Question

How about forgetting bad memories?

Can we forget bad memories? Someone might tell you that time is the only “cure”. But this might be not true.

Researchers at Canada's McGill University have tested a pill that can help you forget bad memories. They tested it on 60 people and found it to be useful.

All 60 people had experienced painful romantic relationships and wanted to forget them. In the study, they were asked to write about these bad memories. Then, they took a pill that is usually used to treat high blood pressure （血壓）. They then recalled their bad memories by reading what they wrote earlier. In the end, they talked about their feelings, saying that they were finally able to forget their bad experiences.

Dr. Alain Brunet, who led the study, believes that the pill can ease（緩解）the pain that bad memories bring. People can take it after bad things happen to them.

How did the pill do this? In fact, your memories change all the time. They’re like papers on your computer. Every time you recall and "open” the papers, you might happen to make some changes and "save" them. Researchers believe that the pill can stop something in the brain from "re-saving" these memories. This means some details of the memory are lost.

However, there are some ethical （倫理的）worries about this treatment. Some people might use it to forget things that they should be learning from, such as when they did a crime.

A11 of us can think of bad events in our lives that were terrible at the time but make us who we are. They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past. I'm not sure we want to erase those memories, said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist.

How do we form memories?

The part of our brain known as the hippocampus （海馬體）is important for forming new memories. Scientists found it after studying a patient named Henry Molaison in the 1950s. After Molaison's hippocampus got hurt during an operation, he couldn't store new memories. But he could remember memories from before the operation. This means long-term memories are stored outside the hippocampus. Scientists believe they are stored in the neocortex（新皮質(zhì)），which controls attention and planning.

1.The writing purpose of this passage is ________.

A.to introduce a new medical invention B.to describe the bad influence of the pill

C.to tell stories about a patient named Henry D.to discover the fun secrets of hippocampus

2.The pill tested on people can ________.

A.cause the brain to fix memories B.recall what they wrote down before

C.help people remember things easily D.help people forget painful memories

3.Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with in Paragraph Six?

A.Some memories are harmful to people's lives.

B.The pill can help avoid the mistakes of the past.

C.Experiencing bad events makes us different from others.

D.The pill should be used to reduce people's sufferings from bad memories.

4.We can infer from the passage that________.

A.the pill can certainly stop criminals from doing crimes

B.taking the pill will be harmful to people's physical health

C.the pill has been produced and used by the public America

D.medical workers are still unsure about the influence of the pill

Answer 1