The key answer of exercise 5
The key to exercise solutions in chapter 2A - Do you remember…? for the textbook English File Advanced - Student's Book with authors Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden, Jerry Lambert and Kate Chomacki from Oxford University Press
Question
- Listen to Part 1 of a radio programme about early childhood memories. Answer the questions for each speaker 1-3.
- Look at some questions you're going to hear in Part 2 of the programme, an interview about research on first memories. Discuss them with a partner.
- -
- Listen again. Why does the presenter mention these things?
- -
- Now listen to Part 3. Was your prediction correct? What happened many years later?
Answer
a)
Speaker 1
- Age: about three
- Memory: letting go of a balloon outside
- Emotion(s): devastated, heartbroken
Speaker 2
- Age: three or four
- Memory: having a book read to her
- Emotion(s): annoyed
Speaker 3
- Age: two and a half
- Memory: breaking a Christmas decoration
- Emotion(s): resentful
b)
- Between the ages of two and four
- Before that age, children don't have a clear sense of their own identity, they don't have the language skills, and the part of the brain needed for memories isn't fully formed.
- Strong emotions, like happiness, unhappiness, pain, surprise, fear and events related to these things, like the birth of a brother or sister, a death, or a family visit, or a festive celebration
- Because they tend to be family stories that children incorporate into their memory.
d)
- Around 40% of people say they remember this.
- A child seeing him- / herself in a mirror doesn't realize that the person is him / her.
- A child can't have a memory of a past event before he / she has learned to use the past tense.
- Evolutionary theory suggests that human memory is linked to emotions / feelings which are related to protecting yourself.
- First memories tend to be visual, rather than smells or sounds.
- If your mother tells you about the first word you ever said, that becomes something you think is a memory.
f)
The story: He was sitting in his pram as a one-year-old baby. A man tried to kidnap him. He remembered his nanny fighting to save him. His parents gave her a reward (a watch). Years later, Piaget's nanny confessed that she had made the story up.
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