TPO21托福阅读Passage3 Autobiographical memory文本+题目原文+答案解析

Autobiographical memory

Think back to your childhood and try to identify your earliest memory. How old were you? Most people are not able to recount memories for experiences prior to the age of three years, a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. The question of why infantile amnesia occurs has intrigued psychologists for decades, especially in light of ample evidence that infants and young children can display impressive memory capabilities. Many find that understanding the general nature of autobiographical memory, that is , memory for events that have occurred in one’s own life, can provide some important clues to this mystery. Between ages three and four, children begin to give fairly lengthy and cohesive descriptions of events in their past. What factors are responsible for this developmental turning point?

Perhaps the explanation goes back to some ideas raised by influential Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget----namely, that children under age two years represent events in a qualitatively different form than older children do. According to this line of thought, the verbal abilities that blossom in the two year old allow events to be coded in a form radically different from the action-based codes of the infant. Verbal abilities of one year olds are, in fact, related to their memories for events one year later. When researchers had one year olds imitate an action sequence one year after they first saw it, there was correlation between the children’s verbal skills at the time they first saw the event and their success on the later memory task. However, even children with low verbal skills showed evidence of remembering the event; thus, memories may be facilitated by but are not dependent on those verbal skills.

 Another suggestion is that before children can talk about past events in their lives, they need to have a reasonable understanding of the self as a psychological entity. The development of an understanding of the self becomes evident between the first and second years of life and shows rapid elaboration in subsequent years. The realization that the physical self has continuity in time, according to this hypothesis, lays the foundation for the emergence of autobiographical memory.

A third possibility is that children will not be able to tell their own “life story” until they understand something about the general form stories take, that is , the structure of narratives. Knowledge about narratives arises from social interactions, particularly the storytelling that children experience from parents and the attempts parents make to talk with children about past events in their lives. When parents talk with children about “what we did today”or “last week ”or “last year”, they guide the children’s formation of a framework for talking about the past. They also provide children with reminders about the memory and relay the message that memories are valued as part of the cultural experience. It is interesting to note that some studies show Caucasian American children have earlier childhood memories that Korean children do. Furthermore, other studies show that Caucasian American mother-child pairs talk about past events three times more often than do Korean mother-child pairs. Thus, the types of social experiences children have do factor into the development of autobiographical memories.

 A final suggestion is that children must begin to develop a “theory of mind”----an awareness of the concept of mental states (feelings, desires, beliefs, and thoughts), their own and those of others----before they can talk about their own past memories. Once children become capable of answering such questions as “what does it mean to remember?” and “what does it mean to know something?” improvements in memory seem to occur.

It may be that the developments just described are intertwined with and influence one another. Talking with parents about the past may enhance the development of the self-concept, for example, as well as help the child understand what it means to “remember”. No doubt the ability to talk about one’s past represents memory of a different level of complexity than simple recognition of recall.

Think back to your childhood and try to identify your earliest memory. How old were you? Most people are not able to recount memories for experiences prior to the age of three years, a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. The question of why infantile amnesia occurs has intrigued psychologists for decades, especially in light of ample evidence that infants and young children can display impressive memory capabilities. Many find that understanding the general nature of autobiographical memory, that is , memory for events that have occurred in one’s own life, can provide some important clues to this mystery. Between ages three and four, children begin to give fairly lengthy and cohesive descriptions of events in their past. What factors are responsible for this developmental turning point?

Think back to your childhood and try to identify your earliest memory. How old were you?■ Most people are not able to recount memories for experiences prior to the age of three years, a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. The question of why infantile amnesia■ occurs has intrigued psychologists for decades, especially in light of ample evidence that infants and young children can display impressive memory capabilities.■ Many find that understanding the general nature of autobiographical memory, that is , memory for events that have occurred in one’s own life, can provide some important clues to this mystery. ■Between ages three and four, children begin to give fairly lengthy and cohesive descriptions of events in their past. What factors are responsible for this developmental turning point?

TPO21 托福阅读 Passage1 Autobiographical memory 题目

Question 1 of 14: The word “ample” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.  Surprising

B.  Convincing

C.  Plentiful

D.  Questionable

Question 2 of 14: According to paragraph 1,infantile amnesia has intrigued psychologists because

A. The ability to recount memories prior to three years of age seems to be connected to intelligence in adulthood

B. Psychologists do not understand why some people are able to recount memories from before the age of three years, while others are not able do so

C. Psychologists do not understand the connection between infantile amnesia and autobiographical memory

D. Although psychologists have evidence that infants have memory abilities, most people connot remember life events that happened before the age of three years.

Question 3 of 14: According to paragraph 1, what is the evidence that a child has developed autobiographical memory?

