Exercising YourMemory

Aging does notmean a dramatic decline in memory power,unless you help it happen by lettingyour mind go.

2. That's not to saythat memory doesn't change throughout life.Researchers divide memory intocategories based on the length of time when memories are stored.One system

divides it up asshort-term(less than one minute;remembering a telephone number while youdial,for in-stance),long-term(over a period of years)and very long-term memory

(over a lifetime).

3. Short-term memoryisn't mastered until about age 7,but after that you never lose it. Long-termmemory,however,involves more effort and skill and changes more through

life.It's not untilthe early teens（十几岁）thatmost people develop a mature long-term memory.

4. First,we must getinformation into our heads through learning.Learning strategies can get rusty（生锈）without constant use. High schooland college students,who are

forced torepeated-ly exercise their long-term memory abilities(at least long enough toget them through a final ex- am),usually do well on memory tests.The longer youstay

in school,the morechance you get to polish your learning skills.It's no wonder that more highlyeducated people have more effective memory skills throughout life.

5. Although olderpeople in general learn somewhat more slowly than they did when younger,a dramaticdifference exists between those who stay intellectually active—

reading,discussing,tak-ing classes, thinking—andthose who do not. Giving the brain daily workout（锻炼）isjust as important as exercising your muscles.Brainwork keeps

your learningstrategies in shape,and this helps your memory to function at full capacity.

6.The next part of ahealthy long-term memory is retention(记忆力）,the ability to store what you have learned.Memory researchers stilldo not know whether memories are

los—whether theystill exist in the brain but our mental searching cannot turn them up,or havedisappeared entirely as our brain ages.

7. The thirdnecessity for memory is recall,the ability to bring to mind the memories wehave stored .Again,while aging has widely different effects on the recallabilities of

different people,research indicates that the older we get,the longer it takes to recallfacts.But slower recall is still recall.In fact,aging does not seem to have anyeffect on

forgetting atall,which takes place at the same rate in younger and older people.

Rememberingsomething all your life_________.

A.for younger andolder people

B.to the properfunction of your memory

C. is calledlong-term memory

D.the capacity tostore what you have learned

E.belongs to verylong-term memory