I still remember us ______ had a pleasant holiday by the lake.
A.to have
B.of having
C.hid
D.having
A.to have
B.of having
C.hid
D.having
The Blessing and Curse of the People Who Never Forget
A handful of people can recall almost every day of their lives in enormous detail—and after years of research, neuroscientists (神经科学专家) are finally beginning to understand how they do it.
[A] For most of us, memory is a mess of blurred and faded pictures of our lives. As much as we would like to cling on to our past, even the saddest moments can be washed away with time.
[B] Ask Nima Veiseh what he was doing for any day in the past 15 years, however, and he will give you the details of the weather, what he was wearing, or even what side of the train he was sitting on his journey to work. “My memory is like a library of video tapes, walk-throughs of every day of my life from waking to sleeping,” he explains.
[C] Veiseh can even put a date on when those tapes started recording: 15 December 2000, when he met his first girlfriend at his best friend&39;s 16th birthday party. He had always had a good memory, but the thrill of young love seems to have shifted a gear in his mind: from now on, he would start recording his whole life in detail. “I could tell you everything about every day after that.”
[D] Needless to say, people like Veiseh are of great interest to neuroscientists hoping to understand the way the brain records our lives. A couple of recent papers have finally opened a window on these people’s extraordinary minds. And such research might even suggest ways for us all to relive our past with greater clarity.
[E] ‘Highly superior autobiographical memory’(or HSAM for short) first came to light in the early 2000s, with a young woman named Jill Price. Emailing the neuroscientist and memory researcher Jim McGaugh one day, she claimed that she could recall every day of her life since the age of 12. Could he help explain her experiences?
[F] McGaugh invited her to his lab, and began to test her: he would give her a date and ask her to tell him about the world events on that day. True to her word, she was correct almost every time.
[G] It didn’t take long for magazines and documentary film-makers to come to understand her “total recall”,and thank to the subsequent media interest, a few dozen other subjects (including Veiseh) have since come forward and contacted the team at the University of California, Irvine.
[H] Interestingly, their memories are highly self-centred: although they can remember “autobiographical” life events in extraordinary detail, they seem to be no better than average at recalling impersonal information, such as random (任意选取的)lists of words. Nor are they necessarily better at remembering a round of drinks, say. And although their memories are vast, they are still likely to suffer from “false memories”.Clearly, there is no such thing as a “perfect” memory—their extraordinary minds are still using the same flawed tools that the rest of us rely on. The question is, how?
[I] Lawrence Patihis at the University of Southern Mississippi recently studied around 20 people with HSAM and found that they scored particularly high on two measures: fantasy proneness (倾向)and absorption. Fantasy proneness could be considered a tendency to imagine and daydream, whereas absorption is the tendency to allow your mind to become fully absorbed in an activity to pay complete attention to the sensations (感受)and the experiences. “I’m extremely sensitive to sounds, smells and visual detail,” explains Nicole Donohue, who has taken part in many of these studies. “I definitely feel things more strongly than the average person.”
[J] The absorption helps them to establish strong foundations for recollection, says Patihis, and the fantasy proneness means that they revisit those memories again and again in the coming weeks and months. Each time this initial memory trace is “replayed”, it becomes even stronger. In some ways, you probably go through that process after a big event like your wedding day,but the difference is that thanks to their other psychological tendencies, the HSAM subjects are doing it day in, day out, for the whole of their lives.
[K] Not everyone with a tendency to fantasise will develop HSAM, though, so Patihis suggests that something must have caused them to think so much about their past. “Maybe some experience in their childhood meant that they became obsessed (着迷)with calendars and what happened to them,”says Patihis.
[L] The people with HSAM I?ve interviewed would certainly agree that it can be a mixed blessing. On the plus side, it allows you to relive the most transformative and enriching experiences. Veiseh, for instance, travelled a lot in his youth. In his spare time,he visited the local art galleries, and the paintings are now lodged deep in his autobiographical memories.
