"Half the game is 90 percent mental," Yogi Berra once said, or something like that, and science is now getting around to putting his aphorism to the test. Researchers including Debbie Crews of Arizona State University and John Milton of the University of Chicago have been studying patterns of brain activation--not in baseball players but in golfers, who make better subjects because they don't move around as much and the electrodes stay stuck to their heads. Yogi might have been surprised by the researchers' conclusion, though: the better the golfer, the less brain activity he shows in the seconds before he makes his shot.
Crews, a sports psychologist who studies putting--even the minimal agitation of a chip shot can upset her experimental apparatus--has found that a key difference between amateurs and pros lies in the left hemisphere. This is the seat of logic, analysis, verbal reasoning and the kinds of thoughts--Maybe I should just kind of squinch over a little more to the left--that you never imagine crossing Tiger Woods's mind. Professionals, once they've determined how to make a shot, follow an invariable routine that renders conscious thought unnecessary. "How you think is probably more important than what you think," Crews says. "Quieting the left hemisphere is really critical."
Or, to put it another way, when Milton asked some LPGA golfers what they thought about just before taking a shot, they answered: nothing. To test this, he rounded up a half-dozen pros and an equal number of amateurs and had them imagine making a specific shot--a wedge shot of 100 yards to the green, with no wind--while monitoring their brains in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. "The professionals are just much more specialized and efficient," Milton says. "You put in a quarter and you get your shot." The amateurs, by contrast, showed more total brain activation, involving more areas of the brain. In particular, amateurs activated the basal ganglia--involved in learning motor functions--and the basal forebrain and amygdala, responsible for, among other functions, emotions. "They're not fearful or anxious," Milton says, "but they get overwhelmed by details, by the memories of all the shots they've missed in the past." Some of his subjects worried about hitting the ball into the water, which was curious, because he hadn't even mentioned a water hazard in describing the imaginary shot to them.
Professional athletes, as a rule, know how to keep focus, although there are exceptions, like Chuck Knoblauch, the Yankee second baseman who suddenly lost the ability to make a routine throw to first base. Milton is already trying to apply these lessons to stroke and other rehabilitation patients who have to relearn skills like walking; he recommends putting more emphasis on visualization and improving mental focus. In many aspects of life, it seems, half the game really is 90 percent mental.
1.The views of Yogi Berra and researchers including Crews and Milton are ________.
[A]similar
[B]identical
[C]opposite
[D]complementary
2.We can learn from the text that the difference between pros and amateurs lies in _______.
[A]the activity of the left hemisphere
[B]the way of their thinking
[C]the ability to control one’s brain
[D]the ability to forget the past failures
3.Tiger Woods, according to the text, is probably ________.
[A]a professional golf player
[B]a professional baseball player
[C]a sports psychologist
[D]a researcher
4.What is the key to the success of golfers according to the text
[A]Not to think of anything related to your past losses.
[B]To be more specialized and efficient.
[C]Try to activate your whole brain.
[D]Quiet your left hemisphere and think of nothing.
5.What can we learn from the last paragraph
[A]What the researchers have found proves Yogi Berra’s words.
[B]Baseball player should do as Yogi Berra said.
[C]Mentality plays a very important role in many aspects of life.
[D]Sports and medicine share some common principles.
答案：CADBC
篇章剖析
本文以约吉·贝拉一句非常有名的话开头，引出研究人员的研究成果却正好与之相反，指出运动员球技越高，他在击球之前几秒钟内的大脑活动就越少。第一段指出研究人员的实验结果与约吉·贝拉的观点正好相反；第二段指出体育心理学家克鲁斯发现一个业余球手与一名职业球手之间的关键区别在于大脑的左半球；第三段指出另一名研究人员米尔顿发现业余球手和职业球手的区别在于业余球手的大脑活动较多；第四段指出集中注意力对治疗一些病人的作用。
词汇注释
get around 绕过，避开，规避，逃避；到处走动，到处旅游；散布，使变得闻名；流传，传播出去
aphorism [5AfErIz(E)m] n. 格言, 警语, 谚语；箴言
putting n. (高尔夫球)打球入洞
putting green [ground] 离球洞三十码以内的地区
putting hole 球洞
chip shot (高尔夫球)打出滚地球，让球滚进球洞；切削击球，高尔夫球中在接近球穴区时使用的一记短程而击向空中的击球
agitation[AdVI5teIF(E)n]n. 摇动；搅动；激动；不安；焦虑；情绪不安；心绪不定
pro[prEJ] n. 专业人员；职业人员
verbal reasoning 语文推理
squinch [skwIntF] 斜着眼睛；斜眼看；挤紧；蹲下；畏缩；使自身或一物体挤在较小的地方
LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association)美国女子职业巡回赛
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine 功能磁谐振成像机
put in vt. 打击；花时间，在某一场所或工作上花费(时间)
motor[5mEJtE(r)] adj. 运动神经的，从中枢神经传到肌肉的；肌肉运动的
basal ganglia [`^AN^lIE]基底神经节
visualization形成思维图像；视觉化；具体化；想象
难句分析
Researchers including Debbie Crews of Arizona State University and John Milton of the University of Chicago have been studying patterns of brain activation--not in baseball players but in golfers, who make better subjects because they don't move around as much and the electrodes stay stuck to their heads.
主体句式：Researchers … have been studying patterns of brain activation …
结构分析：本句虽是个长句，但句子结构并不复杂。主语是researchers，后面跟的是include的现在分词形式做后置定语来修饰主语；破折号之后的句子成分起到进一步解释说明的作用；who引导从句来修饰golfers，从句中又有because引导的原因状语从句。在这一部分，需要注意“make”、“as much”和“stay”的用法。make在这里的意思是“成为”，“as much”的意思是“同样，同样多”，“stay”同其它许多表状态的动词一样，比如lie, keep, stand, etc，后面跟形容词表示所处的状态，“stuck”在这里是形容词，意思是“卡住的，不能动弹的”。
句子译文：研究人员——其中包括亚利桑那州州立大学的黛比克鲁斯和芝加哥大学约翰米尔顿约翰——一直在研究(不是棒球球员的，而是高尔夫球球手的)大脑活动型式。高尔夫球球手之所以是更好的研究对象的原因在于他们不怎么移动，这样，电极就可以一直贴在他们头上。
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