A. The child is able to remember past events from before the age of three years.

B. The child is able to describe past events in a sufficiently lengthy and cohesive manner.

C. The child is aware that he or she does not remember experiences from before the age of three years.

D. The child is able to give a basic description of the nature of autobiographical memory.

Question 4 of 14: In paragraph 2, why does the author provide the information that children with low verbal skills showed evidence of remembering a past event?

A. To provide evidence that memories do not depend only upon verbal skills

B. To challenge the idea that one year olds are too young to form memories

C. To argue that the memory of one year olds depends only on action-based codes

D. To suggest that Piaget later revised his findings on the correlation between memory and verbal ability.

Question 5 of 14: The word “reasonable” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. Consistent

B. Sufficient

C. Apparent

D. Deep

Question 6 of 14:  The word “elaboration” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. Development

B. Specialization

C. Use

D. Transformation

Question 7 of 14:  According to paragraph 3, what is the relationship between autobiographical memory and the development of an understanding of the self?

A. Autobiographical memory aids in the development of an understanding of the self.

B. Children possess an understanding of the self when they can talk about past events in their lives.

C. The realization that the self continues through time may aid in the onset of autobiographical memory.

D. The development of autobiographical memory helps children gain an understanding of their roles in their social relationships.

Question 8 of 14:   All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 4 as ways in which parents help their children understand the structure of narratives EXCEPT

A. Talking with their children about past events

B. Telling stories to their children

C. Having their children repeat stories back to them

D. Showing their children that they think memories are important

Question 9 of 14: According to paragraph 4, the studies of Caucasian American and Korean children suggest which of the following?

A. Autobiographical memories develop similarly across all cultures.

B. Parents from different cultures tell their children different kinds of stories about the past.

C. Children’s pleasure in hearing stories varies from culture to culture.

D. The kinds of interactions children have with their parents affect the development of autobiographical memories.

Question10 of 14: According to paragraph 5, what evidence is there that a “theory of mind” is a factor in the development of autobiographical memory?

A. Even children who are not aware of their mental states are still able to talk about past events.

B. Autobiographical memory decreases when a child’s feelings and mental state are upset.

C. Older children who are unable to achieve awareness of mental states lack autobiographical memory.

D. Children’s memory of past events grows once children can answer questions about what it means to know and remember.

Question11 of 14: The organization of the passage can best be described as

A. The presentation of an argument followed by the evidence for and against it

B. A description of a phenomenon followed by several possible theories about how it develops

C. The definition of a psychological term followed by a history of its usage

D. An explanation of a process followed by a discussion of it practical applications.

Question 12 of 14: The passage supports which of the following statements about the development of autobiographical memory?

A. It is unlikely that a single factor is responsible for the development of autobiographical memory.

B. Jean Piaget was the first psychologist to understand the development of autobiographical memory.

C. Understanding the development of autobiographical memory will help psychologists eliminate infant amnesia.

D. Understanding what it means to remember is the most important factor in the development of autobiographical memory.

Question13 of 14: Look at the four squares■ that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage.

It is unlikely that this memory will be from the first two years of life.

A. Most people are not able to recount memories for experiences prior to the age of three years, a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. The question of why infantile amnesia

B. occurs has intrigued psychologists for decades, especially in light of ample evidence that infants and young children can display impressive memory capabilities.

C. Many find that understanding the general nature of autobiographical memory, that is , memory for events that have occurred in one’s own life, can provide some important clues to this mystery. 

D. Between ages three and four, children begin to give fairly lengthy and cohesive descriptions of events in their past. What factors are responsible for this developmental turning point?

Question14 of 14: The ability to construct autobiographical memories—coherent narratives about events from one’s past---is probably the joint product of several social and intellectual developments.

Answer choices

A.Although children are capable of simple recognition and recall very early in life, they do not develop the capacity for autobiographical memory until the age of three or four years.

B.Verbal skills and familiarity with narrative structures probable aid in the construction of autobiographical memories.

C.Children’s earliest autobiographical memories are usually about social interactions with parents.

D.Research suggests that infantile amnesia occurs in some cultures but not in others and may be linked to children’s social experiences.

E.The development of autobiographical memory allows children to appreciate the fact that memories are an important part of their cultural experience.

F.Children who have acquired a concept of the self and of various mental states are generally able to talk about their own past memories.

