CET-6 Listening Practice: How Sleep Protects Memory

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's talk on sleep and memory.

大家早上好，欢迎来听今天关于睡眠与记忆的讲座。

Most of us assume that forgetting simply happens with the passage of time.

我们大多数人都以为，遗忘只是随着时间流逝自然发生的。

The longer ago we learned something, the more of it fades away.

学过的东西隔得越久，忘掉的就越多。

But is time really the main cause of forgetting?

但时间真的是遗忘的主要原因吗？

More than a hundred years ago, two American psychologists decided to put this idea to the test.

一百多年前，两位美国心理学家决定验证这个观点。

In nineteen twenty-four, John Jenkins and Karl Dallenbach conducted a simple but clever experiment.

1924年，John Jenkins 和 Karl Dallenbach 做了一个简单却巧妙的实验。

They wanted to know whether sleep affects how quickly we forget new information.

他们想知道，睡眠是否会影响我们遗忘新信息的速度。

Two university students took part, and they were asked to learn short lists of nonsense syllables.

两名大学生参与了实验，他们被要求记住几组简短的无意义音节。

These were meaningless combinations of letters, so the students could not rely on what they already knew.

这些都是没有意义的字母组合，所以学生们无法借助已有的知识。

They were then tested after one, two, four or eight hours.

然后，他们会在一、二、四或八个小时后接受测试。

Sometimes they spent that interval asleep, and sometimes they went about their normal daily activities.

这段时间里，他们有时在睡觉，有时照常进行日常活动。

The results turned out to be remarkably clear!

结果出奇地清楚！

After eight hours of sleep, the students could still recall about half of the syllables.

睡了八个小时之后，学生们仍能回忆起大约一半的音节。

After eight hours awake, however, they remembered only around one syllable in ten!

然而，清醒八个小时之后，他们只记得大约十分之一的音节！

In other words, staying awake led to far more forgetting than sleeping did.

换句话说，保持清醒比睡觉导致的遗忘要多得多。

The researchers concluded that forgetting is not simply a matter of time passing.

研究人员得出结论：遗忘并不只是时间流逝的问题。

Instead, new experiences during the day seem to interfere with what we have just learned.

相反，白天的新经历似乎会干扰我们刚学到的东西。

However, we should be careful not to draw strong conclusions from a single study.

然而，我们要小心，不能仅凭一项研究就下定论。

Only two people took part, which is an extremely small sample.

只有两个人参与，样本量极小。

Moreover, memorizing nonsense syllables in a laboratory is very different from studying real subjects.

此外，在实验室里背无意义的音节，和学习真正的科目有很大不同。

Fortunately, many later studies with far larger groups have produced similar results.

幸运的是，后来许多规模大得多的研究也得出了类似的结果。

Many scientists now believe that the sleeping brain actively strengthens new memories.

如今，许多科学家认为，睡眠中的大脑会主动巩固新的记忆。

This suggests that sleep is not wasted time, but an essential part of learning.

这说明，睡眠并不是浪费时间，而是学习中必不可少的一部分。

So if you want to retain what you study, review it and then sleep on it.

所以，如果你想记住学过的内容，就先复习一遍，然后睡一觉。

Staying up all night before an exam may well do more harm than good.

考试前熬通宵，很可能弊大于利。

Next time you are tempted to give up sleep for extra study, remember these two students.

下次你想牺牲睡眠多学一会儿时，想想这两位学生吧。

Thank you for listening, and sleep well tonight.

谢谢大家的聆听，今晚睡个好觉。