|
UNIT 7
Text A
PRE-READING TASK
Exercise 1
Before reading the passage, read the statements first. Do you Agree with or Disagree with them? Give your reasons.
1. We know more about the brain than any other part of the body.
2. The larger one's brain is, the cleverer he will be.
3. A computer may some day replace the human brain because of its better performance.
Now read the passage and check your answers.
The Brain
1. The brain is the most complicated part of the human body, and yet less is known about it than any other part. It is quite small (a normal human brain weighs about one kilogram), and a bigger brain does not mean a better brain.
2. The surface area of the cortex (the outside part) is more important than the actual size of the brain. Over the centuries, the cortex has grown, and it is now deeply folded in order to provide a larger surface area without requiring a greater total volume.
3. The brain receives information from the outside world through the Sensory System. This information is gathered through the eyes, the nose, the ears, the mouth and the surface of the body. It is then stored in the memory which has a tremendous capacity. In fact, scientists do not fully understand how the memory works but they have not shown that there is any limit to the amount of information that the human brain can store. Also, it appears that the information is never lost. Very old people often remember incidents from their childhood which have not come to their minds for sixty to seventy years. If we have stored something in our memory, it is there. But can we get it out again to use it? That is the difficulty.
4. Some of the information we receive only goes into the Short Term Memory; we only keep this information for a minute or two, then we lose it. Schoolchildren in class often seem to use only the Short Term Memory if they are not interested in the subject. Schoolteachers have a description for this, saying that things go "in one ear and out the information in his Long Term Memory, and he never loses it (though, of course, there are times when he cannot recall it).
5. The brain sends instructions to the body through the Motor System. This tells the arms and the legs to move, the eyes to focus, the hands to open and close, the jaw to move up and down, etc. Through the Motor system we can even control our breathing for a short time, but not for long. It is very difficult, however, to make the body do something that is bad for it. Try to cut yourself with a knife, or burn yourself with a match, and you will find it is very difficult to do.
6. There is a third system which the brain controls, but not consciously; this is called the Homeostatic System. Through this system the brain tells the heart how fast to beat, it tells the digestive system how much food to absorb, and it tells the glands in the body when to sweat, salivate, etc. This we cannot normally control, though some fakirs, or Hindu mystics, in the East have claimed that they can control parts of the Homeostatic System.
7. So the brain is a complex and delicate part of the human organism, and in addition to the three systems that have been mentioned, the brain is able to work in special ways. It can use the information that is stored in it to think creatively, allowing the human race to make astonishing scientific, artistic and technical progress. It will be a long time before a computer is invented that can do this because imagination is a very difficult thing to build into integrated circuits and silicon chips.
New Words
complicated
a. 1. containing many closely related or connected parts 结构复杂的
2. difficult to understand or deal with 难懂的，难解的
human
a. 人的，人类的
cortex
n. 外皮
fold
v. 1. 折迭, 对折
2.合拢,交迭
volume
n. 1.容量, 容积
2. 卷,册
sensory
a. of, from or concerning the bodily senses or their use 感觉的
system
n. 1. a group of related parts working together 系统
2. a set of ideas, methods, or ways of working 制度,体制
tremendous
a. very great in size, amount, or degree 极大的
capacity
n. 1. the amount that sth. can hold or produce 容量,容积
2. ability; power 能力,能量
limit
n. the farthest point or edge (of sth.) 限度
v. to keep below or at a certain point or amount 限制,限定
incident
n. an event 事情
description
n. an account 描述,描写
recall
v. to remember 回想起,回忆起
instruction
n. 1. an order 命令,指示
2. teaching 教育,指导
focus
v. to concentrate 使(眼睛)注视,使集中
jaw
n. 颌, 颚
consciously
ad. 有意识地
homeostatic
a. 体内平衡的
digestive
a. 消化的
absorb
v. to take in 吸收
gland
n. 腺
sweat
v. 出汗
n. 1.汗
2. 出汗
salivate
v. 过量分泌唾液
fakir
n. (印度教的)苦行者, (伊斯兰教以行乞为生的)托钵僧
mystic
n. 神秘主义者
delicate
a. easily broken or hurt 脆弱的,怕碰的
astonishing
a. very surprising 令人惊讶的, 惊人的
scientific
a. 科学(上)的
organism
n. a living being 生物体
creatively
ad. 具有创造性地
artistic
a. of or concerning art or artists 艺术的,艺术家的
imagination
n. the act of imagining or the ability to imagine 想象,想象力
integrate
v. 使一体化
circuit
n. 电路
silicon
n. 硅
chip
n. 集成电路块
Phrases and Expressions
come to one's mind
出现在(某人)脑海里
go in one ear and out the other
左耳进右耳出
up and down
上上下下地
Proper Name
Hindu
印度教的
Text B
PRE-READING TASK
Exercise 1
Read the passage as quickly as possible to find the information you need to answer these questions.
