There is no such thing as a "safe" level of drinking, with increased consumption of alcohol associated with poorer brain health, according to a new study.

In an observational study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers from the University of Oxford studied the relationship between the self-reported alcohol intake of some 25,000 people in the UK, and their brain scans. The researchers noted that drinking had an effect on the brain's gray matter—regions in the brain that make up "important bits where information is processed," according to lead author Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher at Oxford. "The more people drank, the less the volume of their gray matter," Topiwala said via email.

"Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia (痴呆). Smaller brain volume also predicts worse performance on memory testing," she explained. "While alcohol only made a small contribution to this (0.8%), it was a greater contribution than other 'modifiable' risk factors," she said, explaining that modifiable risk factors are "ones you can do something about, in contrast to aging."

The team also investigated whether certain drinking patterns, beverage types and other health conditions made a difference to the impact of alcohol on brain health. They found that there was no "safe" level of drinking—meaning that consuming any amount of alcohol was worse than not drinking it. They also found no evidence that the type of drink—such as wine, spirits or beer—affected the harm done to the brain. However, certain characteristics, such as high blood pressure, obesity or binge-drinking (酗酒), could put people at higher risk, researchers added.

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1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph one refer to?

A The brain volume increases.

B The risk of dementia increases.

C The memory of a person declines.

D The brain's gray matter reduces.

解析：选D。D细节理解题。根据第二段可知，喝酒会影响大脑灰质，人们喝的酒越多，大脑灰质就越少。故选D。

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A Drinking can cause a temporary memory loss.

B Alcohol can accelerate a person's aging.

C We can ignore the damage of alcohol to human brain.

D The decrease of brain volume is related to age and dementia.

解析：选D。D细节理解题。根据第三段Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia.可知，脑容量会随着年龄增长而下降，痴呆症患者会下降得更厉害。故选D。

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A You can't drink wine if you don't feel well.

B We’d better keep away from alcohol to keep fit.

C Low alcohol drinks are harmless to human body.

D People in good health can drink amounts of alcohol.

解析：选B。B推理判断题。根据最后一段可知，“安全”饮酒量是不存在的，喝多少都有害，不喝才安全。没有证据证明酒的类型对大脑受损程度有不同的影响。故选B。

4.Where is the text most likely from?

A A research diary.

B A science magazine.

C A news report.

D A guide book.

解析：选B。B推理判断题。根据全文可知，本文是关于牛津大学研究人员的研究报告，因此，很有可能被科学杂志收录刊载。故选B。