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91 记忆衰退从年轻时即已开始
SCIENCE REPORT September 6, 2001: Failing MemoryBy George Grow
（Start at 1'01"） This is Bill White with the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT.
It is common for older people to forget things. Now an American study has found that (1)memory starts to fail when we are young adults. People younger than thirty years of age usually do not know that they are starting to forget information. But scientists from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor say the loss of memory usually has already started.
Researchers say people do not (2)observe this slow reduction in (3)mental ability until the loss affects their everyday activities.
Denise Park led the new study. She directs the Center for Aging and (4)Cognition at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Her team studied more than three-hundred-fifty men and women between the ages of twenty and ninety years. The study (5)identified people in their middle twenties with memory problems.
She says young adults do not know they are forgetting things because their brains have more information than they need.
But she says that people in their twenties and thirties are losing memory at the same rate as people in their sixties and seventies.
Mizz Park says people between the ages of sixty and seventy may note the decrease in their mental abilities. They begin to observe that they are having more trouble remembering and learning new information.
The study found that older adults are more likely to remember false information as being true. For example, they remembered false medical claims as being true. Younger people remembered hearing the information. But they were more likely to remember that is was (6)false.
Mizz Park is now using modern (7)imaging (8)equipment to study what happens in the brains of people of different ages. She is studying what parts of the brain older adults use for different activities compared to younger adults. Mizz Park says mental (9)performance is a direct result of brain activity and brain (10)structure. She says keeping the brain active is important. She says older people should take part in activities that keep their brain active. These include being a member of a book-reading club, seeing and (11)discussing plays and (12)concerts and playing games that use the mind. She hopes future studies will identify ways to improve the operation of our aging minds.
This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow.
(1) memory[ 5memEri ]n.记忆, 记忆力, 回忆, 存储(器), 存储器存储器,内
(2) observe[ Eb5zE:v ]vt.观察, 观测, 遵守, 评述, 说
(3) mental[ 5mentl ]adj.精神的, 智力的
(4) cognition[ kC^5niFEn ]n.认识
(5) identify[ ai5dentifai ]vt.识别, 鉴别, 把...和...看成一样v.确定
(6) false[ fC:ls ]adj.错误的, 虚伪的, 假的, 无信义的, 伪造的, 人工的, 不老实的adv.欺诈
(7) image[ 5imidV ]n.图象, 肖像, 偶像, 形象化的比喻, 极为相象, 映像, 典型vt.想象, 作...的像, 反映, 象征
(8) equipment[ i5kwipmEnt ]n.装备, 设备, 器材, 装置, 铁道车辆, (一企业除房地产以外的)固定资产, 才能
(9) performance[ pE5fC:mEns ]n.履行, 执行, 成绩, 性能, 表演, 演奏
(10) structure[ 5strQktFE ]n.结构, 构造, 建筑物vt.建筑, 构成, 组织
(11) discuss[ dis5kQs ]vt.讨论, 论述
(12) concert[ 5kCnsEt ]n.音乐会, 一致
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