六级真题2024年6月第三套Passage Two
① Variability is crucially important for learning new skills. Consider learning how to serve in tennis. Should you always practise serving from the exactly same location on the court, aiming at the same spot?Although practising in more variable conditions will be slower at first, it will likely make you a better tennis player in the end. This is because variability leads to better generalisation of what is learned.
② This principle is found in many domains, including speech perception and learning categories. For instance, infants will struggle to learn the category “dog” if they are only exposed to Chihuahuas, instead of many different kinds of dogs.
③ “There are over ten different names for this basic principle,” says Limor Raviv, the senior investigator of a recent study. “Learning from less variable input is often fast, but may fail to generalise to new stimuli.”
④ To identify key patterns and understand the underlying principles of variability effects, Raviv and her colleagues reviewed over 150 studies on variability and generalisation across fields, including computer science, linguistics, categorisation, visual perception and formal education.
⑤ The researchers discovered that, across studies, the term variability can refer to at least four different kinds of variability, such as set size and scheduling. “These four kinds of variability have never been directly compared—which means that we currently don’t know which is most effective for learning,” says Raviv.
⑥ The impact of variability depends on whether it is relevant to the task or not. But according to the ‘Mr. Miyagi principle’, practising seemingly unrelated skills may actually benefit learning of other skills.
⑦ But why does variability impact learning and generalisation? One theory is that more variable input can highlight which aspects of a task are relevant and which are not.
⑧ Another theory is that greater variability leads to broader generalisations. This is because variability will represent the real world better, including atypical (非典型的) examples.
⑨ A third reason has to do with the way memory works: when training is variable, learners are forced to actively reconstruct their memories.
⑩ “Understanding the impact of variability is important for literally every aspect of our daily life. Beyond affecting the way we learn language, motor skills, and categories, it even has an impact on our social lives,” explains Raviv. “For example, face recognition is affected by whether people grew up in a small community or in a larger community. Exposure to fewer faces during childhood is associated with diminished face memory.”
⑪ “We hope this work will spark people’s curiosity and generate more work on the topic,” concludes Raviv. “Our paper raises a lot of open questions. Can we find similar effects of variability beyond the brain, for instance, in the immune system?”
1.1.What does the passage say about infants learning the category “dog” if they are exposed to Chihuahuas only?
A They will encounter some degree of difficulty.
B They will try to categorise other objects first.
C They will prefer Chihuahuas to other dog species.
D They will imagine Chihuahuas in various conditions.
解析：选A。A 细节理解题。第二段②句指出,如果婴儿只接触吉娃娃,而不是许多不同种类的狗,他们在学习“狗”这个类别时就会很吃力，“题干十A项”是对该句的同义改写，A项正确。[排除干扰]B项利用 categorise 与段落关键词 category 的形近意似设障,但文中并未提及“归类其他事物”(项利用第二段(2)句碎片信息捏造干扰,原文意在说明缺乏多变性会影响婴儿对“狗”这个大类别的学习,而非婴儿更喜欢具体哪个品种的狗。D项利用 Chihuahuas与 variability 捏造干扰,但原文强调的是“狗的品种的多样性”，而非“想象多样条件下的吉娃娃”。
2.2.What does Raviv say about the four different kinds of variability?
A Which of them is most relevant to the task at hand is to be confirmed.
B Why they have an impact on learning is far from being understood.
C Why they have never been directly compared remains a mystery.
D Which of them is most conducive to learning is yet to be identified.
解析：选D。D 细节理解题。第五段②句直接引用拉维芙之言指出,由于四种多变性从未被直接比较过,所以目前尚不确定哪种多变性对学习最有效。D项是对第五段②句的合理改写,故正确。[排除干扰]A 项利用第六段首句设置干扰,但该句并非拉维芙所言。B项对第五段②句断章取义,句中完整信息为“已经确定多变性对学习有影响,但四种之中哪种最为有效尚未确定”,而非多变性对学习有影响的原因尚未确定,故错误。C项对第五段②句主观推导,该句仅强调客观事实“四种多变性从未被直接比较”,并未提及未被比较的原因还是个谜。
3.3.How does one of the theories explain the importance of variability for learning new skills?
A Learners regard variable training as typical of what happens in the real world.
B Learners receiving variable training are compelled to reorganise their memories.
C Learners pay attention to the relevant aspects of a task and ignore those irrelevant.
D Learners focus on related skills instead of wasting time and effort on unrelated ones.
解析：选B。B 细节理解题。第九段指出,多变性效应(即多变性有利于学习新技能)与人脑记忆的工作方式有关,当训练多变时，学习者会被迫积极地重建自己的记忆。B项符合文意,故正确。[排除干扰]A 项曲解第八段②句,原句重在强调“多变性可将非典型示例囊括在内”,而选项则将多变性完全等同于典型示例。C、D两项均利用第七段关键词 relevant 设置干扰,但两项内容“只关注任务的相关方面’“只关注相关技能”实际上暗示学习者有所选择和偏废,不符合多变性原则,有悖文意。
4.4.What does the passage say about face recognition?
A People growing up in a small community may find it easy to remember familiar faces.
B Face recognition has a significant impact on literally every aspect of our social lives.
C People growing up in a large community can readily recognise any individual faces.
D The size of the community people grow up in impacts their face recognition ability.
解析：选D。D 细节理解题。第十段③句先指出成长所处团体规模的不同影响面容识别的能力,④句继而明确这种影响的具体表现:成长所处团体规模越大,面容识别的能力就越强。D项符合文意。[排除干扰] A 项由第十段④句“童年时期接触的面孔越少,面孔记忆的能力就越弱”过度推断而来,文中并未区分记住陌生面孔和熟悉面孔的难易程度。B项杂糅第十段①③句碎片信息,将is important for literally every aspect of our daily life 的主语偷换为“面容识别”。C项 any一词过于绝对。
5.5.What does Raviv hope to do with their research work?
A Highlight which aspects of a task are relevant and which are not to learning a skill.
B Use the principle of variability in teaching seemingly unrelated skills in education.
C Arouse people’s interest in variability and stimulate more research on the topic.
D Apply the principle of variability to such fields of study as the immune system.
解析：选C。C 细节理解题。末段首句中拉维芙表示希望这项工作能激发人们的好奇心,并推动就这一主题开展更多工作。C项是对原文 spark people’s curiosity and generate more work on the topic 的正确改写,故C项正确。[排除干扰]A 项源自第七段②句,但该句说明的是拉维芙研究发现的背后原理,并非拉维芙希望研究所达到的效果。B项由第六段(2)句碎片信息捏造而来,但该句实为“宫城先生法则”的内容,并非拉维芙希望将多变性原则应用于教授教育领域中看似不相关的技能。D项由末段③句碎片信息捏造而来，“多变性原则在免疫系统领域的应用”为拉维芙基于自己团队的研究工作提出的进一步设想,并非其研究欲实现的目标。