Memory Test 1 'I am going to give you five techniques that will enable you to remember anything you need to know at school, 'promised lecturer Ian Robinson to a hundred schoolchildren. He slapped his hand down on the table. 'When I've finished in two hours' time, your work will be far more effective and productive. Anyone not interested, leave now. 'The entire room sat still. 2 Robinson calls himself the Mind Magician (魔术师). He specializes in doing magic tricks that look totally impossible, and then he reveals that they involve nothing more mysterious than good old-fashioned trickery (骗术). 'I have always been interested in tricks involving memory-being able to reel off (一口气说出) the order of cards in a pack, that sort of thing, 'he explains. 3 Robinson was already lecturing to schools on his magic techniques when it struck him that students might find memory techniques even more valuable. 'It wasn't difficult area to move inot, as the stuff's all there in books. 'So he summarized everything to make a two-hour lecture about five techniques. 4 'You want to learn a list of a hundred things? A thousand? No problem, 'says Robinson. The scandal is that every child is not taught the techniques from the beginning of their school life. The schoolchildren who were watching him thought it was brilliant. 'I wish I'd been told this earlier, 'commented Mark, after Robinson had shown them how to construct 'mental journeys'. 5 Essentially, you visualize (想象) a walk down a street, or a trip round a room, and pick the points where you will put the things you want to remember-the lamppost, the fruit bowl. Then in each location you put a visual representation of your list-phrasal verbs, historical dates, whatever-making them as strange as possible. It is that simple, and it works. 6 The reaction of schools has been uniformly enthusiastic. 'The pupils benefited enormously from Ian's presentation, 'says Dr Johnston, head of the school where Robinson was speaking. 'Ideally we should run a regular class in memory techniques so pupils can pick it up gradually. '