A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doingthings in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number oferrors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lotworse m even dangerous.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________

　　A. to keep track of people who tend too forget things

　　B. to report their embarrassing lapses at random

　　C. to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically

　　D. to keep a record of what they did unintentionally

　　2. Professor Smith discovered that ________

　　A. certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents

　　B. many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness

　　C. men tend to be more absent-minded than women

　　D. absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness

　　3. "Programme assembly failures" (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon thatpeople ______

　　A. often fail to programme their routines beforehand

　　B. tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry

　　C. unconsciously change the sequence of doing things

　　D. are likely to mess things up if they are too tired

　　4. We learn from the third paragraph that _______

　　A. absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day

　　B. women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods

　　C. women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness

　　D. men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations

　　5.It can be concluded from the passage that _____

　　A. people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses

　　B. hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at

　　C. people should be careful when programming their actions

　　D. lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration

　　1.[D] 事實細節(jié)題。本文第1句中的to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions就是指to keep arecord of what they did unintentionally,題目中的subjects指實驗對象，被測試者。

　　2.[A] 事實細節(jié)題。根據第2句中nearly all of them fell into a few groupings可以找到本題答案，題目中的discover是該句中find的同義詞,A的patterns與原文中的groupings意義相同。

　　3.[C] 語義題。根據第2段最后兩句提到,但是不知怎么的這種行為在程序中顛倒了。這些被測試者報告的事件中二十個中有一個屬于這種“流水線程序錯誤”。C的unconsciously與somehow對應,change thesequence of doing things與the action got reversed對應，故本題選C。

　　4.[A] 事實細節(jié)題。根據第3段的第2、3句“一天之中似乎存在一些人們易犯荒謬可笑錯誤的高峰時段”,之后到舉了幾個高峰時間，可知A與之相符。

　　5.[D] 推理判斷題。根據文章最后兩句“一般來說，我們會以為技術嫻熟可以減少錯誤。但是為了避免出現(xiàn)愚蠢的失誤而更加專注，只會把事情弄得更糟糕，甚至會導致危險。”可知D“差錯并不總是注意力不集中導致的” 正確。

　　Most episodes of absent-mindedness forgetting where you left something or wondering whyyou just entered aroom-are caused by a simple lack of attention,says Schacter. “You’resupposed to remember something, butyou haven’t encoded it deeply.”

　　Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a majorimpact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If youput your mobile phonein a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you didbecause you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in thejacket now hanging in you wardrobe (衣柜). “Your memory itself isn’t failing you,” saysSchacter. “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”

　　Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statisticsfrom 30 years ago,” says Zelinski, “may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.” Womenhave slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to theirenvironment, and memory relies on justthat.

　　Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. “But be sure the cue is clearand available,” he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication (藥物) with lunch,put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself anote that you keep in a pocket.

　　Another common episode of absent-mindedness: walking into a room and wondering whyyou’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this fromtime to time,” says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before enteringthe room, and you’ll likely remember.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. Why does the author think that encoding properly is very important?

　　A. It helps us understand our memory system better.

　　B. It enables us to recall something form our memory.

　　C. It expands our memory capacity considerably.

　　D. It slows down the process of losing our memory.

　　2. One possible reason why women have better memories than men is that ________.

　　A. they have a wider range of interests

　　B. they are more reliant on the environment

　　C. they have an unusual power of focusing their attention

　　D. they are more interested in what’s happening around them

　　3. A note in the pocket can hardly serve as a reminder because ________.

　　A. it will easily get lost

　　B. it’s not clear enough for you to read

　　C. it’s out of your sight

　　D. it might get mixed up with other things

　　4. What do we learn from the last paragraph?

　　A. If we focus our attention on one thing, we might forget another.

　　B. Memory depends to a certain extent on the environment.

　　C. Repetition helps improve our memory.

　　D. If we keep forgetting things, we’d better return to where we were.

　　5. What is the passage mainly about?

　　A. The process of gradual memory loss.

　　B. The causes of absent-mindedness.

　　C. The impact of the environment on memory.

　　D. A way if encoding and recalling.

　　1.[B] 事實細節(jié)題。根據第2段第1句可知，encoding是關注某事的一種特殊方式，這影響到以后是否能回憶起這件事來，因此B正確。

　　2.[D] 事實細節(jié)題。根據第3段第3句，“女性比男性的記憶力稍強，這也許是因為她們對周圍的環(huán)境更加注意，而記憶正是依靠這個”，故選D “她們對于周圍發(fā)生的事更感興趣”。

　　3.[C] 事實細節(jié)題。根據第4段首句中說到的“視覺線索可以防止遺忘某事”可知破折號之后的警告“不要把藥瓶放在藥箱里，然后寫一張紙條裝進口袋”正是為了防止藥瓶、提示性信條離開了視線，故選C。

　　4.[A] 推斷題。根據最后一段的前兩句“心不在焉的另一個常見的情景是:走進房間,卻不知為什么要進來。你很有可能是在想別的事”,可知本題答案為A。

　　5.[B] 主旨題。根據第1、3、5段的首句可以得出，本文主要講的是精神不集中的原因，故選B。