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通常，人们认为年纪越大，记忆力越差，经常容易忘事。但实际上，变差的只是短时记忆力，而记忆力的其他一些方面，反而会随年龄增长而提升。记忆力与年龄的关系，究竟如何？
Everyone Knows Memory Fails as You Age. But Everyone Is Wrong每个人都以为年龄越大记忆力越差，但大家都错了
Short-term memory contains the contents of your thoughts right now, which is easily disturbed or disrupted. It depends on your actively paying attention to the items that are in the “next thing to do” file in your mind. Our ability of the short-term memory declines slightly with every decade after 30.短期记忆包含你当下正在思考的内容，它很容易受到干扰或中断，取决于你能否积极关注脑海中“下一件要做之事”。30岁以后，我们的短期记忆力每十年会略有下降。
But age is not the major factor so commonly assumed. Some aspects of memory actually get better as we age. For instance, our ability to extract patterns, regularities and to make accurate predictions improves over time because we’ve had more experience. If you’re going to get an X-ray, you want a 70-year-old radiologist reading it, not a 30- year-old one.人们通常认为年龄是主要因素，但其实不然。实际上，随着年龄的增长，记忆的某些方面反而会加强。例如，随着时间的推移，我们的经验愈加丰富，因而提炼模式、识别规律以及做出准确预测的能力会提高。当你要拍X光片时，相较于一位30岁的放射科医生，你更希望一位70岁的医生为你读片。
So how do we account for our subjective experience that older adults seem to fumble with words and names?那么要如何解释我们的主观经验，即为什么老年人似乎常常想不起一些词或是名字？
First, there is a generalized cognitive slowing with age — but given a little more time, older adults perform just fine.首先，随着年龄的增长，人的认知能力会普遍下降；但如果多给老年人一点时间，他们的认知表现也挺好。Second, older adults have to search through more memories than do younger adults to find the fact or piece of information they’re looking for. Your brain becomes crowded with memories and information. It’s not that you can’t remember — you can — it’s just that there is so much more information to sort through.其次，相较于年轻人，老年人需要从更大的记忆库中搜寻到他们想要的事实或信息。老年人脑中充满了各种回忆和信息，他们并不是记不起来，只是脑子里有太多信息需要梳理。
And experiencing new things is the best way to keep the mind young, pliable and growing — into our 80s, 90s and beyond.那么，要想大脑保持年轻、灵活，一直到八九十岁甚至更老，最好的方法就是去不断体验新事物。
生词好句
1.age UK /eɪdʒ/ US /eɪdʒ/ UK /eɪdʒ/ US /eɪdʒ/ the fastest aging society 人口老龄化速度最快的社会
例子：We start aging from age 1.我们从出生那天起就在变老。
2.contain the contents 包含内容 压头韵：alliteration/initial rhyme/head rhyme
first and foremost 首先
saints and sinners 圣人与罪人
Tongue Twister:
Around the ragged rock, the ragged rascal ran.
Don’t trouble troubles until trouble troubles you.
long-term memory 长期记忆
eidetic/photographic memory 过目不忘
3.disturb UK /dɪˈstɜːb/ US /dɪˈstɜːrb/ vt. 打断，打扰
例子：Don’t disturb your sister. She is trying to do her homework.不要打扰姐姐，她在做功课。
4.extract pattern 提取模型
5.radiologist UK /ˌreɪdiˈɒlədʒɪst/ US /ˌreɪdiˈɑːlədʒɪst/ n. 放射科医生，放射科专家 radio n. 广播
radiology n. 放射学
radiation n. 辐射
6.account for 解释（explain the reason for sth.）
7.subjective experience 主观体验
8.fumble UK /ˈfʌmbəl/ US /ˈfʌmbəl/ vi. 笨嘴拙舌地；笨手笨脚地
例子：I was fumbling for the right word.我在笨嘴拙舌地找正确的说辞。
9.cognitive UK /ˈkɒɡnətɪv/ US /ˈkɑːɡnətɪv/ adj. 认知的 cognitive functions 认知功能，认知能力
recognize v. 认为，识别
recognition n. 识别，认知
10.crowded UK /ˈkraʊdɪd/ US /ˈkraʊdɪd/ adj. 拥挤的
例子： There were three of us in this marriage, so it’s a bit crowded.我的婚姻里存在着三个人，有点挤。
11.sort through 分类，整理 state of the art 最先进的设备
12.pliable UK /ˈplaɪəbəl/ US /ˈplaɪəbəl/ adj. 灵活的（easily influenced and controlled by other people） stubborn adj. 顽固的
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