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
31
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.
The richness of our memories relies on our ability to focus on something.
选项
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/YIJ7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
America’smostpopularnewspaperwebsitetodayannouncedthattheeraoffreeonlinejournalismisdrawingtoaclose.TheNewY
America’smostpopularnewspaperwebsitetodayannouncedthattheeraoffreeonlinejournalismisdrawingtoaclose.TheNewY
WildBillDonovanwouldhavelovedtheInternet.TheAmericanspymasterwhobuilttheOfficeofStrategicServicesinWorldWar
儿童肥胖已经成为困扰一些中国家庭的问题。它与遗传因素、饮食习惯和生活方式等有很大的关系。随着人们生活水平的提高,孩子们有更多的机会外出就餐,他们无法抵制美食的诱惑,结果不可避免地胖起来。在现代社会,孩子们的学业压力比较大,他们忙于学习,缺乏运动。卡路里摄入
中国是世界上最古老的文明之一,有着悠久的历史和灿烂的文化。中国在夏朝时开始进入了文明时代,创造了辉煌的科技和文化。指南针、火药、造纸术、印刷术是中国古代的四大发明,对世界文明和人类的进步做出了极大的贡献。中国的丝绸之路(theSilkRoad)——世界
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
酒和饮酒文化在中国的历史中占据着重要地位。从宋代开始,白酒(whiteliquor)成为中国人饮用的主要酒类。中国白酒制作工艺复杂,原料丰富多样,是世界著名的六大蒸馏酒(distilledliquor)之一。中国有很多优秀的白酒品牌,受到不同人群的喜爱
秦始皇是中国历史上杰出的政治家、军事家。公元前221年,他统一中国,建立了历史上第一个统一的、多民族的、高度中央集权的(highlycentralized)国家——秦朝,并成为中国第一个皇帝,自称“始皇帝”。为加强统治,他实施了一系列的改革,如统一文字,
《史记》(RecordsoftheGrandHistorian)是中国第一本纪传体通史(generalhistorybasedonbiog—raphy),由中国西汉时期的历史学家司马迁编写。该书由五部分组成,共130篇,五十多万字,记载了古
A、ApersonwhowritesontheInternet.B、Apersonalwebsite.C、Anactivitythatdoesnotlastlong.D、Awayofwriting.B
随机试题
()是指按借贷协议在一定时期可以变动的利率,其具有一定的科学合理性。
根据《联合国国际货物销售合同公约》,发盘不能撤销的情况有
下列关于甲状腺癌的描述中哪项错误()(1992年)
A.1号染色体B.3号染色体C.6号染色体D.9号染色体E.12号染色体Rh血型基因位于
如按房屋租金计征房产税,其税率为()。
采用悬臂浇筑法施工多跨预应力混凝土连续梁时,正确的浇筑顺序是()。
下列建筑地面变形缝的设置,不符合要求的是()。
下列关于经济法的渊源的说法中,正确的是()。
“云安全(C1oudSecurity)”计划是网络时代信息安全的最新体现,它融合了一些新兴技术和概念,但一般不包括()。
通过角色扮演,激发学生自觉地对外在道德要求做出能动反应,这种教育方式依据的德育规律是()。
最新回复
(
0
)