题目内容

The ability to memorize things seems to be a vanishing (消失的) technique.So what can we do to bring out brain cells back into action? A newly published book on memory, Moomvalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer, makes a telling point, one that is an analysis of the importance of memorising events and stories in human history; the decline of its role in modem life; and the techniques that we need to adopt to restore the art of remembering.

As For points out, we no longer need to remember telephone numbers.Our mobile phones do that for us.We don't recall addresses either.We send emails from computers that store electronic addresses.Nor do we bother to remember multiplication tables (乘法表) .Pocket calculators do the job of multiplying quite nicely.Museums, photographs, the digital media and books also act as storehouses for memories that once we had to keep in mind.

As a result, we no longer remember long poems or folk stories by heart, feats (技艺) of memory that were once the cornerstones of most people's lives.Indeed, society has changed so much that we no longer know what techniques we should employ to remember such lengthy works.We are, quite simply, forgetting how to remember.

And let's face it, there is nothing sadder than someone who has lost their mobile phone and who finds they cannot even phone home or call their parents or partners because they cannot remember a single telephone number.That is a sad example of loss of personal independence.So, yes, there is a need for us to he able to remember certain things in life.

Therefore, Foer's book outlines the methods that need to be mastered in order to promote our memories and regain the ability to recall long strings of names, numbers or faces.In the process, he adds, we will become more aware of the world about us.

The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as " elaborative encoding", which involves transforming information, such as a shopping list, into a series of "absorbing visual images".If you want to remember a list of household objects—potatoes, cottage cheese, sugar and other items, then visualise them in an unforgettable manner, he says.Start by creating an image of a large jar of potatoes standing in the garden.Next to it, imagine a giant tub of cottage cheese—the size of an outdoor pool—and then picture Lady Gaga swimming in it.And so on.Each image should be as fantastic and memorable as possible.

Using methods like this, it becomes possible to achieve great feats of memory quite easily, Foer says.It certainly seems to have worked for him: he won the annual US Memory Championships after learning how to memorize 120 random digits in five minutes; the first and last names of 156 strangers in 15 minutes; and a deck of cards in under two minutes."What I had really trained my brain to do, as much as to memorise, was to be more mindful and to pay attention to the world around," he says.

These techniques employed by Foer to master his memory were developed by Ed Cooke—a British writer and a world memory championship grandmaster.He acted as Foer's trainer during preparations for the book and helped him achieve his championship performances." Memory techniques do just one thing: they make information more meaningful to the mind, making the things we try to learn unforgettably bright and amusing," said Cooke.

1.Which of the following is conveyed in this article?

A.People become more independent with modern equipment.

B.The memory's role in life is declining in modem society.

C.Memory techniques can make information less meaningful.

D.Ed Cooke is the first one who benefited from Foer's techniques.

2.According to Joshua Foer, people no longer memorize information today because________.

A.museums can do everything for them.

B.they no longer have the ability to memorize things.

C.they have things that can act as storehouses for memories.

D.it is not necessary to memorize anything in modem life.

3.One method of memorizing things mentioned in the passage is to ________.

A.link things to famous pop stars

B.find the connection between different things

C.form vivid, unforgettable images of certain things

D.use advanced digital imaging technology to help

4.The underlined word "visualise" in the last paragraph most probably means "_______".

A.imagine

B.undertake

C.remark

D.indicate

5.This passage can be sorted as ________.

A.a news report

B.an advertisement

C.a scientific discovery

D.a book review

 

【答案】

1.B

2.C

3.C

4.A

5.D

【解析】

试题分析:

1.B 主旨大意题。根据第一段第一句The ability to memorize things seems to be a vanishing (消失的) technique.说明本文告诉我们因为科技的进步,现代人的记忆的能力已经大大下降。故A正确。

2.C 细节题。根据第二段.Our mobile phones do that for us.We don't recall addresses either.We send emails from computers that store electronic addresses.Nor do we bother to remember multiplication tables (乘法表) .Pocket calculators do the job of multiplying quite nicely.Museums, photographs, the digital media and books also act as storehouses for memories that once we had to keep in mind.说明在现代社会中有很多的工具帮助我们做各种记忆的工作,故C正确。

