Good news for people who have difficulty in remembering things. A memory technique invented by the ancient Greeks has recently been proved to be able to greatly improve ordinary people's memory ability. You may even become a memory champion if you practice hard enough.
This is according to a study published in the journal Neuron. Researchers fro
Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that memory champions aren't all that different to us. People with an average memory can greatly improve their memory ability by using what's known as the“ mind palace” method.
The method is the secret weapon (武器) of the fictional (虚构的) character Sherlock Holmes.
In order to do this, you need to picture a place you're familiar with, such as your living room. Then, you have to remember this place in as much detail as possible as this is your own mind palace.
Suppose you want to remember a shopping list. You can start by spreading out all the items around your living room in your mind. This means each item on your list is connected with a remembered place in your living room. You travel to that remembered place as you recall the list.
To explore the effects of this method on the brain, researchers gathered 51 participants with average memory levels and no previous memory training. After 40 days of daily 30-minute training sessions (一段时间), participants doubled the amount of words they could remember - they went from recalling an average of 26 words out of 72, to an impressive 62. Four months later, even without continued training, their recall performance remained high.
“Once you are familiar with these strategies and know how to apply them, you can keep your performance high without much further training,” Martin Dresler, assistant professor from Radboud University Medical Center, told the Daily Mail.
In addition, the training also affects the way our brain cells connect. After training, the way that the participants' brain cells connect began to be like those of memory champions compared to scans(扫描检查) taken before training. Researchers believe this could be responsible for their increased memory.
But what makes this research so fascinating is that it seems to prove that the talent to store things in your mind isn't down to genes. Dresler found there was no deference in brain structure between memory champions and normal people, which means memory champions are not born with different brains.
“They, without a single exception, trained for months and years using methods to achieve these high levels of performance,” Dresler told Science Daily.
It’s clear that more studies are needed to find out what's going on here, but the “mind palace” method might be your best bet to never forget an important name, date or appointment ever again.
1.The main purpose of the text is to_____
A. present a research on a memory improvement strategy
B. explore the secrets of memory champions
C. argue whether good memory is natural or trained
D. explain how a memory improvement strategy works.
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the “mind place” method?
A. The method became popular because of Sherlock Holmes.
B. People need to draw a familiar place on paper before using the method.
C. The effects of this method are likely to fade when the raining stops
D. The method relies on a connection with a familiar environment to remember things.
3.What would Marin Dresler probably agree with?
A. People's memory level has a lot to do with their brain structure.
B. Memory champions are often born with outstanding memory ability
C. Memory training could change the way our brain cells connect.
D. With continued training, everyone can develop into a memory champion.
In the movie Jurassic Park (1993) a billionaire creates a theme park filled with dinosaurs, brought back from extinction through cloning by a team of scientists.
Although the film is of course fictional, the methods used in it to bring animals back from the dead may soon become reality.
Scientists from Harvard University in the US are currently working on resurrecting the woolly mammoth, a mammal that became extinct around 4,000 years ago.
However, it wouldn't be an exact copy of the hairy beast. "Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo,” Professor George Church, head of the team of scientists, told The Guardian.
“Actually, it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We're not there yet, but it could happen in a couple of years."
The team is hoping to make a “mammophant”- a mix between an elephant and a mammoth. It would be like a regular elephant but have features from the mammoth that would make it more adaptable to cold weather.
Small ears, a thick layer of body fat and, of course, long hair are what helped the mammoth live in freezing temperatures.
So why go through all the effort and expense to bring back an animal that died out thousands of years ago? The answer lies in climate change.
It's hoped that the creatures will stop frost in the world's tundra from melting and releasing huge amounts of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Mammoths used to keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in," said Church. In the summer, they knocked down trees and helped the grass grow."Church and his team are attempting to mix mammoth DNA, recovered from frozen samples of the animal found in Siberia, with that of the Asian elephant, which is its closest relative.
There are critics who believe that the media has got carried away with the story though, after several websites ran headlines such as Woolly mammoths will be roaming Earth again within two years.
“So far, scientists have managed to incorporate traits of the mammoth into elephant DNA. In a few years, they hope to make an embryo, but that's a long way from creating a viable embryo, "Popular Science magazine wrote.
Some have even gone so far as to call the story “fake news". Paleoanthropologist(古人类学家)John Hawks wrote on blog platform Medium: Is this just another case of the media sensationalizing(大肆渲染) what is otherwise a good science story?"
