Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
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.
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
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
But why does variability impact learning and generalisation? One theory is that more variable input can highlight which aspects of at ask are relevant and which are not.
Another theory is that greater variability leads to broader generalisations. This is because variability will represent there a world better, including atypical(非典型的) examples
A third reason has to do with the way memory works: when training is variable, learners are forced to actively reconstruct their memories
“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.”
“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?”
51. 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.
52. 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.
53. 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.
54. 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.
55. 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.
答案解析：
51. 由题干中的关键词 infants 和 Chihuahuas 定位到 第二段。第二段提到，infants will struggle to learn the category“dog” if they are only exposed to Chihuahuas (如果婴儿只接触吉娃娃，他们会很难学会“狗”这个类别)，所以选 A。
52. 由题干中的关键词 four different kinds of variability 定位到 第五段。第五段引用Raviv的话说，These four kinds of variability have never been directly compared— which means that we currently don't know which is most effective for learning (这四种变异性从未被直接比较过——这意味着我们目前不知道哪一种对学习最有效)，所以选 D。
53. 由题干中的关键词 one of the theories 定位到 第七、八、九段。这三段中解释了可变性为什么会影响学习和泛化，并分别给出了三种理论。第九段提到，第三个原因与记忆的工作方式有关：当训练可变时，学习者被迫主动重建他们的记忆。B选项中的are compelled to reorganise their memories和原文中的are forced to reconstructtheirmemories同义替换，所以选B。
54. 由题干中的关键词 face recognition 定位到 第十段。第十段提到，face recognition is affected by whether people grew up in a small community or in a larger community (面部识别能力受到人们是在小社区还是大社区长大的影响)，所以选 D。
55. 由题干中的关键词 Raviv hope 定位到 第十一段。第十一段提到，We hope this work will spark people's curiosity and generate more work on the topic (我们希望这项工作能激发人们的好奇心，并就该主题产生更多研究)，所以选 C。