3.C 细节题。根据第6段1,2行The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as " elaborative encoding", which involves transforming information, such as a shopping list, into a series of "absorbing visual images".说明这种方法就是在人脑中形成一个生动的事物的形象。故C正确。

4.A 猜测词义题。(最后一段没有这个词)

5.D 推理题。根据文章第一段2,3行A newly published book on memory, Moomvalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer, makes a telling point, one that is an analysis of the importance of memorising events and stories in human history说明本文是对这本书的的书评。

考点:考查科普类短文阅读

点评:本文是一篇科普类的短文,是关于现代人的记忆力因为科技的进步已经慢慢消退了。本文的难度在于词汇方面的障碍。在阅读中要特别注意在上下文语境中的猜测词义的能力。

 

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1. Lucas is experiencing the hardest time in life these days. As manager of a trade company, he is responsible for the loss of a big business contract as he made a wrong decision. He wonders whether he has the ability to be a good manager, and he’s even considering leaving his job. He doesn’t know what to do and badly needs help.

2.Whitney has been out of work for several weeks now since she left her last job. She has been trying to find another one, but with no luck. She urgently needs a new job, so she’s searching for advice on how to make the best use of her time so as to successfully get a job.

3.After a job interview, Ralph was told that the company would like to have him as one of its staff. He would sell the company’s products if he worked there. However, he’s not sure whether he is good at selling things or not, so he’s looking for a way to find out about this before taking the job.

4.Thomas Howard is 23 years old, working at a gas station. He earns little money every week, feels that his life is hopeless, and never thinks that things will be better for him. His mother is worried about this and wishes to find a way to inspire her son.

5.Katrina is quite worried recently, because her manager seems to be turning on her, criticizing her in front of her colleagues for things that she does quite well. What’s worse, he even tells others that she has several boyfriends at the same time, which is of course not true. She really wishes to find a way for her problem.

 

War Horse author Michael Morpurgo is being interviewed:

Reporter:How did War Horse become so successful?

Michael:War Horse was published in 1982,and it did not sell very well.But my publishers kept it in print,along with all my books.I am very grateful to Egmont and I’m sure now they are very grateful to themselves.

The book was discovered 21 years later,by accident.I was on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 in 2003 when my work was becoming better known.One of the listeners was the mother of a director called Tom Morris,and after reading War Horse herself she told her son to read it.Two years later the play came out,and it was a huge hit that went to the West End,Broadway and now Canada and Australia,then a nationwide American tour in June this year.

In 2009 kathy kennedy,the producer who worked with Steven Spielberg,walked into the New London Theatre to see the play because her daughter liked it very much.She then phoned Spielberg and told him this would be his next film!The way it all happened is better than any of my stories.War Horse has now sold over 1 million copies.

Reporter:Has War Horse changed your life?

Michael:It has made all the difference in the world.The most important gift it has given us is not to have to worry about money,because there has always been a slight anxiety.It has allowed us to ensure our grandchildren’s education.There is a disadvantage to it as well,which is an assumption that I am super rich.I’m not,actually.It is very nice and completely unexpected but I have got to go on writing.If I were younger,I think,it would go to my head.Now I am too old for anything to go to my head.It is not the same as winning the lottery(彩票)。

1.Why are Michael’s publishers grateful to themselves too?

A.Because they never stopped printing it and it finally proved successful.

B.Because they earned a lot thanks to books of high quality they printed.

C.Because they have the ability to enlarge their company.

D.Because they have the potential to film the story.

2.War Horse got the first huge success thanks to____.

A.Steven Spielberg and his daughter

B.Tom Morris and his listeners

C.Kathy Kennedy’s daughter

D.Tom Morris’ mother

3.Why did Kathy Kennedy watch the play of War Horse?

A.Because she knew that the film was very popular.

B.Because her daughter was mad on the play.

