BBC随身英语｜为什么遗忘对人有好处？

Why forgetting is good for you?

Have you ever bumped into someone and their name just doesn't come to you? Or, you walk into a room and suddenly can't recall why you're there? Being forgetful can be really annoying, sometimes even embarrassing. But what if I told you that there are actually good reasons for our memories fading away?

In a BBC interview, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath uses a hoarding analogy. We don't tend to store everything we've ever owned in our house. Similarly, we don't need to store all our memories either. He says, "If we didn't forget anything, we'd be hoarding memories, and you'd never be able to find what you want, when you want it." For example, you don't need to remember the hotel number weeks after you've left the hotel or memorise all the faces you pass on the street.

We also need to be able to forget things in order to update our memories with new information. Imagine you get used to the same school timetable or work schedule for a whole year, but the next year, you have new procedures or routines. Your brain needs to be flexible and forget irrelevant details in order to handle the new information. Or, maybe it's been 10 years since you last saw a distant relative. It's likely their face has changed a lot since then, so that memory needs to be updated as well.

And, if you've ever been convinced that you know a word, but it just doesn't pop into your head, you're not alone. This tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon may suggest that some things are not fully forgotten, just currently inaccessible. Those with a higher level of knowledge are more affected by this, according to studies such as 'Impact of knowledge and age on tip-of-the-tongue rates', because their brains have to sort through more information to find the word.

Memories are sometimes compared to a cliff: once they have crumbled, they are lost and cannot be retrieved. However, in their article 'Forgetfulness: Why your mind going blank can be a benefit', Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto write that forgetting, it seems, is "less like a cliff slowly collapsing into the sea, and more like a house deep in the woods that becomes harder and harder to find".

词汇表
bump into [bʌmp] 碰见，撞见
come to (someone)（想法或念头）在头脑里冒出，突然想起
recall [rɪˈkɔːl] 回想起，记起
forgetful [fə(r)ˈɡetf(ə)l] 健忘的，记性差的
fade away [feɪd] 消退，渐渐消失
neuroscientist [ˌnjʊərəʊˈsaɪəntɪst] 神经科学家
hoard [hɔː(r)d] 囤积，贮藏
analogy [ə'nælədʒi] 类比，比拟
store [stɔː(r)] 保存，储存
memorise [ˈmeməraɪz] 记住，记忆
timetable ['taɪmteɪb(ə)l] 时间表，行程安排
work schedule [ˈʃedjuːl] 工作安排，工作进度表
routine [ˌruːˈtiːn] 常规，惯例，例行公事
flexible ['fleksəb(ə)l] 灵活的，弹性的
irrelevant [ɪ'reləvənt] 无关紧要的；不相关的
distant relative ['relətɪv] 远亲，远房亲戚
pop into one's head 突然想到，突然产生念头
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon [fəˈnɒmɪnən] 舌尖现象（话到嘴边却想不起来的现象）
inaccessible [ˌɪnəkˈsesəb(ə)l] 难以达到的，不可获取的
sort through 筛选，整理
cliff [klɪf] 悬崖，峭壁
crumble ['krʌmb(ə)l] 崩塌，瓦解，减弱
retrieve [rɪˈtriːv] 重新取回，找回
forgetfulness [fə'ɡetflnəs] 健忘，记性差
go blank （头脑）一片空白
collapse into the sea [kə'læps] 坍塌入海
wood [wʊd] 树林，森林；木材

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