It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions (感知物) , the bases for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory.
Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available (有效的) for later use. It includes not only “remembering” things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves. Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain because he has sensed something suspicious in the grain pile. Memory is also involved when a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat.
Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines. Computers, for example, contain devices for storing data (数据) for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory-storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being. The instant access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100000 “words” ready for instant use. An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100000 words of English. However, this is but a fraction (片段) of the total amount of information which the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.
The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings. A large part of a person’s memory is in terms of words and combinations of words.
1. According to the passage, memory is considered to be ________.
A. the basis for decision making and problem solving
B. an ability to store experiences for future use
C. an intelligence (智慧) typically possessed by human beings
D. the data mainly consisting of words and combinations of words
2. The comparison made between the memory capacity of a large computer and that of a human being
shows that ________.
A. the computer’ s memory has a little bigger capacity than a teenager’s
B. the computer’ s memory capacity is much better than an adult human being’s
C. the computer’ s memory capacity is much smaller even than a teenager’s
D. the memory capacity of a teenager’s should be full made use of
3. The whole passage implies that_________.
A. only human beings have problem-solving intelligence
B. a person’s memory is different from a computer’s in every respect
C. animals are able to solve only very simple problems
D. animals solve problems by instincts (本能) and intelligence
4. The phrase “in terms of” in the last sentence can best be replaced by_______.
A. changing into B. expressed by C. making up D. made up of
5. Which of the following is the topic of the passage?
A. What life would be like without memory.
B. Memory is of complete importance to life.
C. How a person’ s memory is different from an animal’s or a computer’s.
D. What is contained in memory.