C.Because her friend,Steven Spielberg,advised her to see it.

D.Because she was looking for a story with an animal in her mind.

4.What change made Michael feel most valuable because of War Horse?

A.He could stay at home looking after his grandchildren.

B.He can make friends with famous film directors.

C.He needn’t worry about his financial problems.

D.He needn’t spend time writing another book.

5.What is the attitude of Michael to his great success?

A.Calm.

B.Unbelievable.

C.Confused

D.Excited.

 

Now let us look at how we read. When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, jerky movement. We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate. Each time they fixate, we see a group of words. This is known as the recognition span or the visual span. The length of time in which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person. It also varies within any one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text. Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness.

Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page. As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation. For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second. One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side. Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation. All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently. Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words. Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text.

1.The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts except ________ .

A. the length of a group of words.

B. lighting and tiredness.

C. one’s familiarity with the text.

D. one’s purpose in reading.

2.The author may believe that reading ______.

A. demands an deeply-participating mind.

B. demands more mind than eyes.

C. requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation.

D. requires a reader to see words more quickly.

3.What does the author mean by saying “but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently.” in the second paragraph?

A. The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading.

B. The reading exercises mentioned has done a great job to improve one’s ability to see words.

C. The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted.

D. The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see or comprehend words.

4.Which of the following is NOT true?

A. The emphasis on the purely visual aspects is misleading.

B. The eye training will help readers in reading a continuous text.

C. The visual span is a word or a group of words we see each time.

D. Many experts began to question the efficiency of eye training.

5.The tune of the author in writing this article is ________.

  A. pessimistic  B. optimistic   C. critical  D. neutral

 

One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river and sitting idly on the bank. There I would   16   the peace and quiet, watch the water rush   17   and listen to the singing of birds and the rustling of   18   in the trees. I would also watch the bamboo trees   19   under pressure from the wind and watch them   20   gracefully to their original position after the wind had   21   .

   When I think about the bamboo tree's ability to bounce back to its original position, the word "resilience" comes to mind. When used in   22   to a person this word means the ability to readily   23   from shock, depression or any other situation that stretches the limits of a person's   24   .

   Have you ever felt like you are at your   25   point? Thankfully, you have survived the experience to live to talk about it.

   During the   26   you probably felt a mix of emotions that threatened your health. You felt emotionally drained,   27   exhausted and you most likely stood   28   physical symptoms.

   Life is a   29   of good times and bad times, happy moments and unhappy moments. The next time you are experiencing one of those bad times or unhappy   30   that take you close to your breaking point, bend,   31   don't break. Try your best not to let the situation get the best of you.

   A   32   of hope will take you through the unpleasant ordeal (考验). With   33   for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as they seem to be. The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to   34   if the final result is worth having.

   If life gets   35   and you are at your breaking point, show resilience. Like the bamboo tree, bend, but don't break!

1.A. see           B. hear          C. enjoy          D. touch

2.A. downstream    B. smoothly      C. uphill             D. peacefully

3.. A. fruits        B. branches      C. roots            D. leaves

4.A. move         B. bend         C. fall             D. decline

5.A. go            B. turn          C. return          D. suffer

6.A. died down     B. died off       C. died away       D. died out

7.A. honor of       B. reward to      C. reference to     D. favor of

8.A. recover        B. suffer         C. come          D. escape

9.A. thoughts       B. mind          C. body          D. emotions

10.A. starting        B. breaking       C. standing       D. tiring

11.A. practice        B. experiment     C. victory        D. experience

12.A. possibly        B. terribly        C. mentally       D. probably

13.A. unpleasant      B. unreasonable    C. exciting       D. good

14.A. result          B. change         C. wonder        D. mixture

15.A. events         B. moments        C. adventures     D. changes

16.A. but            B. however        C. though        D. and

17.A. little           B. number         C. measure       D. little

18.A. idea           B. hope           C. imagination     D. search

19.A. deal with       B. look into        C. depend on      D. get stuck

20.A. acceptable      B. wrong          C. tough          D. cozy

 

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