1. What is most important in human communication?
2. What are the three main memory processes （过程） mentioned in the text?
3. What are the two memories described in the passage?
How Your Memory Works
1. In all human communication, information is sent from one person's memory to another. No matter how the message is sent, it must arrive in a form that can be understood, retained, and later recalled by the brain. How do these three memory processes function? Before answering this question, we need to consider the fact that there are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term memory. Psychologists know a great deal about the former kind of memory, but they know very little about the latter kind.
2. Your short-term memory can hold only five to seven "bits" or items of information. However, unless you repeat that information to yourself over and over again, you will forget it in less than a minute. This temporary memory is used when you try to remember a name or telephone number that someone told you a moment ago. Short-term memory plays an important part in thinking and understanding.
3. Many psychologists perform a classical experiment to test the capacity of short-term memory. Subjects sit in small booths, wear headphones, and look at a small TV screen lighted in front of them. A series of numbers is flashed on the screen, and the subjects are asked to identify a specific number to the right of another number in the series. The psychologists discover that when the questions are asked immediately after the number series is flashed off the screen, the subjects can answer quite well; the series is easily remembered as a "memory photograph." If the questions are delayed even one half second, however, memory photographs fade away and accuracy is lowered greatly. The subjects also forget the series quickly when any sort of interruption occurs that blocks their search for a particular number.
4. In another interesting experiment to test short-term memory, psychologists asked volunteers to memorize a short list of numbers such as 2, 4, 7, 8. Subjects were then asked to decide quickly whether a particular number -- for example, 7 -- was in the list. The scientists discovered that the subjects were able to search 25 to 30 memorized numbers per second, and the tests also showed that when the people mentally searched their memorized lists, they would not stop as soon as they recognized a matching number such as 7, but continued through the entire set.
5. Surprisingly, people need to mentally recite the entire memorized list; it is difficult to understand why people must continue searching after they have discovered a matching number. "A possible answer," the scientists explained, "is that searching through the whole list may actually go faster than a search that stops part way through it." In fact, when the psychologists used a different task that required the subjects to stop searching when they found the test number, their search became much slower.
6. Scientists are interested in finding out how short-term memory becomes long-term memory. They know that the process is influenced by age, genetics, hormones and the environment. Also, they know that the brain stores information in various ways at different times. The same event is organized and stored quite differently, depending on whether a person is calm, in panic, or somewhere in between. Depressed persons can recall unpleasant memories quickly because these memories are more meaningful to them; that is, the memories are more directly associated with people's unpleasant experiences. The process of how memory photographs are stored and later recalled still remains an unanswered question.
New Words
retain
v. to keep possession of; avoid losing 保持,保留
process
n. 过程, 进程
function
v. to be in action; work 运行,起作用
n. a special duty (of a person) or purpose (of a thing) 作用,功能
psychologist
n. 心理学家
former
a. & n. the first (of two people or things just spoken of) (两者中)前者(的)
a. of an earlier period 以前的,从前的
latter
a. & n. the second (of two people or things just spoken of) (两者中)后者(的)
item
n. single thing among a set or on a list 项目
temporary
a. lasting only for a limited time 暂时的.短暂的
understanding
n. 理解, 领会
classical
a. traditional 传统的
booth
n. (隔开的)小间
headphone
n. 耳机
screen
n. 屏幕
flash
v. 1. to show for a moment 发出
2. to shine for a moment 使闪光, 使闪烁
identify
v. 1. to prove or show who or what a particular person or thing is 识别,认出,鉴定
2. to show or feel to be the same or exactly alike 认为...一致,使等同于
specific
a. 1. particular; certain 特有的,特定的
2. detailed and exact; clear in meaning 具体的,明确的
fade
v. 1. to disappear little by little 逐渐消失
2. to lose colour 褪色
accuracy
n. exactness or correctness 准确,精确
lower
v. 1. to make or become smaller in amount, price, degree, etc. 减低,减弱
2. to move or let down in height 降低
interruption
n. 打断, 中断
memorize
v. to learn and remember on purpose 记住,熟记
genetics
n. 遗传学
hormone
n. 荷尔蒙, 激素
environment
n. 环境, 外界
panic
n. sudden uncontrollable quick-spreading fear 惊慌
depress
v. to make (sb.) sad and without enthusiasm 使沮丧,使消沉
depressed
a. 1. low in spirits; sad 沮丧的
2. suffering from low levels of business activity 萧条的
directly
ad. in a direct manner 直接地
associate
v. to connect in one's mind 使发生联系,联想
Phrases and Expressions
no matter how
不管怎样
over and over again
反复地,一遍又一遍地
play a(n) (important) part in
起(重要)作用
in front of
在前面
a series of
一系列
fade away 逐渐消失
as soon as
一...就
be associated with
和...相联系
|