[M] “Imagine being able to remember every painting, on every wall, in every gallery space, between nearly 40 countries,” he says. “That’s a big education in art by itself.” With this comprehensive knowledge of the history of art, he has since become a professional painter.
[N] Donohue, now a history teacher, agrees that it helped during certain parts of her education. “I can definitely remember what I learned on certain days at school. I could imagine what the teacher was saying or what it looked like in the book.”
[O] Not everyone with HSAM has experienced these benefits, however. Viewing the past in high definition can make it very difficult to get over pain and regret. “It can be very hard to forget embarrassing moments,” says Donohue. “You feel the same emotions—it is just as raw, just as fresh... You can’t turn off that stream of memories, no matter how hard you try.” Veiseh agrees. “It is like having these open wounds—they are just a part of you,” he says.
[P] This means they often have to make a special effort to lay the past to rest. Bill, for instance, often gets painful “flashbacks”,in which unwanted memories intrude into his consciousness, but overall he has chosen to see it as the best way of avoiding repeating the same mistakes. “Some people are absorbed in the past but not open to new memories, but that’s not the case for me. I look forward to each day and experiencing something new.”
36.People with HSAM have the same memory as ordinary people when it comes to impersonal information.
37.Fantasy proneness will not necessarily cause people to develop HSAM.
38.Veiseh began to remember the details of his everyday experiences after he met his first young love.
39.Many more people with HSAM started to contact researchers due to the mass media.
40.People with HSAM often have to make efforts to avoid focusing on the past.
41.Most people do not have clear memories of past events.
42.HSAM can be both a curse and a blessing.
43.A young woman sought explanation from a brain scientist when she noticed her unusual memory.
44.Some people with HSAM find it very hard to get rid of unpleasant memories.
45.A recent study of people with HSAM reveals that they are liable to fantasy and full absorption in an activity.
A.to dive
B.dived
C.diving
D.dive
When I was a little girl, my brothers and I collected stamps for many years. My mother didn't use to work during the week, but she worked in the post office near our house on Saturdays, and she used to bring home all the new stamps as soon as they were issued (发行).
On the day of the World Cup football final in London in 1966, we were very excited because England were playing West Germany in the final.When we were having lunch, my mother told us to go to the post office straightaway after the match if England won, but she didn't tell us why. At2 o'clock my mother went back to work as usual, while the rest of the family were watching the football on TV at home. Although she wasn't watching the match, she was listening to it on the radio.
England won 4:2 and so my brothers and I ran to the post office. As we burst in, my mother was standing behind the counter. She was waiting to sell us a very special limited edition with ENGLAND WINNERS on each stamp. We were over the moon.We still have it today, and perhaps it is worth a lot of money.
1. This passage mainly tells us __________.
A、the author and her brother used to like stamps very much
B、the author had a very kind mother
C、the author and her brother had an unforgettable experience in collecting stamps
D、their mother used to support them by working in the post office
2. According to the passage, her mother worked in the post office ________.
A、during the week
B、on Saturdays
C、on Sundays
D、for six days
3. According to the passage, her mother worked in the post office ________.
A、during the week
B、on Saturdays
C、on Sundays
D、for six days
4. What does the sentence "We were over the moon." mean?
A、We jumped high.
B、We were extremely happy about it.
C、We watched the moon for a long time.
D、We couldn't sleep the whole night.
5. What is the best title for this passage?
A、My Childhood
B、My Mother
C、A Precious Stamp
D、A Memorable Experience in Collecting Stamps
When I was studying English at a training center in Washington D.C. in 2008, I shared a house with two young Americans, Jim and Steve. Jim was studying French and Steve Chinese, both at the Foreign Service Institute. We shared many things in common, but we also thought and acted quite differently. Steve was interested in speaking Chinese. He always tried every opportunity to talk with me with his very English-like pronunciation. I was often touched with his diligence. However, I wanted to practice English with him, too. So we often spoke at the same time in the other’s mother tongue. Jim was fresh from college and the youngest of the three. He was going out all the time. The only time we met was at breakfast. There was a small round table in our kitchen, where we saw around to enjoy our food. Steve had Chinese fast food such as dumplings or noodles, and I ate bread and boiled eggs. But Jim often just drank a cup of tea because he had nothing in his fridge. He was too busy dating pretty French girls to do any shopping. I often offered him some of my food. But Steve told me in his poor Chinese that I didn’t need to do that. He said that it was Jim’s own fault and that it served him right. Although he was learning Chinese, he still had his American sense of values.
