Question

Pictures That Don’t Last

“YEARS ago when I was at the Grand Canyon, I remember someone coming up to the canyon’s edge, taking a shot with their camera and then walking away, like ‘got it – done’, barely even glancing at the magnificent (壮观的) scene sprawling (展开) in front of them,” Linda Henkel, a scientist at Fairfield University, US told Live Science.

Henkel was surprised by how obsessed (着迷的) people are with taking pictures these days – before dinner, during friends’ birthday parties, on museum tours and so on. You know people just like that, don’t you?

They keep taking pictures because they think that it helps record the moment, but as Henkel’s latest study has just found out, this obsession may prevent their brains from remembering what actually happened, reported The Guardian.

In her study, Henkel led a group of college students around a museum and asked them to simply observe 15 objects and to photograph 15 others. The next day the students’ memory of the tour was tested, and the results showed that they were less accurate in recognizing the objects and they remembered fewer details about them if they photographed them.

“When people rely on technology to remember for them – counting on the camera to record the event and thus not needing to attend to it fully themselves, it can have a negative effect on how well they remember their experiences,” Henkel explained.

But there is also an exception: if students zoomed (缩放) in to photograph part of an object, their memory actually improved, and those who focused the lens (镜头) on a specific area could even recall parts that weren’t in the frame.

So basically, this study is saying that constantly taking pictures can harm your memory. But shouldn’t reviewing pictures we have taken help wake up our memories? This is true, but only if we spend enough time doing it.

“In order to remember, we have to access（接近）and interact with the photos, rather than just amassing them,” Henkel told The Telegraph. However, previous research has shown that most people never take the time to look over their digital pictures simply because there are too many of them and they aren’t usually very organized on their computers.

1.The author mentioned Henkel’s trip to the Grand Canyon at the beginning to ______.

A. complain about some tourists’ bad habits

B. give suggestions on how to enjoy one’s tour

C. describe the great view of the Grand Canyon

D. point out people’s obsession with taking pictures

2.Which of the following statements about Henkel’s study is TRUE?

A. Reviewing pictures always helps people bring back memories.

B. Taking pictures in a museum tour helps students recognize objects better.

C. Pictures that focus on the details of objects are likely to improve people’s memories.

D. People should spend more time studying real objects than taking pictures of them.

3.The underlined word “amassing” in the last paragraph probably means ______.

A. displaying B. collecting

C. introducing D. remembering

4.What is the article mainly about?

A. Some skills to learn for taking pictures.

B. People’s obsession with taking pictures and its influence.

C. How pictures remind us of our past.

D. How to deal with pictures after taking trips.

Answer 1