Can you imagine being able to remember every single experience of your life and every word in your favorite book? That’s what Becky’s life is like, and as wonderful as it sounds, it can also be quite terrifying at times.
Three years ago, Becky was reading a newspaper article which mentioned that it was impossible for people to remember the details of their life in the first three years. “What nonsense (胡说八道)!” she thought, because she could clearly remember her life all the way back to when she was just 12 days old. Her parents had carried her to the driver’s seat of their car and laid her down for a photo. But it wasn’t nonsense. She was just one of only 80 known people who have a condition called HSAM(Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory).
Becky’s unusual condition was recently shown on a program called 60 minutes, where reporter Allison tested her ability by asking her questions about her favorite book series, Harry Potter. Allison would pick up a book and open a page and read her a line. Immediately Becky would name the book, chapter number, chapter name and could recite every word until Allison told her to stop.
Being able to remember every little detail is a great ability, but as every person with HSAM will tell you, it can be very hard to deal with. Forgetting is one of the things we use to get over sad experiences in our lives, but it’s something that people like Becky are unable to do. Even walking on the street and lightly bumping(撞) into somebody brings back memories from Becky’s childhood, when a boy knocked her over. She’s taken right back to that time, living the experience all over again. Also, like Becky, people with HSAM never do well in school, because they have problems filtering(过滤) through all the information, remembering only the important bits.
Becky’s special brain could help scientists find a way to treat people with terrible illnesses like Alzheimer’s. Her condition could hold the secret to treating or even preventing Alzheimer’s.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．What people with HSAM feel like. |
| B．Why HSAM is unfamiliar to people. |
| C．How Becky knew she was different. |
| D．How Becky spent her early childhood. |
| A．To help treat her illness. |
| B．To advertise Harry Potter. |
| C．To test her ability to remember. |
| D．To encourage other kids to read. |
| A．She can’t forget her painful experience. |
| B．She feels tired remembering everything. |
| C．She can’t get along well with other kids. |
| D．She is different from other kids of her age. |
| A．She feels sad every time she studies. |
| B．She remembers too much information. |
| C．She can’t deal with difficult problems. |
| D．She can’t understand the teacher in class. |
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【推荐1】Let me tell you about my relationship with the school desk. From my first day at Penny Camp Elementary School in 1982, it was terrible. This is how it went down: five seconds into class, the foot start bouncing;10 seconds in, both feet; 15 seconds, I burst out the drums! After a few minutes, it’s all over. I’m trying to put my leg behind my neck. No, that desk and I didn’t get along.
Sitting still was hard enough, but I also struggled with reading. Reading out loud in class was a special kind of hell(地狱). By the third grade I had progressed from being one of “those kids” to being the “special kid”. I was found to have multiple language-based learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder (A.D.D) (注意力缺陷障碍症). I was turned into a “patient” who needed treatment rather than a human being with differences. I struggled with severe anxiety and depression at age 10.
I survived this time in my life because of my mom. She knew in her heart that her child wasn’t broken and didn’t need to be fixed.My mom was right. When I think back on my school experience, I realize it wasn’t the A.D.D. that disabled me. What disabled me were limitations not in myself but in the environment. I’ve come to believe that I did not have a disability, as it is common to say, but experienced disability in environments that could not accommodate and accept my differences.
In the fall of 1977, after two years at Loyola Marymount University, where my learning differences were fully accommodated, I transferred to(转学) Brown University, where I graduated with an honors degree in English literature. I still can’t spell or sit still, but I now use support and technology to relieve my weakness and build a life on my strengths. I don’t feel stupid anymore and I know that I—and others like me—can live good lives despite these challenges.
1. What does the author want to tell us in the first paragraph?| A．He didn’t like to study. | B．He used to be active at school. |
| C．He suffered from a broken desk. | D．He had trouble sitting still in class. |
| A．Exited. | B．Uneasy. |
| C．Interested. | D．Bored. |
| A．He is living a good life with his weakness. |
| B．His disability has been cured by technology. |
| C．He got his honors degree in English literature in the fall of 1997. |
| D．He was transferred to Brown University because of his disability. |
| A．a disability is nothing but a difference |
| B．family’s support is the most important |
| C．disabled people can’t live well however hard they work |
| D．sometimes limitations of the environment disable a person |
【推荐2】A new study has found that social media could be affecting the sleep of young adults.
