Question

【題目】 How long does a year last? Children might say that a year lasts forever. But your parents might say that a whole year can pass "in the blink of an eye". Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?

According to scientists from Duke University, US, our brains degrade（退化）and change over time. This physical change causes the rate at which we take in and deal with new information to fall down.

Babies, for example, move their eyes much more often than grown-ups because they're dealing with images at a faster rate, Adrian Bejan from the university told the Daily Mail. They take in a lot 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's brains degrade over time, fewer images are dealt with in the same amount of time. Therefore, older people receive less information during a day than younger people. This causes things to seem as it they're happening more quickly.

What's more, people may also "feel" time differently due to psychological（心理的）reasons. People may measure time by the number of memorable events that can be recalled（回憶）within a certain period.

Have you ever noticed that when you recall your firsts (first day of school. first family vacation, first birthday party, etc.), they seem to be in slow motion! That's because when something is a "first", there are many exciting things to remember. Recalling these memories makes you feel like they took forever, according to David Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

For many grown-ups, life is made up of daily things. When they look hack they might feel like there are not many interesting things to remember. Therefore, time seems to be moving faster to them.

【1】The phrase "in the blink of an eye" has the similar meaning to "____________".

A.carefullyB.directlyC.slowlyD.quickly

【2】Time seems to pass faster as we get older because _____________.

A.human brains become smaller and smaller over time

B.grown-ups often forget things easily and quickly

C.grown-ups don't deal with information as quickly as babies

D.babies are able to do a lot of things in a single day

【3】What can we know according to David Eagleman?

A.Babies move their eyes much more often than grown-ups.

B.Psychological factors can affect how a person feels about time.

C.Recalling memories makes people feel like time is going faster.

D.Memorable events can slow down the pace of brain degradation.

【4】The author writes this article to ___________________________.

A.explain why people feel time differently as they get old

B.explain why babies learn things faster than grown-ups

C.encourage people to make better use of their time

D.encourage people to create more memorable memories

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】C

【3】B

【4】A

【解析】

這篇短文講述的是相比孩子們來說，成年人或者老人總是覺得時(shí)間過得更快，這是為什么呢？短文中給我們介紹了美國(guó)杜克大學(xué)和貝勒醫(yī)學(xué)院的科學(xué)家們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)。

【1】詞義猜測(cè)題。根據(jù)語境 “Children might say that a year lasts forever. But your parents might say that a whole year can pass "in the blink of an eye".”可知，句中But表示轉(zhuǎn)折，因此But后面這句話的意思與前面應(yīng)該是相反的。前面說“孩子們說一年很長(zhǎng)”，那么后面這句話的意思就應(yīng)該是“父母?jìng)兛赡軙?huì)說一年過得很快”。由此可猜測(cè)出in the blink of an eye的意思是“快速地”。故選D。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第二段 “According to scientists from Duke University, US, our brains degrade（退化）and change over time. This physical change causes the rate at which we take in and deal with new information to fall down.”可知，根據(jù)杜克大學(xué)科學(xué)家們的發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們的大腦會(huì)隨著時(shí)間退化，這種物理變化導(dǎo)致我們吸收和處理新信息的速度下降。C選項(xiàng)“成年人處理信息的速度不如嬰兒快”符合文意。故選C。

【3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)短文第六段 “Have you ever noticed that when you recall your firsts (first day of school. first family vacation, first birthday party, etc.), they seem to be in slow motion! That's because when something is a "first", there are many exciting things to remember. Recalling these memories makes you feel like they took forever, according to David Eagleman of the Baylor College of Medicine in the US.”可知，貝勒醫(yī)學(xué)院的David Eagleman說當(dāng)我們回想很多“第一次”的時(shí)候，它們好像都是慢動(dòng)作，因?yàn)榛貞涍@些記憶會(huì)讓你覺得它們花了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間。這說明了心理因素影響人們對(duì)時(shí)間的感覺。故選B。

【4】主旨大意題。根據(jù)文意以及第一段的最后 “Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?”可知，這篇短文給我們介紹了為什么隨著我們年齡的增長(zhǎng)，我們對(duì)時(shí)間的感覺不一樣了。故選A。