考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析--1995年part5
Part Five
That experiences influence subquent behavior is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering. Learning could not occur without the function popularly named memory. Constant practice has such as effect on memory as to lead to skillful performance on the piano, to recitation of a poem, and even to reading and understanding the words. So-called intelligent behavior demands memory , remembering being a primary requirement for reasoning. The ability to solve any problem or even to recognize that a problem exists depends on memory. Typically, the decision to cross a street is bad on remembering many earlier experiences .
Practice （or review）tends to build and maintain memory for a task or for any learned material. Over a period of no practice what has been learned tends to be forgotten; and the adaptive conquences may not em obvious. Yet, dramatic instances of sudden forgetting can em to be adaptive. In this n, the ability to forget can be interpreted to h
ave survived through a process of natural lection in animals. Indeed, when one's memory of an emotionally painful experience lead to rious anxiety, forgetting may produce relief. Nevertheless, an evolutionary interpretation might make it difficult to understand how the commonly gradual process of forgetting survived natural lection.
In thinking about the evolution of memory together with all its possible aspects, it is helpful to consider what would happen if memories failed to fade. Forgetting clearly aids orientation in time, since old memories weaken and the new tend to stand out, providing clues for inferring duration. Without forgetting, adaptive ability would suffer, for example ,learned behavior that might have been correct a decade ago may no longer be. Cas are recorded of people who （by ordinary standards）forgot so little that their everyday activities were full of confusion. This forgetting ems to rve that survival of the individual and the species.
Another line of thought assumes a memory storage system of limited capacity that provides adaptive flexibility specifically through forgetting. In this view, continual adjustme
nts are made between learning or memory storage （ input）and forgetting （output）. Indeed, there is evidence that the rate at which individuals forget is directly related to how much they have learned. Such data offers gross support of contemporary models of memory that assume an input-output balance.
17. From the evolutionary point of view,__.
（A）forgetting for lack of practice tends to be obviously inadaptive .
（B）if a person gets very forgetful all of a sudden he must be very adaptive
（C）the gradual process of forgetting is an indication of an individual' s adaptability
（D）sudden forgetting may bring about adaptive conquences
18. According to the passage, if a person never forgot ,__.
（A）he would survive best
（B）he would have a lot of trouble
（C）his ability to learn would be enhanced
（D）the evolution of memory would stop
19. From the last paragraph we know that__.
（A）forgetfulness is a respon to learning
（B）the memory storage system is an exactly balanced input-output system
（C）memory is a compensation for forgetting
（D）the capacity of a memory storage system is limited becau forgetting occurs
20. In this article, the author tries to interpret the function of__.
（A）remembering （B）forgetting（C）adapting D）experiencing
Unit 2（1995）Part5
重点词汇：
subquent（随后的）←sub+qu+ent，sub-在下，qu（=follow）词根"跟随"，-ent形容词后缀。Be sure not to tell a first falhood, and you needn't fear being detected in any subquent ones.千万别说第一个谎话，这样就不用害怕在随后的谎话中被人发现。
duration（持久；持续时间）即dur+ation，dur词根"持续"，-ation名词后缀。同根词：durable（持久的）←dur+able可......的；endurance（持久力；忍耐力）←en使......+dur+ance。It is not the strength but the duration of great ntiment that makes great men.造就伟人的不是力量，而是伟大情操的持久。
contemporary（当代的；同时代的；同时代的人）←con+tempor+ary，con-一起，tempor看作temper（性情），-ary后缀，"性情相同的（人）就是同时代的（人）"。Most contemporary books give the impression of having been manufactured in a day, out of books read the day before.大部分当代书籍给人的印象，是花一天工夫用前一天读过的书加工而成的。
难句解析：
①That experiences influence subquent behaviour is evidence of an obvious but nevertheless remarkable activity called remembering.
本句的主语是个从句That experiences influence subquent behaviour，而后面是一个简单的系表结构is evidence，只不过evidence后面的修饰成分较多，里面的两个形容词obvious和remarkable之间还用了but nevertheless来表达一种转折关系。
注意在阅读的时候先要抓住主干结构，特别是主语从句。在表语的部分要能够一眼认出其核心结构是evidence of activity。
② Constant practice has such as effect on memory as to lead to skilful performance on the piano, to recitation of a poem, and even to reading and understanding the words.
本句的主干很简单，就是Constant effect on memory，主要的结构是 as...，在后一个as的后面有一个不定式，而这个不定式有三个并列的宾语to skilful performance on the piano, to recitation of a poem, and even to reading and understanding the words，注意这里的三个to都是介词，和动词lead构成词组。
注意先抓主干结构，另外要注意 as...是一种举例子的形式。
