If you were like most children, you probably got upset when your mother called you by a sibling’s (兄弟姐妹的) name. How could she not know you? Did it mean she loved you less?
Probably not. According to the first research to tackle this topic head-on, misnaming the most familiar people in our life is a common cognitive (认知的) error that has to do with how our memories classify and store familiar names.
The study, published online in April in the journal Memory and Cognition, found that the “wrong” name is not random but is invariably fished out from the same relationship pond: children, siblings, friends. The study did not examine the possibility of deep psychological significance to the mistake, says psychologist David Rubin, “ but it does tell us who’s in and who’s out of the group.”
The study also found that within that group, misnaming occurred where the names shared initial or internal sounds, like Jimmy and Joanie or John and Bob. Physical resemblance between people was not a factor. Nor was gender.
The researchers conducted five separate surveys of more than 1, 700 people. Some of the surveys included only college students; others were done with a mixed-age population. Some asked subjects about incidents where someone close to them — family or friend — had called them by another person’s name. The other surveys asked about times when subjects had themselves called someone close to them by the wrong name. All the surveys found that people mixed up names within relationship groups such as grandchildren, friends and siblings but hardly ever crossed these boundaries.
In general, the study found that undergraduates were almost as likely as old people to make this mistake and men as likely as women. Older people and this mistake and men as likely as women. Older people and women made the mistake slightly more often, but that may be because grandparents have more grandchildren to mix up than parents have children. Also, mothers may call on their children more often than fathers, given traditional gender norms. There was no evidence that errors occurred more when the misname was frustrated, tired or angry.
1.What did David Rubin’s research find about misnaming?
A.It is related to the way our memories work.
B.It is a possible indicator of a faulty memory.
C.It occurs mostly between kids and their friends.
D.It often causes misunderstandings among people.
2.What is most likely the cause of misnaming?
A.Similar personality traits. B.Similar spellings of names.
C.Similar physical appearance. D.Similar pronunciation of names.
3.What did the surveys of more than 1,700 subjects find about misnaming?
A.It more often than not hurts relationships.
B.It hardly occurs across gender boundaries.
C.It is most frequently found in extended families.
D.It most often occurs within a relationship groups.
4.The passage is mainly about ______.
A.scientific research on misnaming and their findings.
B.why mother misname their kids more often than fathers.
C.a brain test to explain why misnaming functions in its way.
D.the advantages and disadvantages of misnaming children.
We’re told that writing is dying. Typing on keyboards and screens _______ written communication today. Learning cursive (草书的), joined-up handwriting was once _______ in schools. But now, not so much. Countries such as Finland have dropped joined-up handwriting lessons in school _______ typing courses. And in the US, the requirement to learn cursive has been left out of core standards since 2013. A few US states still place value on formative cursive education, such as Arizona, but they’re not the _______.
Some experts point out that writing lessons can have indirect benefits. Anne Trubek author of The history and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, argues that such lessons can _______ a skill called auto-maticity. That’s when you’ve perfected a task, and can do it almost without thinking, granting you _______ mental bandwidth to think about or do other things while you’re doing the task. In this sense, Trubek compares handwriting to driving.
“Once you have driven for a while, you don’t _______ think ‘Step on gas now’ or ‘Turn the steering wheel a bit,’” he explains. “You just do it. That’s what we want children to _______ when learning to write. You and I don’t think ‘now make a loop going up for the ‘I”-or “now look for the letter ‘r’ on the keyboard’. Trubek has written many essays and books on handwriting, and she doesn’t believe it will die out for a very long time. _______, she believes students are learning auto-maticity faster with keyboards than with handwriting: students are learning how to type without looking at the keys at earlier ages, and to type faster than they could write, granting them extra time to think about word choice or sentence __________. In an essay for the New York Times last year, Trubek argued that due to the __________ automaticity of keyboards, today’s children may well become better communicators in text as handwriting takes up less of their education. This is a view that has attracted both criticism and support.
She explains that two of the most common arguments she hears from __________ regarding the decline of handwriting is that not protecting it will result in a “loss of history” and a “loss of __________ touch.”
On the former she __________ that 95% of handwritten manuscripts can’t be read by the average person anyway-“that’s why we have paleographers (古文字学家),” she explains, paleography being the study of ancient styles of writing-while the __________ refers to the warm associations we give to handwritten personal notes, such as thank-you cards. Some educators seem to agree, at least to an extent.
1.A.defines B.dominates C.initiate D.benefits
2.A.compulsory B.satisfactory C.optional D.selective
3.A.in honor of B.for sake of C.in favor of D.on behalf of
4.A.majority B.necessity C.standard D.advocate
5.A.generate B.reveal C.measure D.strengthen
6.A.extra B.max C.important D.frequent
7.A.seriously B.occasionally C.formatively D.consciously
8.A.consider B.acquire C.forget D.associate
9.A.Therefore B.Otherwise C.Fortunately D.However
10.A.structure B.interpretation C.order D.selection
11.A.renewed B.accepted C.invented D.improved
12.A.students B.schools C.critics D.experts
13.A.intensive B.personal C.close D.constant
14.A.agrees B.persuade C.counter D.confirms
15.A.writing B.latter C.manuscript D.criticism
The study of colors indicates ______ persuades people to think of the bank as a safe and reliable place.
A.what is it that B.it is what C.what it is that D.it is that
Harry never enjoys visiting large cities because he thinks one such city is much like ______.
A.another B.the other C.the others D.others
Animal’s ability to act reasonably in its environment is believed to come partly from ______ we may call “genetic learning”.
A.how B.which C.what D.why
______ with the evidence, he had no choice but to admit his crime.
A.Facing B.Faced C.To face D.Being faced
