环球英语 05 Trusting Your Memory

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Thank you for joining us for Spotlight 1. I’m David Bast.

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And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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How good is your memory? Can you depend on your memories to be correct? Today’s Spotlight is about memory.

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Paul Doherty is a writer from the United 2 States. He describes a memory for us.

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“I, my friend Martin, and a small group were climbing in the mountains. We climbed with two ropes. Martin and I climbed using the first rope. We had already reached the highest point of the mountain. And we could see that a storm was coming. We knew that we needed to protect ourselves. We climbed a little way back to a shelter 3 area. We would be safe there.

Not all of the people in our group had reached the top of the mountain yet. They were using the second rope to climb. So we stayed at the shelter to wait for them.

I can still see it like it was yesterday! People on the second rope were still climbing the side of the mountain. The lightening 4 came from the sky. It hit the rope. Some of the people in the group were still using that rope to climb! The people on the rope were not seriously harmed. But they were very frightened.

I remember clearly that, after the storm stopped, I helped the climbers off the second rope to the shelter. I was waiting for them as they came over the edge 5 of the cliff 6.”

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Paul keeps a journal 7, a book where he writes his thoughts. He also writes about the things that happen to him during the day. A few years after this climbing incident 8, Paul looked back at his journal. He looked at what he had written in his journal about this incident. Paul was shocked. His written story and his memory were different!

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What really happened then? Well, Paul and Martin did climb from the mountain top back down to the shelter. But, they decided 9 to take turns waiting on the edge for the second rope of climbers. One stayed by the edge of the mountain waiting. And the other stayed in the shelter to keep warm. Then they traded positions. Paul was not at the edge of the mountain to help the climbers up. In fact, his friend Martin was the one who had helped the second rope of climbers up! Paul was back at the shelter!

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Paul remembered something that never really happened! His journal had the real story. But his memory was wrong. However, he says he remembers the event clearly! So, can we really trust our memories? What can we believe?

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Some people believe that memories are stored like pictures in a person’s mind. If a person wants to remember a particular event or story he goes to a special part of his brain. Then he just pulls the memory out. If this is the case, a person’s memory should be perfect. All he has to do is look at the ‘picture’ in his mind to remember it.

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But researchers say this is not how it works 10. Instead, our memories are much more complex 11! Experts say that our brains divide our memories into many parts. The brain stores the sounds, sights, smells and tastes that you remember in different areas. Let’s look a little closer at how the brain recreates memories.

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The brain has an outer layer around an inner 12 mass. The outer layer is called the “cortex”. The cortex is only a few millimetres thick. But it holds about seventy thousand million [70,000,000,000] brain cells 14! These cells in our cortex are a grey colour, so together they form our ‘grey matter.’ This part of the brain stores pieces of information. But the cells in the grey matter need to communicate with each other. This is where ‘white matter’ comes in. The white matter is the inner part of the brain.

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Each brain cell 13 has long extended 16 arms. The cell sends information down one arm called an axon. Think of it like a telephone sending information down a wire. Every cell has one of these axons. The cell also has other arms - called dendrites. These are lines for receiving information. The axons and dendrites extend 15 away from the grey matter on the outside of the brain to the white matter inside. In fact they are the white matter - because axons and dendrites are white in colour. The axons and dendrites permit 17 brain cells to communicate with each other. They can connect, disconnect, and reconnect. Where they meet, an axon and a dendrite form a synapse 18. A synapse is a kind of meeting point. The axon of one cell passes information to a dendrite of another cell through a synapse.

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Let us say that you want to remember an event from last week. Researchers say that remembering involves lots of small pieces of information coming together to make the whole event. Think of many brain cells joining together like people joining hands. The axons and dendrites reach out from the cells like arms from the people’s bodies. The synapses 19 are where the axons and dendrites meet. This is like the joined hands of the people. We sense the whole event in our memory when the cells join together in this way. Only some of the brain’s cells have a part in the memory of each event. Different cells join for different memories. Just how well the cells can join controls how strong the memory is. If there are many synapses, or connections, a memory is strong. But, if there are only a few synapses, the memory may be weak.

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People can improve their memories. But, they can never be perfect. People’s memories are amazingly put together, but they do fail. This can be a little frightening to hear. So, what can we trust if we cannot trust our own minds or memories?

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Well, Christians 20 believe there is one memory people can trust. Christians believe that God’s memory never fails. God has promised that he will love and forgive every person. He has promised that he will take care of his people. It is nice to know that God never forgets his promises to his people. Christians believe that even when people do not always remember how good God is, he does remember! He always remembers his promises. And that is good for all of us to remember!

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The writer and producer of this program was Liz Waid. Computer users 21 can hear our programs on our website at . This program is called “Trusting Your Memory.”

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We have translated Paul Doherty’s words into Specialised English. You can e-mail us at radio @ english . net. Goodbye!