首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Does the Internet Make You Dumber? A) The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhe
Does the Internet Make You Dumber? A) The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhe
admin
2021-04-22
32
问题
Does the Internet Make You Dumber?
A) The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Internet, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers.
B) The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity (速度), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate (镇定的) and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle (尽力同时应付) many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.
C) The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it " meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory," writes the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist (神经科学家) Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts.
D) When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory.
E) In an article published in Science last year, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance "visual literacy skills" , increasing the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and " more automatic" thinking.
F) In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture’s content. While it’s hardly surprising that Web surfing would distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning.
G) Ms. Greenfield concluded that ’every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. " Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by " new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes ", including " abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination." We’re becoming, in a word, shallower.
H) In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University’s Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial,
I) The researchers were surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their on-screen juggling. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers weren’t even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching between tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. " Everything distracts them," observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab.
J) It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they don’t. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we’re not using the technology.
K) The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being "massively remodeled" by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkey’s hand, the nerve cells in the animal’s sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new "mental map" of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be "deadly".
L) What we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness.
M) Reading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of what’s going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that we’d overlook a nearby source of food.
N) To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T. S. Eliot, in his poem Four Quartets, called "the still point of the turning world". We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind.
O) It is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with. Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.
Unprecedented amounts of information makes us have scattered thoughts.
选项
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/eIJ7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
America’smostpopularnewspaperwebsitetodayannouncedthattheeraoffreeonlinejournalismisdrawingtoaclose.TheNewY
“中国制造”指在中国制造的商品所附的标签。由于中国有丰富的劳动力资源和原材料资源等优势,中国制造的产品物美价廉,受到世界各国的欢迎。中国的制造业迅速发展,“中国制造”已经成为一个在全球广受认可的标签。目前中国已经成为世界制造业的中心,被称为“世界工厂”。尽
沿海城市
世界文化遗产
受到中国经济内部动力(dynamics)和外来压力的共同影响,人民币近几年来不断升值(appreciate)。内部影响主要有中国物价水平、通货膨胀状况、经济增长状况以及利率水平,外部影响主要来自发达国家施加的压力,尤其是日本和美国。人民币升值会增加人民币的
风筝是一种传统的民间娱乐工具,起源于春秋时期(theSpringandAutumnPeriod),距今已有两千余年的历史。一般用竹木做骨架,上面粘上画有图案的纸或者绢(silk),并用细线绑住。它最初主要应用于军事,宋朝以后放风筝成为民间极为流行的
移动互联网(mobileInternet)的出现改变了我们的生活,智能手机的普及则颠覆了传统的支付方式。随着移动智能手机的普及,手机变身“移动钱包”。如今,中国大部分城市的居民几乎都在使用智能手机支付。作为一种以手机为主要工具对所消费的商品或服务进行支付
TheImpactoftheInternetSlangonStudentsForthispart,youareallowed30minutestouniteastuntessaybasedonthep
A、ShemettheHRmanagerofherlastcompany.B、Shegotajobfromlastweek’scareerfair.C、Itwasaninternetcareerfair.D、
随机试题
驾驶机动车在公交车站遇到这种情况要迅速停车让行。(图3.15.7)
A.25~30sB.60~70sC.70~85sD.85~90sE.3~5min或更长若怀疑肝脏海绵状血管瘤扫描延迟时间为
患者,男性,28岁,头部受伤后意识模糊约20分钟,头痛、恶心、呕吐,追问受伤经过不能记忆,查体无异常倾向,可能诊断为()。
下列关于理财产品销售行为规范及相关要求的表述中,错误的是()。
资料:F公司是一家餐饮连锁上市公司。为在首都机场开设一个新门店,参加机场内一处商铺的租约竞标。出租方要求,租约合同为期5年,不再续约,租金在合同生效时一次付清。相关资料如下:(1)F公司目前股价40元/股,流通在外的普通股股数2500万股。债务市值60
下列业务中,在发出商品时确认收入的有()。
以下关于早期介入的说法中,正确的有()。
合并哮喘的高血压患者药物治疗时不宜选用()。
求不定积分
计算机病毒可以使整个计算机瘫痪,危害极大。计算机病毒是
最新回复
(
0
)