Although we may not be seeing woolly mammoths at the zoo any time in the near future, it's still exciting to know that there is still the possibility of a real Jurassic Park someday, however tiny that possibility may be.
1.The underlined word “resurrecting” in Paragraph 3 probably means__________.
A. making something adaptable to current condition
B. studying a sample of something
C. bringing something back to life
D. producing a hybrid embryo of something
2.What would a mammophant look like according to the text?
A. It would be a combination of elephant, mammoth and dinosaur.
B. It would be an exact copy of the woolly mammoth with long hair.
C. It would look like a normal elephant but also share some mammoth traits.
D. It would be like a bigger sized elephant with small ears and short hair.
3.What is the main purpose of producing mammophants according to Church?
A. To improve biodiversity.
B. To help fight global warming.
C. To remove frost in the tundra.
D. To help grass grow in the tundra.
4.What can be concluded from the text?
A. The media holds a cautious attitude toward the mammophant program.
B. A hybrid elephant- mammoth embryo is likely to be produced within two years
C. The method used to produce mammophants was borrowed from the movie Jurassic Park,
D. Scientists still have a long way to fulfill the goals of the mammophant program.
It’s a rink which has become synonymous with a healthy life style-but is green tea the magical potion many heath sites would have us believe? Green tea has been popular in China for centuries and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a number of health issues-including depression.
Its virtues have also been extolled by celebrities and so-called heath experts for a number of reasons. These include its ability to help weight-loss as well as containing antioxidants which are believed to help combat different types of cancer. heart disease and Alzheimer's. Given these claims, it’s easy to see green tea as sort of magical elixir.
1.Green tea and weight loss
Green tea contains B vitamins, folate (naturally occurring folic acid), manganese, potassium, magnesium, caffeine and other antioxidants, such as catechins. It’s catechins along with green tea’s naturally occurring caffeine which are thought to help the body burn more calories. Weight-loss products containing green tea have a higher concentration of catechins and caffeine than the typical green tea beverage. However, there's some bad news. A review from 2012 of 18 studies involving 1,945 people found no significant effect of weight loss from drinking green tea.
2. Green tea and cholesterol
Thanks again to the catechins, in a reputable review from 2013 of 11 studies involving 821 people, it was found daily consumption of green and black tea (as a drink or a capsule) could help lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
It's important to note, however, that the authors of the study pointed out the trials were short-term, and cautioned longer-term trials would be needed to substantiate their findings. These were back up by an earlier review in 2011, which found drinking green tea enriched with catechins led to a small-reduction in cholesterol, a main cause of heart disease and stroke.
Though no one could say for certain how much green tea a person would need to drink to reap the benefits.
3. Green tea and cancer
On this the NHS is clear. There is no evidence drinking green tea protects against different types of cancer.
1.What's the meaning of the underlined word in the second paragraph?
A. Criticized B. Commented C. Praised D. Exaggerated(夸张)
2.People think the ingredients in green tea that can burn more calories are_______.
①vitamins ② folate ③catechins④magnesium ⑤ caffeine
A. ①② B. ④⑤ C. ③⑤ D. ②⑤
3.According to Part 2, we can infer that______
A. further researches are needed to prove the findings
B. the short-term research is not right
C. the long-term research is not in the works
D. over drinking green tea benefits health
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What is the first thing to celebrate the festival?
A. A group discussion.
B. A lecture.
C. A women's program.
2.Who is Dr. Linda Thompson?
A. Author of Gender Connection.
B. President of the university.
C. Secretary of an organization.
3.What will follow Thomas Lane's talk?
A. A reception. B. A competition. C. A group discussion
4.How can student poets participate in women's History Month?
A. By writing for the newspaper. B. By reading their own poets. C. By giving lectures.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Which people were probably leaving big cities to live in the countryside?
A. The British. B. The Brazilians. C. The Mexicans.
2.What was the likely population in New York in 2000 according to the conversation?
A. 12 million. B. 14 million. C. 26 million.
3.Which is not mentioned as the problem caused by increasing population?
A. Transportation. B. Education. C. Housing.
4.Which city wouldn't be in the top ten in terms of population?
A. London. B. Mexico City. C. New York City
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Who is the man?
A. A repairman. B. The woman’s husband. C. the Kid’s tutor.
2.When will the man see about the window?
A. Tomorrow afternoon. B. In a few weeks. C. In a short time
3.Who broke the window this time?
A. The woman's children. B. The woman. C. The man.
