Chapter 35 why did lincoln read aloud

When Lincoln was a teenager, he studied in a country school. The floor of this school was paved with broken wood, and, in order to prevent sunlight, the students tore apart the textbooks and pasted them on the windowpanes with oil-stained paper.Of course, they kept a textbook, which was read aloud by the teacher and followed by the students during class.In this way, the school seems to be caught in a boiling ocean, and the people around it call it "the noisy school". At this "noisy school," Lincoln developed a lifelong habit of reading aloud whenever he needed to remember.Every morning, as soon as he arrived at the law office in Springfield, he immediately lay down on the recliner, put one long, awkward leg on the chair next to him, and read the newspaper aloud.

"He bores me to death," said his colleague, "almost unbearable. I once asked him why he read like that, and he replied: 'When I read aloud, two senses are involved. One is the auditory sense.' , and the second is the visual sense, so this will be more conducive to memory.'” Lincoln had an excellent memory.He described it like this: "My brain is like a piece of steel. Although it is difficult for you to leave something on it, once it is left, it is difficult to erase." So, in order to mobilize your hearing and sight, act like Lincoln. The ideal way of remembering, of course, includes not only hearing and seeing, but we should also touch it, smell it, and taste it.However, the most important thing is the vision.Because we are animals of visual memory, the imprint left by vision will last for a period of time.For example, we can often remember what a person looks like but forget his name.According to analysis, the nerve from the eye to the brain is twenty-five times more powerful than the nerve from the ear to the brain.No wonder, there is a Chinese proverb that says: "Seeing once is worth hearing a hundred times." Therefore, record the names, numbers and speech outlines that need to be memorized, read them first, then close your eyes, and visualize them in fiery red fonts to aid memory.

How did Mark Twain learn to speak without notes?In the early years of Mark Twain's speaking career, he always had to rely on notes, but visual memory helped him eventually overcome this chronic problem.In "Harper's Magazine," he gives us the ins and outs of the story: It is often difficult to remember dates because they are represented by numbers: numbers tend to appear bland and unimpressive; at the same time, they do not form a picture, and visual memory is of course useless . Indeed, date pictures can help us remember.We could even say that pictures, especially pictures that you make up with your own hands, help you remember almost everything.But the most important thing you have to keep in mind: compose the picture yourself - this is my experience.

Thirty years ago, I had to give a speech every night, and before I gave it, I had to memorize it in full, and to avoid failure, I had to write some hints on a piece of paper.These hints are often at the beginning of a sentence, and there are eleven of them, and they go something like this: The weather in that area—the customs of that era—never heard of in California—these eleven hints roughly outline the The main content of the speech, and they did ensure that I did not miss a speech point.But they look so much alike, and it's so difficult to put together a picture, that I'm never quite sure of their order, although I'm trying to remember them.So, I just had to keep the prompt close by and glance at it now and then during the presentation.

One time, I didn't know where to put the prompt, and you can't imagine how panicked I was that night!From this, it became clear to me that a new response was necessary.So, in the order of the speeches, I ink the first letters of the prompts on my fingernails, in the form "I, A, B". The next night, I went on stage and used this method, but unfortunately, it didn't work as expected, because I had to look at my fingers from time to time, and after a while, I didn't know which finger had just been used up.Perhaps, this method will keep me from missing the point of the speech and achieve a certain degree of success, but at the same time, it will also lead to public curiosity-they can't understand: the speaker seems to be very interested in his fingers. concentrated.A few people in the audience even asked what happened to my hand after the talk.

At this time, the idea of ​​structuring pictures caught my eye!After using this method, my troubles finally disappeared.In two minutes I had drawn half a dozen pictures that served as cue sentences, and they were as perfect as ever.While composing pictures, I can throw them away immediately because, as soon as I close my eyes, they appear in my mind. Although this speech took place a quarter of a century ago, and I have not thought of it for twenty years, I can still reproduce it from the pictures - pictures that are still imprinted on my memory inside. I once gave a lecture from memory in which I tried to use the material covered in this chapter.So, I composed these materials with pictures, for example: Roosevelt was reading history books amidst the noise of the crowd and the accompaniment of the band; Edison was looking at a cherry tree; Lincoln was reading a newspaper aloud; Mark Twain was facing the audience Wipe the ink blots off your fingernails as you go.

So, how do I remember the order of the pictures?By serial number?No, because it's not easy.My method is to convert the serial number into a picture and combine it with the picture showing the main point.For example: the serial number "one" sounds very similar to "run", so I used a galloping horse to represent "one", and Roosevelt rode on this horse, reading in his room; It looks like a "zoo", so I imagined Edison looking at a cherry tree in a zoo; the serial number "three" is very similar to a "tree", so I drew Lincoln curled up on the top of the tree facing his colleagues Read it aloud; the serial number "four" is like a "door", and I imagined Mark Twain leaning on the door frame, facing the audience and wiping the ink marks on his fingernails while delivering a speech.

After reading this, many people may think this method is ridiculous.And this method is indeed a bit absurd, but this is what makes it an effective memory tool, because it is relatively easy to remember weird and absurd things, and on the contrary, it is easy to forget by remembering by serial number.For example, according to my method of recalling the content of the third lecture, I only need to ask myself what is at the top of the tree, and immediately, I see Lincoln. For the convenience of my own use, I converted the numbers from one to twenty into corresponding pictures and kept them aside.If you are willing to spend half an hour memorizing the numbers of these pictures, then no matter which pictures you ask, you can accurately and freely say their serial numbers.

The following are these pictorial numbers, please try to memorize, you will find it very interesting: (1) run - a galloping horse race; (2) Zoo - put the second point in the zoo; (3) Tree - draw the third point on the top of the tree; (4) door or boar - anything or animal that sounds like "four"; (5) hive; (6) Sickness - imagine a nurse wearing a red cross armband; (7) Paradise—the streets are paved with gold, and angels are playing harps; (8) Gates; (9) Wine—the wine bottle was poured on the table, the wine flowed out, and the things on the table were washed under the table;

(10) The caves of beasts in rocky caves deep in the jungle; (11) A football team of eleven, running wildly across the field, kicking high is what I want to remember; (12) Shelving - suppose one pushes something on a shelf to the back; (13) Injured—blood flowed from the wound, staining the thirteenth speech point red; (14) courtship - a couple is sitting somewhere making out; (15) Lifting - the strong, familiar John Sullivan is lifting something over the top; (16) Slap - a fist fight; (17) Adding Yeast—A housewife is kneading dough and adding the seventeenth lecture point to the dough;

(18) Waiting - a woman is waiting for someone at an intersection deep in the jungle; (19) Pinning - a lady is crying and her tears are dripping on the nineteenth point you want to memorize; (20) Horn of Plenty - The sheep's horns are filled with flowers, fruits and grains. If you want, you can try this memory method and spend some time memorizing these picture numbers.You can also compose the pictures yourself if you want to be creative yourself.For example, for "ten", you can think of it as "wren" or "fountain pen" or "hen"-anything that sounds like "ten" can be pronounced.Assuming that the tenth speech you want to memorize is "Windmill", you can construct a picture of "Hen" sitting on "Windmill", or let "Windmill" fill the "Fountain Pen" with ink.Then, when you need to recall what the tenth speech topic is, be sure not to think about "ten," just think about where the hen is sitting.You may not think so, but try it, you will stun everyone with your memory ability, at least, you will also find it a lot of fun.