What is the main idea of the passage?

Names are hard to remember because they connect to nothing else we know. (The passage compares a job, which has many connections, with a name, which has none. That contrast is the whole explanation.)

According to the passage, what does hearing the word "nurse" bring up?

A hospital, a uniform, a night shift, someone you already know. (The second paragraph lists exactly these four things as what the word attaches to.)

In this passage, a "label" is

a name given to something that says nothing about it (The sentence says the sound was chosen before she was born and links to nothing else about her. A label names without describing.)

The passage suggests that you would remember a name better if

it connected to something you already knew (The rule is that memory holds what connects. Names fail because they connect to nothing, so a name with a connection would hold better.)

Why Names Slip Away: Level 1 Reading Comprehension Questions

You meet someone, talk for ten minutes, and remember that she is a nurse, that she has just moved here, and that she laughs easily. Her name is gone. This happens to almost everyone, and it is not a sign of a poor memory.

Memory holds on to things that connect to other things. A job is full of connections. Hearing "nurse" brings up a hospital, a uniform, a night shift, someone you already know. The word has somewhere to attach.

A name has nowhere. Nothing about a woman called Rose is rose-like. The sound is a label, chosen before she was born, and it links to nothing else you know about her. So it sits alone, and things that sit alone are the first to go.

There is a second reason, and it is simpler. In the moment of meeting, most people are busy deciding what to say next. The name is spoken while you are not listening.

Comprehension questions