新北师大版

高中英语

B

LESSON 3

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The Secrets of Your Memory

记忆的秘密

Memory expert Jemima Gryaznov answers some of the most common questions about memory.

记忆专家杰迈玛·格利亚兹诺夫（Jemima Gryaznov）回答了一些关于记忆的最常见的问题。

1 Why can I remember events in my childhood but not what happened last week?

1. 为什么我记得童年时期的一些事却不记得上周发生的事情？

We remember things that have strong connections in our mind, especially emotional connections. Childhood memories are often very emotional. This is because when we experience things for the first time, we often have strong feelings of fear or excitement. Also, interesting or funny stories from our childhood are often told again and again. As a result, we remember them much better, as retelling events helps fix experiences in our memories.

我们会记住与头脑中有较强关联性的事情，特别是情感联系。童年记忆往往非常感性。这是因为我们第一次经历事物时，常常会产生强烈的恐惧感或者兴奋感。除此之外，我们童年时代的有趣或好笑的故事总是讲了又讲。重复事件能加强我们对事件的印象，我们能更好地记住这些经历。

2 Do some people really have a photographic memory?

2. 真的有人具有照相记忆能力吗？

A person with a photographic memory could remember every detail of a picture, a book or an event many years later, but no one has proved that there are people who really have photographic memories. Yet, there are some people who do have amazing memories. For example, Daniel Tammet can remember the first 22,514 digits of pi (π) and Stephen Wiltshire can draw a detailed picture of a city from memory after flying over it in a helicopter. They are both good at remembering particular things for a limited time.

拥有照相记忆能力的人多年后仍然可以记住某一张图片、某本书或某个事件的每一个细节，但没有人能证明哪个人真有照相记忆能力。然而，的确有些人记忆力惊人。例如，丹尼尔·塔梅（Daniel Tammet）可以记住圆周率的前22514位数，而斯蒂芬·威尔夏（Stephen Wiltshire）可以坐直升飞机俯瞰一个城市，而后凭记忆画出这个城市的详细图片。他们都善于在有限的时间内记住特定的事物。

3 Why do I forget the new words that I learnt yesterday?

3. 为什么我会忘记昨天学的新词？

Don’t worry. This is natural for many people. In1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus published a book called Memory and presented a famous forgetting curve. According to him, the sharpest loss of memory occurs during the very early period after learning. This means timely review during this period, with a few revisits to what is learnt, can significantly help us to remember the information.

别担心。这对许多人来说是很正常的。1885年，赫尔曼·艾宾浩斯（Hermann Ebbinghaus）出版了《关于记忆》，提出了著名的遗忘曲线。根据他的说法，最显著的遗忘出现在学习之后的最初阶段。这意味着在这一阶段及时复习，多次回顾所学内容，可以极大地帮助我们记住信息。

4 I’m 16, but I sometimes forget things. Is my memory getting worse?

4. 我16岁，但有时会忘记事情。我的记忆力是在变差吗？

Definitely not. Our memory reaches its full power at the age of 25. At that point,we can remember up to 200 pieces of information in a second. After this age, however, the brain starts to get smaller. By the age of 40, we lose 10,000 brain cells every day. By middle age, our memory is significantly worse than when we were young.

当然不是。我们的记忆在25岁时达到顶峰。此时，我们可以在一秒钟内记住多达200条信息。然而，此后大脑就开始变小。到了40岁，我们每天会损失10000个脑细胞。到了中年，我们的记忆力会明显比年轻的时候差。

练习6参考译文

A What can we learn from all this? When remembering something new, try to connect it to our emotions. It is important to connect it with what we already know. Also, we can try to retell what we have learnt to a few others.

A 我们从中可以得到什么启发？要记住新内容，试着把内容和情感建立联系。把新内容和已知建立联系也很重要。同时，还可以试着把新学的内容讲述给另外的人。

B Therefore, one of the golden rules to increase how much we remember is to review the material periodically, especially during the first day after learning. This “spaced review” soon after learning helps build stronger memories and it is more effective than waiting to review everything before exams.

B 因此，提升我们记忆效果的一个重要原则是经常复习，特别是在学完之后的第一天。这种学习后立即进行“定时复习”有助于提升记忆，而且比等到考试前再复习全部内容有效的多。

C So take it easy. You are at a good age in terms of your memory. Make good use of it!

C 所以不要紧张。你的年龄正是记忆力上佳的时候，要充分利用这一点。

D As most of us do not have amazing memories like them, when memorising detailed learning materials, we simply need to focus on the important ideas and be curious about what we learn. Asking questions about what we learn also helps with memorisation. Another effective technique to remember things is to group similar ideas or information together so that they can be easily connected to things that are already known.

D 大多数人并不具有像他们那样惊人的记忆力，因此我们在尝试记学习内容的细节时，只要把注意力放到概要方面，要对所学内容保持好奇。对所学内容提出问题也能帮助记忆。另外一个有效的记忆方法是给相似的内容或信息分类，这样这些内容能够更容易与已有知识建立联系。