Two years later, I returned to China. The three of us still keep in touch. Jim now works in a travel agency in Paris. He got married to one of the pretty girls. He wrote to tell us that he can now enjoy a delicious breakfast with his beautiful wife every morning in their comfortable living room. Steve wants to work in China. And I’m helping him with this. I have introduced him to the dean of the Overseas Section of our university. He is very interested in Steve. He wants to know if Steve can work here teaching the overseas students Chinese. I have sent the message to Steve. I’m sure he’d be very happy to accept the job. However, I hope he could try harder to improve himself. Otherwise, all the overseas students would speak with his terrible pronunciation!
(1) Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?()
A、Steve and Jim were more alike in character.
B、The author didn’t enjoy talking with Steve.
C、The three of them were all language majors.
D、Their living condition was rather poor.
(2) Which of the following is TRUE about Jim?()
A、He has a French way of making friends.
B、Going out with girls cost him a lot of time.
C、He learned French in order to date Paris girls.
D、He liked doing housework.
(3) What is the author’s opinion of Steve?()
A、Steve was a very hardworking fellow.
B、Steve enjoyed cooking Chinese food.
C、Steve enjoyed shopping more than Jim.
D、Steve’s Chinese accent was quite pure.
(4) What does the last sentence of the first paragraph imply?()
A、Steve didn’t like offering help to others.
B、American people only eat their own food.
C、Steve wanted Jim to do his own shopping.
D、Americans and Chinese differ in their sense of values.
(5) What can be learned from the last paragraph?()
A、Jim is a very good husband.
B、Steve enjoys teaching Chinese.
C、The author works for overseas students.
D、The three friends still keep in touch.
小题1:What does Mr. Smith do?
A. A bank clerk
B. A policeman
C. A thief
小题2:Mr. Smith caught the man in the clothes shop ___________.
A. by exchange
B. by mistake
C. by accident
小题3:Why did the man return the sweater to the shop?
A. Because he didn’t want his wife to see it
B. Because he liked money more than the sweater
C. Because he hated it and wanted to get the money back
小题4:Bob was caught so quickly because ___________.
A. his address was found on the envelope he used
B. he received a phone call from the bank clerk
C. the police waited for him outside the elevator
小题5:What do you think of Bob?
A. He is brave
B. He is careful
C. He is careless
A.in; /
B.in the; the
C.in the; /
D.the; the
Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels.Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember.There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful.Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember.Do you know the rhyme "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November..."? It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 day s.
Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember.How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information.One example of organization is chunking.C hunking consists of grouping separate bits of information.For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467, 13, 63.Categorizing is another means of organization.Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of wor ds: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair.Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk.Needless to say, the second list can be remembered mo re easily than the first one.
Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately.In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events.For example, the heigh t of Mount Fuji in Japan -12,389 feet -might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).
The last principle is visualizati on.Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered.In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetiti on to learn the words.Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition.Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental pict ure can help us to preserve a memory.
1.What kind of information is easy for us to remember?()
A.Information that does not make any sense to us
B.Information that we are not familiar with
C.Information that is meaningful to us
D.Information that we are not interested in
2.Which of the following pairs are rhymes?()
A.horse—house
B.right---white
C.come----home
D.how---low
3.The second list of words in para.3 is organized according to().
A.the rhyme
B.the word category
C.th e first letters of words
D.the meanings
4.Books are kept in a library().
A.according to their size
B.in random order
C.in a jumbled way
D.in different categories
5.What method can better help form. a whole mental picture about the ti ngs to be remembered?()
A.Grouping
B.Repetition
C.Imagery
D.Association
A.seen
B.to have seen
C.to see
D.seeing