常春藤生活英语【87】Deja Vu 似曾相识

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 odd¹ 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 experienced² something they have not.

The feeling of déjà vu results from the brain not working perfectly³. Short-term⁴ 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.

您是否曾初次造访某地却觉得不对劲？或许那是一种您曾去过那里的感觉。然而，您却知道您从未到过那个地方。您怀疑自己最近是否曾在某部电影中看过那里。或许是因为您的朋友有一张该地的照片，所以您觉得很眼熟。这个发生在很多人身上的奇怪感觉叫做déjà vu。那是意指『既视（曾经见过）』的法文。十九世纪末，法国科学家埃米莉?布哈克首次提出这个名称。

因为既视感很难在实验室里重现，所以要研究这门学问相当困难。不过近来科学家已经能够使人们在催眠的状态下感受既视感。他们现在相信既视感跟预知未来不一样。它反而是大脑出了问题。这个问题是在于大脑蒙骗了当事者。因此，人们相信他们经历了他们未曾体验过的事。

既视感起因于大脑运作不全。短期记忆帮助人们记得不久前发生的事。长期记忆则让人们长久地记住事情，譬如朋友的名字。既视感发生时，某个经验省略了进入短期记忆的阶段。它直接被存入您的长期记忆。那正是为什么您会觉得它是源自从前的旧回忆。

Building Your Vocabulary

1. recently　adv. 最近，近来
Tracy has recently started bicycling.
翠西最近开始在骑脚踏车。
2. familiar　a. 熟悉的
That song sounds very familiar to me.
我觉得那首歌很耳熟。
3. odd　a. 奇怪的，异常的
It's odd that my cat doesn't like to eat fish.
很奇怪，我的猫不喜欢吃鱼。
4. predict　vt. 预测
We are not able to predict when earthquakes will occur.
我们无法预测地震何时会发生。
5. skip　vt. 略过，跳过
Jeff skipped lunch because he was too busy.
杰夫因为太忙而没吃午餐。

Phrases for Learning⁵

result from...　　起因于……
This accident resulted from human error.
这起意外是因人祸所造成。

参考字词

1. déjà vu　n. 似曾相识的感觉，既视感
2. recreate　vt. 使再现
3. lab　n. 实验室（laboratory 的简写）
4. hypnosis　n. 催眠状态

Grammar Check

Maybe it was a feeling that you had been there before.
（或许那是一种您曾去过那里的感觉。）
本句中使用了过去完成式（主词 + had + 过去分词），表示截至过去某时为止所完成的动作或经验。
注意:
过去完成式不能单独存在，要与另一过去式子句或表过去之副词词组连用，即在过去不同时间发生的两种动作：
先发生的动作 → 用过去完成式表示
后发生的动作 → 用简单过去式表示
When Christine arrived, the show had already begun.
（当克里斯廷抵达时，表演已经开始了。）

1 odd   

adj.奇特的；临时的；奇数的；n.[pl.]机会

参考例句：

• She looks a bit odd.I wonder what has happened to her.她的神色有些异样，不知出了什么事。
• He's an odd character and no mistake!他的确是个怪人！

2 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 short-term   

adj.短期的

参考例句：

• The short-term training class has been run three times.短训班办了三期。
• For this they are running short-term courses and evening classes.为此，他们办了短训班和夜校。

5 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。