Bài thực hành nghe Tiếng Anh nâng cao - Bài 10 - Thẩm Tâm Vy - Năm 2018 (Có âm thanh)

 Thẩm Tâm Vy, November 1st, 2018 PRACTISE LISTENING 10 LESSON 10 
PRACTISE LISTENING 10 ~ ADVANCED 
Interviewer: Can you tell us a little bit about the case and what made it so special? 
Expert: The case concerned a pair of twins called John and Michael. They were, I 
suppose in their late teens, but they were absolutely tiny and they wore thick glasses. 
They used to get laughed at at school because, in a conventional sense, they weren't 
very bright or social. 
Interviewer: They were outsiders. 
Expert: Well, that's right. Outsiders. But they had an amazing gift. You could name any 
date in the past or future forty thousand years and they would be able to tell you what 
day of the week it was. 
Interviewer: So I could say, for example, the fifth of June 1376 they could tell me it was 
Sunday or whatever ... 
Expert: That's right. 
Interviewer: Or 10
th
 July 2099, and ... 
Expert: And they would say ‘Monday!’ But that wasn't all. During one interview, the 
psychologist dropped a box of matches on the floor and the twins immediately called 
out ‘one hundred and eleven’. The psychologist counted the matches and there were 
exactly one hundred and eleven. 
Interviewer: And the twins hadn't counted them? 
Expert: No. There was no time. As soon as the matches hit the floor, they knew there 
were one hundred and eleven. Now another thing the twins could do was remember 
extremely long sequences of numbers. You could say a number of up to three hundred 
digits, and they were able to repeat it back to you perfectly. 
Interviewer: So they basically have an extraordinary ability with numbers. 
Expert: Not only with numbers. They have another talent, which is that you can name 
any day of their lives since they were about four years old, and they are able to tell you 
what the weather was like, what they did, and other events in the wider world. They can 
remember absolutely everything about that day. 
Interviewer: Just any ordinary day. 
Expert: Any and every ordinary day. 
Interviewer: Obviously the twins, John and Michael, were studied at length by various 
psychologists, educators ... 
Expert: Yes, they were. 
Interviewer: What progress did these people make in coming up with explanations of 
their ability? 
Expert: I think the main thing is that we realise that John and Michael's ability is 
actually a visual one as well as mathematical. If you ask them how they do it, they say 
they can ‘see’ the answers. When the box of matches fell, they ‘saw’ one hundred and 
eleven. It wasn't a calculation. Similarly, they can ‘see’ themselves as five year-olds. 
Somehow they have an ability to record incredible numbers of things in the mind. Of 
course, we have no idea how it works, but it would be very interesting to learn ...