Question

【題目】 When we are children, the holidays seem to last forever. But later, we may find that the time just seems to fly by. Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?

According to the Daily Mail, our brains degrade as we get older. That decreases the amount of information we can deal with in a single day. “The human mind senses time changing when the perceived (被感知的) images change,” Adrian Bejan from Duke University, US, told the Daily Mail. “The present is different from the past because the mental viewing has changed, not because somebody’s clock rings.”

Infants (幼兒), for example, move their eyes much more often than adults because they’re processing (處理) images at a faster rate. They deal with a large amount of information and do many things in a single day. This makes them feel like a single day lasts for a long time. However, as people get older, fewer images are processed in the same amount of time. Therefore, older people receive less information during a day than younger people. This causes things to seem as though they’re happening more quickly.

Apart from the degradation of our brains, some psychological reasons also make us experience time differently.

People may measure time by the number of memorable events that can be recalled (回憶) within a certain period. When we think about our youth, we may remember a life packed with first—time activities, for example, our first time traveling without our parents, or our first date. We experienced these events so vividly that time then seems to us to have passed very slowly. According to David Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine in the US, recalling these memories makes us feel like they took forever.

Many adults find life is routine and sometimes dull. For this reason, when they look back, they might feel like there are not many exciting things to remember. Therefore, time seems to be moving faster to them.

【1】What does the underlined word “degrade” mean?

A.become betterB.become worse

C.remain the sameD.become smaller

【2】How do people sense time changing according to Adrian Bejan?

A.It depends on how their clocks change.B.It depends on how the views around them change.

C.It depends on how often they move their eyes.D.It depends on how they process images.

【3】What is the purpose of the fifth paragraph?

A.To tell us that first—time activities are vivid and memorable.

B.To tell us that first—time events can make time pass slowly.

C.To tell us that psychological reasons make people sense time differently.

D.To tell us that people should measure time by the number of memorable events.

【4】Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?

A.Because our life will become routine and dull when we grow older.

B.Because the degradation of our brains will make it slower to recall memories.

C.Because we’ll deal with less information in the same amount of time.

D.Because we won’t have first—time activities.

【5】In which part of the magazine can you probably read the text?

A.NewsB.SportsC.HealthD.Science

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】D

【3】B

【4】C

【5】D

【解析】

小時候，我們總覺得假期似乎永遠都不會結(jié)束，但后來，我們或許會覺得光陰似箭，日子匆匆從模糊不清的日歷上溜走。為什么隨著我們長大，時間卻似乎變得更快了呢？本文針對這個問題進行了科學(xué)的解釋。

【1】詞義猜測題。become better變得更好；become worse變得更差；remain the same保持一樣；become smaller變得更��；根據(jù)“That decreases the amount of information we can deal with in a single day.”可知我們的大腦是變差了才會每天處理的信息會減少。故選B。

【2】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)“The human mind senses time changing when the perceived (被感知的) images change”可知人類對時間的感知來源于他們思維對圖像的處理。故選D。

【3】推理判斷題。第五段講述了人們用難忘的事情來衡量時間，而這些難忘的事情一般是第一次發(fā)生的事情，這讓人們覺得時間過得很慢。故選B。

【4】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)“as people get older, fewer images are processed in the same amount of time.”可知人越大，同一時間內(nèi)處理的圖像越少。故選C。

【5】題材來源題。本文針對人為什么越大，覺得時間越快做出了科學(xué)的解釋，因此很有可能是雜志中的科學(xué)板塊。故選D。

本文由于生詞較多，對于學(xué)生有一定難度。因此，在做細節(jié)理解題時，要讀懂題目并找出關(guān)鍵詞，再回到文中把關(guān)鍵詞部分的句子找出來，再分析判斷答案。在做推理判斷題時，需要將文章細讀并理解，最后做出判斷。如第三小題，問第五段的目的，這時候我們就需要讀懂第五段，分析他主要講了什么再推斷它的目的。