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  3. If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, one of the most fundamental dreams of humank

If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, one of the most fundamental dreams of humank

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问题    If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, one of the most fundamental dreams of humankind would come true. It would be almost as good as being immortal or godlike. We could think everything, feel everything, do everything, scan through so much information that we could fill up every fraction of a second with a rich array of experiences.
   Unfortunately, the nervous system has definite limits on how much information it can process at any given time Thoughts have to follow each other, or they get jumbled. While we are thinking about a problem we cannot truly experience either happiness or sadness. 【F1】We cannot run, sing, and balance the checkbook simultaneously, because each one of these activities exhausts most of our capacity for attention.
   In our scientific knowledge we are on the verge of being able to estimate how much information the central nervous system is capable of processing. 【F2】It seems we can manage at most seven bits of information at any one time, and that the shortest time it takes to discriminate between one set of bits and another is about 1/18 of a second. By using these figures one concludes that it is possible to process at most 126 bits of information per second, or 7,560 per minute, or almost half a million per hour. Over a lifetime of seventy years, and counting sixteen hours of waking time each day, this amounts to about 185 billion bits of information. It seems like a huge amount, but in reality it does not go that far.
   The limitation of consciousness is demonstrated by the fact that to understand what another person is saying we must process 40 bits of information each second. 【F3】If we assume the upper limit of our capacity to be 126 bits per second, it follows that to understand what three people are saying simultaneously is theoretically possible, but only by managing to keep out of consciousness every other thought or sensation. 【F4】We couldn’t, for instance, be aware of the speakers’ expressions, nor could we wonder about why they are saying what they are saying, or notice what they are wearing.
   Of course, these figures are only suggestive at this point. 【F5】The optimists claim that through the course of evolution the nervous system has become very good at "gathering together" bits of information so that processing capacity is constantly expanded. But such ability does not help as much as one might expect. So the 185 billion events to be enjoyed over our mortal days might be either an overestimate or an underestimate. In any case, an individual can experience only so much.
【F1】
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答案我们不能同时跑步、唱歌、结算收支，因为这每一项活动都耗费我们大部分的注意力。
解析 ①本句是主从复合句，包含一个原因状语从句。主句为主谓宾结构，有三个并列的谓语，the checkbook是谓语3 balance的宾语。②原因状语从句中of these activities作each one的后置定语，修饰each one，说明是这些活动中的每一个；句末for attention作capacity的后置定语，修饰capacity，说明是注意力。
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