PeopleCert LanguageCert General Test (Reading)
Reading

Read the four texts about memory. There are seven questions about the texts. Which text gives you the answer to each question? Choose the correct text (A-D) for each question.
A.
 When I told people I was going to write a book on memory, I saw ‘Good luck with that!’ written on a few faces. Memory is such a massive topic. My interest is in what is called autobiographical memory – the memories we have for the events of our own lives. Several decades of research tell us that every time we recall these kinds of memories, our brains re-invent them slightly to match our current beliefs. However, survey after survey tells us that many people remain convinced that memories once made, are forever fixed. Why is this the case? One possible reason is that memories are precious to us: they define us in many ways, and so we are horrified by the idea that they are unreliable. That is what I wanted to explore in my book.
B.
 The techniques we teach on this memory course are relatively easy to learn and their effectiveness is backed up by research. Some people are of the view that being able to hold information in your brain is not necessary in an age where so much information is immediately available online. We disagree: our memories work by linking different ideas to each other. As well as being crucial to memory, this is also the basis of creative thinking. Since careers in the future are likely to be less concerned with repetitive tasks that can be done by computers and more about being creative, having a good memory will become more, not less, important in the future.
C.
 We’re living in the most photographed era of history and as a psychologist I’m fascinated by the effect this is having on our memories. I’ve long wondered whether the act of taking pictures affects the way we make memories of our experiences. And it now seems this may be the case. In a recent experiment, a scientist took people around a museum and asked them to take photos of some exhibits but not others. They found people had worse memories of the things they had photographed than the things they hadn’t. It’s as if having a picture of something means you don’t need to make a strong memory of it. Your brain seems to be saying, ‘It’s OK, I can always look at the picture if I need the information.’
D.
 This new book on the science of memory explores the reasons why we retain so few memories from early childhood. From about the age of 6 or 7, many of the early autobiographical memories we’ve made begin to gradually fade away. Scientists have known about this for more than a century but it’s only in the past decade that they’ve begun to figure out why it happens. As you will discover within the pages of this book, it seems to be because the brain systems responsible for autobiographical memory aren’t fully formed in young children. It’s not that they don’t work at all, it’s just that they don’t work as well as they are going to in later childhood and in adulthood.
In which text does the writer…
mention a suspicion they had that turns out to be correct?
suggest that developing our memory can improve another skill?
point out that most of us hold a mistaken belief about how one kind of memory works?
explain the likely cause of a certain type of memory loss?
argue against the idea that being able to remember things matters less these days?
explain why the brain may sometimes choose not to remember something?
describe the reaction they got after revealing a plan?