Even facts “forgotten by people during a busy day may be retrieved if this is fo
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Even facts “forgotten” by people during abusy day may be retrieved if this is followed by a good night’s sleep.
Researchers from the University of Chicagoasked volunteers to remember simple words．Many found their memories letting them down towards the end of theday, but the following morning, those who had slept well could recall muchmore.
Researchers, writing in the journal Nature,said the brain could “rescue” lost memories during the night.
When the brain is first asked to remembersomething that memory is laid down in an “unstable” state, meaning that it ispossible that it could be lost．At some point, the brain consolidates those it deems important intoa “stable”, more permanent state．However, the Chicago researchers suggested that it was possible fora “stable” memory to be made “unstable” again．This would mean that memories could be modifiedthen filed away again in the face of new experiences.
The 12 volunteers tested in the experimentwere played words created through a speech synthesizer which were purposelydifficult to understand．Initially, the written version of the word from the audioversion only．Testsrevealed that the ability to recall the right word tended to tail off as theday ended.
However, when the volunteers were retestedafter a good night’s sleep, they were able to recall some words that they had “forgotten” the previous evening.
Dr Daniel, one of the study authors, said:“Sleep consolidates memories, protecting them against subsequent interferenceor decay．Sleep alsoappears to “recover” or restore memories.” He said: “If performance is reducedby decay, sleep might actively recover what has been lost.”
Dr Karim Nader, from the Department ofPsychology in McGill University in Montreal, said: “Memory research isundergoing a transformation---no longer is memory thought to be a hard-writingof the brain, instead it seems to be a process of storage and restorage.”
Sleep helps some memories “mature” and alsoprunes out unimportant memories.
1.What does the first paragraph implies?
| A．A busy day makes people forget things easily. |
| B．People need a good night’s sleep after a busy day. |
| C．A good night’s sleep helps memories. |
| D．A good night’s sleep helps people forget a busy day. |
2.The words the 12 volunteers played in theexperiment were not ____
| A．created through a speech synthesizer |
| B．hard to understand |
| C．available at the beginning |
| D．designed to test people’s ability of understanding |
3.According to the passage, memory_____
| A．is a hard-writing of the brain |
| B．is not a process of storage |
| C．is not a process of restorage |
| D．will be mature with the help of sleep |
4.Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．When people first remember something, the memory is in an “unstable state”. |
| B．The brain will change those important unstable memories into stable. |
| C．Once the memory become stable, it will never become unstable again. |
| D．Sleep can protect memories from being harmed. |
试题答案
【答案】
1.C
2.D
3.D
4.C
【解析】略