TPO21托福阅读Passage3 Autobiographical memory 真题解析

Question 1 of 14

答案：C

解析：ample“大量的”，所以答案是C的plentiful。代入的意思是为什么会发生婴儿期遗忘这个问题已经引发了心理学家们数十年的兴趣，尤其是有大量的证据说明婴幼儿表现出具有令人惊讶的记忆能力。

Question 2 of 14

答案：D

解析：以intrigue psychologists做关键词定位至第四句，提到发生婴儿期健忘症这个问题的原因已经困扰了人们很久，特别是考虑到存在孩子有了些记忆这一证据的存在，也就是说没法解释为什么有证据还infantile amnesia，所以正确答案是D。A的intelligence in adulthood，B的others are not able to和C的autobiographical memory原文都未提及。

Question 3 of 14

答案：B

解析：以developed autobiographical memory做关键词定位至倒数第二句和倒数第三句，提到三四岁的时候，孩子能给出过去事情的lengthy and cohesive description，这是个developmental turning point，所以答案是B。

Question 4 of 14

答案：A

解析：先读例子所在句，提到语言能力不行的孩子也能记住东西，因此语言能力能帮忙形成autobiographical memory而不是决定其形成，所以答案是A，不仅依靠verbal，B和C的one year olds以及D的内容都是此处未提及的。

Question 5 of 14

答案：B

解析：reasonable“合理的，公平的，充足的”，所以正确答案是B的sufficient。原文提到在孩子能够谈论过去之前，他们应该对自己作为独立个体而存在有什么样的认识，consistent和apparent明显不合文意，D的deep“深刻”，孩子不太可能对自己有很深刻的认识，所以也不正确。

Question 6 of 14

答案：A

解析：elaboration“详细阐述，精心制作，精致”，所以答案是A的development，表“展开”之意。从单词本身看，其中包含labor，表示“需要精力或者体力的”，所以跟“精致”有关，不能因为这个选了specialization，因为精致跟专业化是完全不相干的，专业的东西不一定精致，精致的东西也不一定专业；use明显不正确；如果是transformation“变化”，连词不应该用and；这里是前文已经用了development，后文为了避免重复用了一个同义的词。

Question 7 of 14

答案：C

解析：提问两者的关系，找understanding of the self和autobiographical memory双关键词定位至最后一句，提到自我认识为autobiographical memory的发生打下基础，所以答案是C，onset“开端”，A和B都没提到两者的关系，D与原文相反。

Question 8 of 14

答案：C

解析：此题可以采用排除法。A的past events和B的telling stories做关键词都定位至第二句，提到父母在storytelling和讲过去的事的过程中向孩子传授了知识，所以A和B都是正确的，不选；C选项原文未提及，错误，可选；D选项通过memories are important定位至第四句，memories are valued as part of the cultural experience，D正确，不选。

Question 9 of 14

答案：D

解析：问题问到的例子在本段倒数第二和第三句，整个句子都是例子，所以按常理应该向前看，但前一句提到父母告诉孩子memories很重要，不是中心，本段第一句也没有答案支持，所以应该向后看，而且最后一句的thus也暗示了这句话就是中心，所以答案是D，注意factor的名词动用，B和C相似，都不正确，A太绝对，而且剩余的三个答案都是单纯地讲例子，不符合修辞目的题的选项特点。

Question 10 of 14

答案：D

解析：以引号引用的部分做关键词定位至本段第一句，但是这句话除了把题目重复一遍之外什么都没讲，而且这段只有两句话，快速看完第二句，原文提到一旦孩子能回答这样的问题，memories就开始发展了，所以得到答案是D。A与第一句相反； B的decrease和C的lack这里都未提及。

Question 11 of 14

答案：B

解析：提问全文，所以要结合各段主旨，看各段开头，第一段提出问题，第二段到第五段提出了四种可能的原因，第六段提到几种原因可能是相互交错的，只有B提到了several possible theories，所以答案是B。

Question 12 of 14

解析：提问全文，看各段开头，但其实这道题可以接着上题做，因为上题已经提到several possible theories，所以答案明显是A，不可能是单一因素。B的Jean Piaget是第一个psychologist；C的eliminate和D的most important factor原文都未提及。

Question 13 of 14

答案：A

解析：两个过渡点，代词词组this memory和first two years of life，注意是this memory，复数不行，是单数的指代，所以A，C和D有可能是答案，但C是memory capabilities，跟过渡点不重叠，排除；D没有与年纪相关的词，而A有how old were you，所以正确答案是A。

Question 14 of 14

答案：ABF

解析：A选项说小孩直到3-4岁才开始发展自传式记忆，对应原文第一段的内容，正确；B选项对应的是原文第二段的内容；C选项错误，earliest原文未提及，并且该内容也只是第四段的一个细节，不选；D选项说的是婴儿健忘症在某些文化中有，而某些没有，这部分内容原文未提及，不选；E选项与原文第四段第四句相反，原文提到memories important是parents告诉孩子的，不是 memories的发展让他们认识到的，错误，不选；F选项说的是有自我概念和心理状态的孩子能够谈论自己的记忆，对应第5段的内容，正确。

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