2017年06月四级第2套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

The brain is a seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime's knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity?

大脑似乎是一个无尽的图书馆，其书架上存放着我们最珍贵的记忆以及我们一生的知识。但它是否有一个容量极限？

The answer is no, because brains are more sophisticated than that. Instead of just crowding in, old information is sometimes pushed out of the brain for new memories to form.

答案是否定的，因为大脑比那更复杂。旧信息并非只是被挤在一起，有时会被挤出大脑，以便新记忆的形成。

Previous behavioural studies have shown that learning new information can lead to forgetting. But in a new study, researchers demonstrated for the first time how this effect occurs in the brain.

以往的行为研究表明，学习新信息可能导致遗忘。但在一项新研究中，研究人员首次展示了这种效应如何在大脑中发生。

In daily life, forgetting actually has clear advantages. Imagine, for instance, that you lost your bank card. The new card you receive will come with a new personal identification number (PIN). Each time you remember the new PIN, you gradually forget the old one. This process improves access to relevant information, without old memories interfering.

在日常生活中，遗忘实际上有明显的优势。例如，想象你丢失了银行卡。你收到的新卡会带有一个新的个人识别码（PIN）。每次你记住新的PIN时，你就会逐渐忘记旧的。这个过程改善了对相关信息的访问，避免了旧记忆的干扰。

And most of us may sometimes feel the frustration of having old memories interfere with new, relevant memories. Consider trying to remember where you parked your car in the same car park you were at a week earlier. This type of memory (where you are trying to remember new, but similar information) is particularly vulnerable to interference.

我们大多数人有时可能会感到沮丧，因为旧记忆干扰了新的、相关的记忆。考虑尝试记住一周前在同一个停车场你停车的位置。这种记忆类型（试图记住新的但相似的信息）特别容易受到干扰。

When we acquire new information, the brain automatically tries to incorporate (合并) it within existing information by forming associations. And when we retrieve (检索) information, both the desired and associated but irrelevant information is recalled.

当我们获取新信息时，大脑会自动尝试通过形成联想将其合并到现有信息中。而当我们检索信息时，所需的信息和相关但无关的信息都会被回忆起来。

The majority of previous research has focused on how we learn and remember new information. But current studies are beginning to place greater emphasis on the conditions under which we forget, as its importance begins to be more appreciated.

以往的研究大多集中在我们如何学习和记忆新信息上。但当前的研究开始更加强调我们遗忘的条件，因为其重要性开始得到更多认可。

A very small number of people are able to remember almost every detail of their life. While it may sound like an advantage to many, people with this rare condition often find their unusual ability burdensome.

极少数人能够记住他们生活中的几乎每一个细节。虽然这对许多人来说听起来像是一种优势，但患有这种罕见病症的人常常发现他们这种不寻常的能力是种负担。

In a sense, forgetting is our brain's way of sorting memories, so the most relevant memories are ready for retrieval. Normal forgetting may even be a safety mechanism to ensure our brain doesn't become too full.

从某种意义上说，遗忘是我们大脑分类记忆的方式，以便最相关的记忆随时可检索。正常的遗忘甚至可能是一种安全机制，以确保我们的大脑不会变得太满。