[精]备战高考英语外刊精读与练习含答案
备战高考英语外刊精读与练习含答案The mystery of our earliest memories
人类早期记忆的谜团
语篇导读：
童年期遗忘的谜团过去一个世纪以来一直困惑着科学家们。为什么在人类的幼儿期，一个充满体验和学习新事物的阶段，却被许多难以理解的事物而笼罩？本期探索可能导致我们遗忘幼儿时期经历的原因。
Step 1 Vocabulary 词汇表
hazy 模糊的、不清晰的recollection 记忆，往事silver birch 白
桦树patchy 零零碎碎的，拼凑起来的infancy 婴儿期、年幼时
候sporadic 零星的，分散的fleeting 一闪而过的，短暂的
amnesia 失忆，健忘（症）to coin 创造，杜撰（新词或表达）
psychoanalysis 精神分析学sponge 像海绵般地吸收（信息）
neural 神经的to wield 施加影响accomplished 有造诣的，有
才华的polyglot 通晓多种语言的人green with envy 非常羡慕，
十分忌妒forgetfulness 健忘to interfere 干预，干涉to
visuali 设想，想象cherished 珍惜的，珍爱的
我家的家风家训Step 2 Reading and understanding
What is your earliest memory? For me, I have a hazy recollection of standing in a leafy garden surrounded by silver birch trees when I was four years old.
I'm around average: some people remember events as far back as two years old, while for others, things em patchy until ven or eight.
But what is consistent is that no one can remember their own birth or very early infancy. And even after the first memory, most of us only have a sporadic collection of fleeting, flickering mental images until much later in childhood.
The phenomenon is known as 'childhood amnesia', a term coined by the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. So, what's going on here? Babies are, writes Zaria Gorvett for BBC Future, "sponges for new information, forming 700 new neural connections every cond and wielding language-learning skills to make the most accomplished polyglot green with envy".
And it's precily this rapid mental development that caus the problem, according to a study by the University of Toronto in 2014. It found that the high rate of infant brain cell production could increa forgetfulness, becau new cells interfere with existing mental circuits.
Another possible explanation is that the part of the brain that stores memories, the hippocampus, is not fully formed until around 18 months. Identity is also important: tests s
how infants don't recogni themlves in the mirror until they are around two years old.
Finally, there's the question of how accurate our early memories are at all. "People can pick up suggestions and begin to visuali them - they become like memories," psychologist Elizabeth Loftus told the BBC. Are our cherished first memories really just family stories?
Step 3 测验与练习
鬼门开Task 1 阅读课文并回答问题。
1. Why can't people remember the first years of their lives?Three reasons are given. Firstly, in the first years of our lives our brains are growing so fast that new brain cells interfere with existing mental circuits. Secondly, the hippocampus is not fully formed until 18 months old. Thirdly, babies don't develop a n of identity until around two years old.
2. What does it mean to be a 'sponge for new information'?Being a花旦纹身
'sponge' means you acquire a lot of new information very quickly, the same way a sponge fills with water.
3. True or fal? Babies are accomplished polyglots.Fal. Although babies learn languages very fast, an 'accomplished polyglot' is someone who has learned veral languages to a very high level.
4. Which word means 'very green and covered in plants'?Leafy.
5. Why might our earliest memories actually be fal?According to Elizabeth Loftus, people pick up suggestions and visuali them - this makes the mental images em like memories.
Task 2 请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。
1. My memory of the party is a bit _________.
peg
A. flickering
打赌
B. patched我的大学好词好句
C. hazy
D. amnesia
2. _________ don't form lasting memories.
A. Childhood
B. Infant万和热水器
C. Infancy
D. Infants
3. Brian is very _________. He can't remember what he ate for lunch!
A. forgetful
B. forgetfulness
C. forgettable
D. forgotten
4. Wang Li is like a _________. She learned how to u HTML in a week.
A. psychoanalyst
B. sponge
C. hippocampus
愚人节的英语
D. polyglot
5. People say that if you can _________ success, it makes you more likely to be successful.
A. coin
B. interfere with
C. visuali
D. wield
Task 3 语法填空
What is your earliest memory? For me, I have a hazy recollection of standing in a leafy garden _1____________ (surround) by silver birch trees when I was four years old.
I'm around average: some people remember events as far back as two years old, _2________ for others, things em patchy until ven or eight. But _3________ is consistent is that no one can remember their own birth or very early infancy. And even after _4_________ first memory, most of us only have a sporadic collection of fleeting, flickering mental images until much later in childhood.
