大家好，我是本期“进贤之声”的发声者金萌。

　　想必每个人在学习语言的时候都为记忆背诵发过愁，不知道你认为自己记忆力是好是差?你能保证你能完全记住一切往事的细节吗?实际上有时候你的记忆并不靠谱!下面与大家分享纪录片《短路的大脑——记忆》，探一探“不靠谱”的记忆。

　　If you think your memory is so sharp, then pay close attention to this. 如果你觉得自己记忆力很好，那么仔细看咯!

　　Your memory is not simply a recording but a carefully distilled, edited, and often over-edited digestion. So often the personal memories that we have are not what they seem and the history that we might consider truth is also not what it seems. These are effectively all stories.

　　你的记忆不只是简单的信息记录，而是一个对信息的仔细提炼和编辑，甚至是反复编辑的信息的消化过程。通常来说，我们的个人记忆并不像我们感觉的那么可靠，还有我们深信不疑的历史事件，并不像它们看上去的样子，这些其实都是编造出来的故事。

　　In fact, you are only conscious of a very small circle of attention like a spotlight that moves around. You can’t remember what you don’t notice.

　　事实上你的注意力只是集中在很小的范围内，这就像来回移动的聚光灯光束一样，你不可能记住你没有注意到的东西。

　　Despite how complex and seemingly advanced our brains are, they only pick up a small fraction of the information they encounter everyday. Even though our brains are a wonder of human evolution, they are still not perfect. The selected details they pick up on are what determine our memories. Memories work by extracting meaning and getting the gist of what is happening around us, rather than remembering every single detail.

　　不管我们的大脑是多么复杂和先进，它们每天只能提取一小部分的遇到的信息。尽管人脑是人类进化的伟大奇迹，它并不完美，大脑挑选的这些细节信息，决定了我们的记忆。记忆的工作方式是这样的，提取含义，掌握周围事件的概括，而不是记住每个细节。

　　What’s more, brain has another problem. Every now and then, it can actually create memories for us, taking the details of people, places and events and making them seem so real, as if they had happened. Our brain can actually create fictitious memories.

　　另外，大脑还存在另一个漏洞，它偶尔会自己创造回忆。制造相关人物、地点和事件的细节信息，这些信息详细逼真，就好像真的发生过一样，人的大脑确实能够制造虚假记忆。

　　General George Patton was a hero of World War II. He claimed he had memories of fighting in some of history’s most famous wars even under Julius Caesar. He also remembered serving under Napoleon. Patton wasn’t pulling these memories out of nowhere. He studied historic battles so closely and accumulated such incredible details on them that it is possible he began to believe he took part in them.

　　巴顿将军是二战英雄，他声称曾经经历过许多著名的历史战役，甚至曾在尤里乌斯·凯撒麾下作战。他还记得自己曾在拿破仑手下服役。巴顿的这些记忆并非无中生有，他曾详细研究了各大历史战役，并积累了大量详尽的细节，以至于他认为自己曾亲身经历过。

　　Our brains and our memories are open to manipulation and when filled with details of a particular event, it is not difficult for our brains to see that event as if we were there whether we were there or not.

　　人的大脑和记忆很容易被操纵，当记忆充满某一特定的细节时，不管你是不是真的经历过，大脑都会很自然地产出一种身临其境感。

　　Confusing memories and getting the facts wrong is just a part of our bleeped up brain, but why do we often have so much confidence in memories that are simply not true Get ready for an experiment that will test you short term memory and you will find the answer.

　　事实上记忆混乱和记忆错误，只是大脑收到干扰的特征之一，可是我们为什么会对错误的记忆深信不疑呢?准备参与一个测试你短期记忆的实验吧，相信你能从中找到答案。

　　看到这里，你应该更能理解短期记忆并不可靠，很有可能发生混乱和错误，所以语言学习只有靠平时多反复、多巩固，形成长期记忆、成为语言习惯才能更牢固地掌握。同时，你不会记得没关注的细节，所以背诵时要专注其中，留意诸如读音、一词多义、同族词变形、用法结构等等，才能更全面地掌握词汇，融会贯通。

　　《短路的大脑》系列还有其他三集——《欺骗》、《迷信》、《事实与虚构》同样精彩!

　　推荐人简介：

　　金萌，现任常州市第二中学高三(3)(7)班英语老师。常州市第二中学青年教师进贤营营员。多听多看多悟之。