task for listening comprehension about news.

1. Homework
Listen to the following audio and complete the blank space with correct answers.
For the Brain, the Benefits of Being Bilingual
From VOA Learning English, welcome to ________ in Special English! There is more
evidence suggesting that being bilingual is good for your brain. A new study found that older
adults who have spoken two languages since ________ showed better mental skills than those
who speak just one language. Earlier studies showed that the ability to speak 2 languages, or
________, seemed to favor the ________ of these heightened skills. The study appeared in the
Journal of Neuroscience. Brian Gold was the lead author of the study. He is a neuroscientist at
the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Dr. Gold and his team asked people to sort
colors and shapes in a series of simple exercises. They used brain imaging to compare how well
three groups of people switched among these exercises. The groups were bilingual seniors,
_________ seniors and younger adults. The imaging showed different patterns of activity in the
frontal part of the brain, in an area used for processing those tasks. Dr. Gold says the results
suggest that bilingual subjects use their brain more _________. Dr. Gold notes that knowing a
second language made no difference for the young adults. They did better at the exercises than
both groups of older people. But he says the older bilingual adults appear to have built up a
surplus from a lifetime of __________ mental activity. He says his research confirms an earlier
study on bilingualism among patients with Alzheimer's _______. That study showed that
bilingual speakers suffered more brain ________, but were able to think at the same level as
patients with less damage. Dr. Gold says he believes the new study confirms that bilingualism
can protect brain _________. For VOA Learning English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.