The study is a project of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. They found that young people who often use social media are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than those who use social media less. The researchers say doctors should ask young adults about their use of social media when treating sleep issues.
“This is one of the first pieces of evidence that social media use really can influence your sleep,” said Jessica C Levenson. She was the lead author of a report on the study.
The researchers set out to examine the connection between social media use and sleep among young adults. Levenson noted that these young adults are possibly the first “generation to grow up with social media”.
The researchers wanted to find out how often young people used social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Credit and Tumbler. For the study, they gave questionnaires to nearly 1,800 adults, aged 19 to 32.On average, members of the study group used social media sites one hour a day. They also visited various social media 30 times per week.
Thirty percent of the study’s participants reported having serious problems with sleeping. Those people who used social media a lot were three times more likely to have a sleep disorder. And those who spent the most time on social media were two times as likely to suffer from sleep disturbances. Levenson said, “The number of times a person visits social media is a better predictor of sleep problems than overall time spent on social media.” “If this is true, then practices that stop such behaviors may be the most effective,” she added.
1. What are doctors advised to do when treating young adults’ sleep problems?| A．Survey their eating habits. | B．Give them less medicine. |
| C．Ask them the use of social media. | D．Know about their living conditions. |
| A．By doing online research. | B．By doing questionnaires. |
| C．By comparing with the elderly. | D．By collecting information from magazines. |
| A．Nearly 1,200. | B．Around 900. | C．More than 500. | D．Less than 300. |
| A．Using computers less helps avoid sleep problems. |
| B．People depend on social media to treat sleep problems. |
| C．Using social media is necessarily to cause a sleep disorder. |
| D．Sleep problems can be relieved by shortening social media time. |
【推荐3】The act of social distancing（社交距离）has become an effective protective measure against the novel coronavirus(冠状病毒) and a part of everyday life across the world. Many countries have launched different social distancing measures. Some are strict while others are creative. Let’s take a look at three special quarantine (隔离) measures around the world.
Panama
With more than 3,000 confirmed cases by April 12, the Central American country Panama has announced strict quarantine measures. One of them is to separate people by gender （性别） to go out.
Starting in April, males in the country are required to leave home on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday while females can go out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. No one is allowed to go out on Sundays.
To further prevent the spread of COVID-19, citizens are able to leave their homes for only two hours at a time.
“This absolute quarantine is for nothing more than to save your life,” the country’s security minister Juan Pino said at a news conference.
But according to the Guardian, the quarantine measures do not apply to civil servants（公务员） or other essential staff(职工) who are battling against the novel coronavirus on the frontline.
Colombia
ID numbers are unique identification tools for individuals, but they may also be used to decide when people can go out in Colombia during the novel coronavirus pandemic. According to the BBC, people in some Colombian towns are allowed to be outside based on the last digit of their national ID number.
For example, in northwest-central Colombia, people with an ID number ending in zero, four or seven are allowed to leave the house on Monday, while those with an ID number ending in one, five or eight can go outside on Tuesday. Similar quarantine measures have been proposed in the nearby country of Bolivia.
France
Though outdoor exercise is a good way to keep healthy, it can sometimes cause too many people to gather in one place. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Paris has banned all outdoor exercise between 10 am and 7 pm.
Outside of this time span, people are allowed to exercise individually as long as it’s for less than an hour and within one kilometer of their home. If people break the rule, they will face fines of between €135 (about 1,040 yuan) and €375.
1. What can we learn about Panama’s social distancing measures?| A．No one can go out for dinner, starting in April. |
| B．All citizens should follow the rules of going out by gender. |
| C．Ordinary citizens can stay outside for at most two hours at a time. |
| D．Civil servants are allowed to go out every day except on Sundays. |
| A．Females. |
| B．Males. |
| C．Those with an ID number ending in one, five or eight. |
| D．Those with an ID number ending in zero, four or seven. |
| A．Cycling around one’s home at 5 pm. |
| B．Playing basketball with friends at 8 pm. |
| C．Playing badminton in front of one’s house at noon. |
| D．Jogging alone near one’s home from 8 am to 8:30 am. |
