
l sophisticatedadj. 水平高的，在行的
【长难句解析】
My professors at McGill University, Wallace Lambert and Fred Genesee, published reams of studies showing that truly bilingual children did better than monolingual children on intelligence tests, were more able to inhibit unwanted thoughts and actions, and were more sophisticated abstract thinkers.
译文：
我在麦吉尔大学的教授Wallace Lambert和Fred Genesee发表的大量研究表明，真正的双语儿童在智力测试中比单语儿童表现更好，更能自我抑制不必要的想法和行为，且拥有更高水平的抽象思维。
解析：
本句虽然内容很长，但结构比较清晰。My professors at McGill University, Wallace Lambert and Fred Genesee是主句主语，可以简单看作是两个教授，published是主句谓语，reams of studies是主句宾语；showing that...是现在分词作studies的后置定语，后置定语中含有一个that引导的宾语从句，did better than，were more able to及were more sophisticated是and连接的三个并列成分。
Now the consensus is changing again. A vast online study published last month in the journal Psychological Science suggests that bilingualism can be handy but doesn’t make you a whit more intelligent.
l consensusn. 共识
l whitn. 一点点，很少量[a whit more intelligent聪明一点点]
“If you ask people on the street, they will say that people who speak two or more languages are smarter,” said Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Ontario and a senior author of the study. “I’m interested in challenging intuitive ideas. It’s fun to take on a bit of folk psychology.”
l intuitive adj. 直觉的
Emily Nichols, the lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario, told me that the study enlisted 11,000 people to complete 12 online cognitive tests. Participants included “people who hadn’t finished high school and others with professional degrees.” The researchers then selected 372 pairs comprising one bilingual and one monolingual subject, matching people who were equivalent in age, education, income and gender. Satisfied that they had controlled for these confounding factors, the researchers compared the performance of the pair in online tests of their intelligence.
l enlist v. 争取，谋取（帮助，支持，参与等）
l comprise v. 构成，组成；包含包括
l equivalentadj. 相等的，相同的
l confoundingadj. 令人困惑的
【长难句解析】
Satisfied that they had controlled for these confounding factors, the researchers compared the performance of the pair in online tests of their intelligence.
译文：
研究人员对这些混杂因素的控制感到满意后，比较了每一对受访者在线上智力测试中的表现。
解析：
Satisfied是形容词作状语，其逻辑主语是the researchers；satisfied后接了一个that引导的名词性从句。
拓展：形容词作状语的三种情况。（转自网络）
l 说明性状语
形容词的主要功能是用作定语和表语，但有时也可用作状语（有人也称之为主语补足语，
因为它们是补充说明主语的）。如：
He lay in bed, awake.
他躺在床上，没有睡着。（表伴随）
He arrived home, hungry and tired.
他回到家里，又饿又累。（表结果）
Unable to afford the time, I had to give up the plan.
由于抽不出时间，我不得不放弃这个计划。（表原因）
形容词用作状语的特点是，该形容词的逻辑主语就是句子主语，并且通常可以用并列句
或主从复合句来改写。如以上各句可改写为：
He lay in bed and he was awake.
He arrived home and he was hungry and tired.
Because I was unable to afford the time, I had to give up the plan.
l 程度状语
有少数形容词，如red, boiling, freezing, icy, bitter等，它们在某些搭配中可以起副词作用，用作状语，表示程度，意为“很”“非常”等。如：
The stove was red hot.
火炉是炽热的。
It’s boiling hot.
它是滚烫的。
His face was bright red.
他的脸是鲜红的。
The weather is freezing/icy/bitter cold.
天气冷极了。
但这样的用法非常有限，并往往只用于某些特定搭配中，如可说bitter cold(冰冷)，bitter wind(寒风)等，但习惯上却不说bitter hot(炽热)，bitter busy(极忙)等。
l 承上启下性状语
有些形容词在某些固定结构中可用作独立成分，起承上启下的作用（也可视为一种状语）。如：
Sure enough, she was there.
果然她在那里。
Strange to say, he did pass his exam after all.
说也奇怪，考试他竟然通过了。
He may be late. Worse still, he may not come at all.
他可能会迟到。更糟的是，他可能根本不来。
More important, he’s got a steady job.
更重要的是他得到了一份稳定的工作。
Most remarkable of all, he never suffers from nerves on the stage.
最了不起的是他从不怯场。
The study found almost no cognitive differences between people who speak just one language and those who said they speak at least two. Bilinguals had a leg up on Digit Span, a task that requires a person to remember increasingly long stringsof numbers by heart. Otherwise, the performance of the two groups was a wash.
l leg up n. 帮助，援助
l remember ... by heart 记住
l strings of 一连串的
That “no difference” finding might be partly explained by the fact that the study “treated all bilinguals as a single group,” said Prof. Genesee. In a 2015 study, he and his colleagues looked at neural differences between children who learned two languages simultaneously in infancy and those who learned a second language later. The very early learners, Prof. Genesee said, “engaged neural areas related to language but also areas of executive control,” such as planning and problem solving.
l neuraladj. 神经的
l simultaneouslyadv. 同时（发生）地
l infancyn. 婴儿期，幼年，初期
l executive adj. 执行的，决策的
The degree of mastery of a second language also matters, said Richard Haier, author of “The Neuroscience of Intelligence” and a professor emeritus in pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine. “Proficiency can range from barely adequate to excellent; lumping everyone into the same group obscures effects.”
l mastery n. 精通，熟练掌握
l matterv. 重要，要紧
l emeritusadj. 荣誉退休的
l pediatrics n. 儿科
l proficiencyn. 熟练，精通
l lumpv. 把……归并一起（或合起来考虑）
l obscurev. 使费解，使模糊
Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, as the aphorism goes. We don’t know all the details about this new study’s participants, so we can’t yet close the book on whether their bilingualism boosts their smarts. But there are clearly other benefits, said Prof. Owen: “You can speak to more people, qualify for more jobs and fall in love with more people.” And for most of us, that’s enough.
l aphorismn. 格言，警句
l close the book on ...（因相信不会成功或没有结论而）放弃
l boost v. 使增长，使兴旺
l qualifyv. 符合，合格
三、读后练习——单句语法填空
1. New research suggests that speaking a (two) language doesn’t affect overall intelligence, (upend) the conventional wisdom.
2. But does knowing more than one language really make a person (smart)?
3. Early exposure two languages was considered not a handicap a cognitive advantage.
4. (satisfy) that they had controlled for these confounding factors, the researchers compared the performance of the pair in online tests of their intelligence.
5. In a 2015 study, he and his colleagues looked at neural differences children who learned two languages simultaneously in infancy and those who learned a second language later.
【参考答案】
1. second; upending
2. smarter
3. to; but
4. Satisfied
5. between
