英语翻译
It is difficult to imagine what life will be like without memory．The meanings of thousands of
everyday perceptions(感觉、知觉),the bases for the decisions we make,and the roots of our
habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences,which are brought into the present by
memory．
Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use．It includes
not only "remembering" things like arithmetic or historical facts,but also involves any change in
the way an animal typically behaves．Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain
because he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile．Memory is also involved when
a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat．
Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and
machines．Computers,for example,contain devices from storing data for later use．It is
interesting to compare the memory-storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being．
The instant-access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 "words"-ready for
instant use．An average U．S．teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000
words of English．However,this is but a fraction(部分、片断) of the total amount of
information which the teenager has stored．Consider,for example,the number of faces and
places that the teenager can recognize on sight．
The use of words is the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings．A large
part of a person's memory is in terms of words and combinations of words．