姓名比面孔易记

湖南岳阳市华容县第二中学 张祚津

难词探意

1.random/'rændəm/adj.随机的

2.visually/'vɪʒʊəli/adv.在视觉上

3.initial/ɪ'nɪʃl/adj.最初的；开始的

4.mislead/,mɪs'liːd/v.误导；引入歧途；使误信

You can remember the face,but can't put a name to it.Many of us have been caught in this embarrassing situation.But researchers say it is often easier to remember someone's name than what they look like.

Twenty-four volunteers were shown 40 pictures of strangers,paired with random names.They were given time to memorize the faces and names before being tested on which they thought they had seen before.

The participants could remember up to 85 per cent of the names but only 73 per cent of the faces.When they were shown a different picture of the same person,the participants could recall only 64 per cent of faces,according to the study,led by the University of York.

That may be because faces are only recognized visually,while names can be both spoken and written down so appear in our visual and audio memory.When people were shown pictures of famous people,they also remembered their names more accurately than their pho tographs.Co-author Dr Rob Jenkins,from the university's psychology department,said,“Our study suggests that,while many people may be bad at remembering names,they are likely to be even worse at remembering faces.”

This will surprise many people as it is against our initial understanding.Our life experiences with names and faces have misled us about how our minds work.Remembering names gets harder with age,leading to many uncomfortable moments for middle-aged people when they run into acquaintances.

But to study whether names are harder to recall than faces,the researchers,whose findings are published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,used a “fair test”where the participants were presented with strangers'names and faces.

Reading Check

1.What can we know according to the research in paragraph 3?

A.It is certain that names are harder to recall than faces.

B.Remembering names is more easily than remembering faces.

C.Most participants can remember the face not the name to it.

D.The participants can recall 73% faces of the same person.

2.Which of the following will the author agree with?

A.Age will weaken the ability to remember names.

B.Unlike faces,names are only recognized visually.

C.Faces can appear in our visual and audio memory.

D.Dr Rob Jenkins has proved people can remember faces better.

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.People can not remember strangers'names and faces.

B.Recalling names is more difficult than remembering names.

C.The researchers use the same method to study another problem.

D.Whether names are harder to recall than faces is further proved.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

But to study whether names are harder to recall than faces,the researchers,whose findings are published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,used a “fair test” where the participants were presented with strangers'names and faces.

【翻译】_____________________________________________________

【点石成金】这是一个主从复合句。 whether引导宾语从句；whose和where都引导定语从句。whether names are harder to recall than faces使用了“主语+系动词+形容词+to do”的结构，在此结构中，当主语与动词不定式构成被动关系时，动词不定式要使用主动的形式表达被动的含义。