《中英對照讀新聞》Remember your home phone number？ Forget it！ 還記得你家的電話號碼嗎？沒關係！

◎俞智敏

Can’t remember life before mobiles？Chances are you’ll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays.

想不起有手機以前的生活嗎？那你很有可能連自家的電話號碼和家人的生日也記不得了。

According to a survey released recently, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorising simple things.

根據最近公布的一項調查顯示，能夠儲存大量個人資訊的手機及可攜式裝置盛行，已經製造出一批記不住簡單事物的新世代。

A quarter of those polled said they couldn’t remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn’t recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.

4分之1的受訪民眾表示，他們記不得家裡的陸線電話號碼，更有3分之2的人承認無法記住超過3位友人或家人的生日。

The tech-savvy young fared worse than older people.The under-30s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50s, according to the survey. Two-thirds said they relied on their phone or electronic organiser to remember key dates.

熟悉科技的年輕人表現得比年長者更差。調查結果發現，30歲以下的受訪者能記住的生日或電話號碼，遠比50歲以上者要少。有3分之2的受訪者表示，他們都是靠電話或電子記事本來記住重要日期。

"People have more to remember these days and they are relying on technology more for their memory," said Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College , Dublin .

「現代人要記住的東西更多，所以他們仰賴科技的程度要比自己的記憶還要深，」都柏林三一學院心理系教授羅伯森說。

新聞辭典

（the） chances are：（非正式用語），指可能，例句︰Chances are （that） they’ll be late anyway.（他們反正很可能會遲到。）

ream：原指紙張的計數單位、一令，作複數時亦可指大量，例句︰She’s written reams of poetry.（她寫了很多首詩。）

savvy：名詞，指理解能力、實務知識，例句︰He hasn’t got much savvy.（他的悟性不佳。）business╱politcal savvy指商業／政治實務知識。文中的tech-savvy則指熟悉科技。

來源：自由時報

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