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
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful? A)A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then ta
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful? A)A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then ta
admin
2014-05-30
39
问题
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful?
A)A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then takes another one from a different angle. But what happened to that first image? The delete button on our cameras, phones, and computers is a function we use often without thinking, yet it remains a fantastic concept. Most things in the world don’t just disappear. Not our thrown away plastic water bottles. Not the keys to the apartment. Not our earliest childhood memories.
B)"It is possible that every memory you have ever experienced that made its way into your long-term memory is still buried somewhere in your head," Michael S. Malone writes in his new book The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory. It is both a blessing and a curse that we cannot voluntarily erase our memories. Like it or not, we are stuck with our experiences. It’s just one of the many ways that human beings differ from digital cameras.
C)Yet, humans are relying more and more on digital cameras and less on our own minds. Malone tells the story of how, over time, humans have externalized(外化)their internal memories, departing themselves from the experiences they own. The book is a history in time order—from the development of paper, libraries, cameras, to microchips—about how we place increasing trust in technology.
D)Is it a good thing for electronic devices and the Internet to store our memories for us? When we allow that to happen, who do we become? Will our brains atrophy(萎缩)if we chose not to exercise them? Malone, who is a Silicon Valley reporter, shows us the technological progress, but backs away from deeper philosophical questions. His love for breaking news—the very idea of breakthrough—is apparent, but he fails to address the more distressing implications.
E)The biology of human memory is largely mysterious. It is one of the remaining brain functions whose location neuroscientists can’t place. Memory nerve cells are distributed all over the brain, hidden in its gray wrinkles like money behind couch cushions. " What a plunge," opens Virginia Woolf s Mrs. Dalloway, as Clarissa tosses open her French windows and is transported into her remembered past. " Live in the moment" is a directive we often hear these days in yoga class, but our ability to weave in and out of the past is what makes life interesting and also difficult for humans.
F)The Neanderthal(穴居人的)brain was powerful, but lacking a high-capacity memory, "forever trapped in the now," according to Malone. The stories, images, and phrases that we turn over in our minds while lying awake in bed were different for them. Neanderthals could receive the stimuli of the world—colors, sounds, smells—but had limited ways to organize or access that information. Even the term Homo sapiens(晚期智人)reveals how our brains work differently from our ancestors. Translated from the Latin, it means knowing man. Not only do we know, but we know that we know. Our self-consciousness, that ability not only to make memories but to recall them, is what defines us.
G)Short-term memories are created by the compound of certain proteins in a cell and long-term memories are created by released magnesium(镁). Each memory is then inserted like handprints in concrete. This is what we know about the physical process of memory making. Why a person might remember the meal they ate before their parents announced a divorce, but not the announcement itself, remains a scientific mystery.
H)The appearance of language is linked to memory, and many early languages were simply devices that aid memory. They served as a method for sharing memories, an early form of fact-checking that also expands the lifetime of a memory. The Library of Alexandria is an example of a population’s desire to catalog a common memory and situate it safely outside their own short-lived bodies.
I)The ancient Romans even had a discipline called Ars Memorativa, or the art of memory. They honored extraordinary acts of memorization, just as they honored extraordinary feats in battle, and Cicero excelled at this. Memorization was an art that could be polished using patterns, imaginary structures and landscapes. Without training, the human brain can hold only about seven items in short-term memory.
J)The invention of computer memory changes everything. We now have "Moore’s Law" , the notion that memory chips will double in performance every 18 months. Memory plug base continues to decrease in size while our memories accumulate daily. Because of growing access to the Internet, Malone argues that individualized memory matters less and less. Schoolchildren today take open-book tests or with a calculator. "What matters now is not one’s ownership of knowledge, but one’s skill at accessing it and analyzing it," he writes. However, something is lost. We have unlimited access to a wealth of information, yet little of it belongs to us.
K)Human beings have a notion of self, a subjective world particular to us, thanks to our highly complicated and individualized brains that Malone compares to "the roots and branches of a tree". We own our own hardware, and we all remember differently. The Internet offers us access to information, but it is really a part of the external world of colors and sounds that even Neanderthals could receive. A world in which all our memories are stored on electronic devices and all our answers can be found by Googling is a world closer to the Neanderthal’s than to a high-tech, idealized future. I don’t remember when I first learned the word deja vu but I do remember the shirt I wore on the first day of 9th grade. Memory is a tool, but it can also teach us about what we think is important. Human memory is a way for us to learn about ourselves.
We cannot automatically erase our memories, which has both advantages and disadvantages.
选项
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/HEv7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Heiscrazy.B、Helikestodrawpictures.C、Hehatesnoise.D、Hehasexpensivepaintings.C女士说Jack对艺术画作很疯狂,在卧室的墙上挂了很多著名的画;男士却说
Althoughthestigma(耻辱)onceassociatedwithmentalillnesshasgraduallygoneawayinrecentyears,mostoftheAmericanswhoha
Americanshavelongpridedthemselvesasbeingpartofanoptimisticsociety.ButanewresearchdescribesAmericansaspessimis
A、Puttingyourhandsonthetableallthetime.B、Makingnoisewhileeatinganykindoffood.C、Eatingyourmealsquicklyandcl
A、Theywereofmodernstandard.B、Theywerewholepagespreads.C、Theywereusuallyonthefrontpage.D、Theywereimportantin
A、Hewantstojoinasummercamp.B、Hewantstoaskaboutanadvertisement.C、HewantstofindsomethingontheInternet.D、Hew
A、Weneedtovolunteermore.B、Weshouldholdblockparties.C、Weshouldknowourneighbors.D、WeshouldsurftheInternet.A女士问
A、Committingtheft.B、Takingpictures.C、Windowshopping.D、Posingforthecamera.A对话中,男士要将女士带到保安室去,并说商店里的摄像头已经把女士所做的事都录下来了,而女士
随机试题
政策网络曾经以不同的名称面世,诸如()
肠结核腹痛的特点是
气体做等压膨胀,则()。
某单原子分子理想气体进行卡诺循环时,高温热源的温度为227℃,低温热源的温度为127℃。则该循环的效率为()。
装饰公司承接了综合楼食堂装饰工程,食堂隔墙为砌筑结构,砌筑时按要求在2.1m(门洞上口)增加了一道圈梁,顶部和梁或板交接处采用红砖斜砌,防火门框安装时先用射钉固定,再用砂浆封堵。装饰内容有墙面干挂烧毛石材、矿棉板吊顶、金属吊顶、厨房墙地砖。食堂层高5.5m
下列说法中,属于商业银行核心资本特征的是()。
cargoundercustom’ssupervision
对外汉语教学学科的基础理论主要有:_____、_____和_____。
某软件项目的活动图如下图所示,其中顶点表示项目里程碑,连接顶点的边表示包含的活动,边上的数字表示活动的持续时间(天)。完成该项目的最少时间为_____________天。
Isthereanythingmoreboringthanhearingaboutsomeoneelse’sdream?Andisthereanythingmoremiraculousthanhavingoneof
最新回复
(
0
)