English practice

PRACTICE WITH UNDERSTANDING MEANING FROM CONTEXT

Most people can remember a phone number for up to thirty seconds. When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are erased from thememory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area. The brain has a filter which onlyallows stimuli that is of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.
DETERMINING MEANING FROM CONTEXT, ELAPSE MEANS:
a) Passage
b) Pass, to slip by
c) Periodof time

There is much debate about the capacity and duration of the short term memory. The most accepted theory comes from George A. Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans canremember approximately seven chunks of information. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or name rather than just a letter or number. Modern theorists suggest that onecan increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking, or classifying similar information together. By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memorybeing passed on to long term storage.
INFERING FROM CONTEXT: GEORGE A. MILLER IS A:
a) Theory
b) Cognitive psychologist
c) Teacher
IDENTIFYING MEANIN FROM A GIVEN DEFINITION: CHUNK MEANS:a) words
b) Meaningful unit of information
c) Unit
You can identify as well the meaning with appositives, punctuation (as the one underlined before, in the introductory paragraph), withthe word “or”, examples, adjective clauses (that, where, whom, which), referents, contrasts and other words in a sentence.

When making a conscious effort to memorize something, such as informationfor an exam, many people engage in "rote rehearsal". By repeating something over and over again, one is able to keep a memory alive. Unfortunately, this type of memory maintenance only succeeds if...