常春藤生活英語：Deja Vu 似曾相識

Have you ever been in a place for the first time and felt strange? Maybe it was a feeling that you had been there before. However, you knew you had never been to that place. You wondered if you had seen it in a movie recently. Perhaps the place looked familiar to you because your friend had a picture of it. This odd feeling that happens to many people is called déjà vu1. Those are French words that mean "already seen." Emile Boirac, a scientist from France, first came up with this term in the late 1800s.

Studying déjà vu is very difficult because it is hard to be recreated2 in a lab3. Recently, though, scientists have been able to get people to feel déjà vu under hypnosis4. They now believe déjà vu is not like predicting the future. Instead, it is a problem with the brain. The problem is that the brain tricks the person. Therefore, people believe they have experienced something they have not.

The feeling of déjà vu results from the brain not working perfectly. Short-term memory helps people remember something that happened not long ago. Long-term memory lets people remember things for a long time, such as friends' names. When déjà vu occurs, an experience skips going into your short-term memory. It is directly put into your long-term memory. That is why you think it is an old memory from before.

您是否曾初次造訪某地卻覺得不對勁?或許那是一種您曾去過那里的感覺。然而，您卻知道您從未到過那個地方。您懷疑自己最近是否曾在某部電影中看過那里?；蛟S是因為您的朋友有一張該地的照片，所以您覺得很眼熟。這個發(fā)生在很多人身上的奇怪感覺叫做déjà vu。那是意指『既視(曾經見過)』的法文。十九世紀末，法國科學家埃米莉?布哈克首次提出這個名稱。

因為既視感很難在實驗室里重現，所以要研究這門學問相當困難。不過近來科學家已經能夠使人們在催眠的狀態(tài)下感受既視感。他們現在相信既視感跟預知未來不一樣。它反而是大腦出了問題。這個問題是在于大腦蒙騙了當事者。因此，人們相信他們經歷了他們未曾體驗過的事。

既視感起因于大腦運作不全。短期記憶幫助人們記得不久前發(fā)生的事。長期記憶則讓人們長久地記住事情，譬如朋友的名字。既視感發(fā)生時，某個經驗省略了進入短期記憶的階段。它直接被存入您的長期記憶。那正是為什么您會覺得它是源自從前的舊回憶。

Building Your Vocabulary

1. recently　adv. 最近，近來

Tracy has recently started bicycling.

翠西最近開始在騎腳踏車。

2. familiar　a. 熟悉的

That song sounds very familiar to me.

我覺得那首歌很耳熟。

3. odd　a. 奇怪的，異常的

It's odd that my cat doesn't like to eat fish.

很奇怪，我的貓不喜歡吃魚。

4. predict　vt. 預測

We are not able to predict when earthquakes will occur.

我們無法預測地震何時會發(fā)生。

5. skip　vt. 略過，跳過

Jeff skipped lunch because he was too busy.

杰夫因為太忙而沒吃午餐。

Phrases for Learning

result from...　　起因于……

This accident resulted from human error.

這起意外是因人禍所造成。

參考字詞

1. déjà vu　n. 似曾相識的感覺，既視感

2. recreate　vt. 使再現

3. lab　n. 實驗室(laboratory 的簡寫)

4. hypnosis　n. 催眠狀態(tài)

Grammar Check

Maybe it was a feeling that you had been there before.

(或許那是一種您曾去過那里的感覺。)

本句中使用了過去完成式(主詞 + had + 過去分詞)，表示截至過去某時為止所完成的動作或經驗。

注意:

過去完成式不能單獨存在，要與另一過去式子句或表過去之副詞詞組連用，即在過去不同時間發(fā)生的兩種動作：

先發(fā)生的動作 → 用過去完成式表示

后發(fā)生的動作 → 用簡單過去式表示

When Christine arrived, the show had already begun.

(當克里斯廷抵達時，表演已經開始了。)