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  3. Why should we bother reading a book? All children say this occasionally. Many among our educated classes are also asking why, in

Why should we bother reading a book? All children say this occasionally. Many among our educated classes are also asking why, in

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问题     Why should we bother reading a book? All children say this occasionally. Many among our educated classes are also asking why, in a world of accelerating technology, increasing time poverty and diminishing attention spans, should they invest precious time sinking into a good book?
    The beginnings of an answer lie in the same technology that has posed the question. Psychologists from Washington University used brain scans to see what happens inside our heads when we read stories. They found that "readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative". The brain weaves these situations together with experiences from its own life to create a new mental synthesis. Reading a book leaves us with new neural pathways.
    The discovery that our brains are physically changed by the experience of reading is something many of us will understand instinctively, as we think back to the way an extraordinary book had a transformative effect on the way we viewed the world. This transformation only takes place when we lose ourselves in a book, abandoning the emotional and mental chatter of the real world. That’s why studies have found this kind of deep reading makes us more empathetic, or as Nicholas Carr puts it in his essay, The Dreams of Readers, "more alert to the inner lives of others".
    This is significant because recent scientific research has also found a dramatic fall in empathy among teenagers in advanced western cultures. We can’t yet be sure why this is happening, but the best hypothesis is that it is the result of their immersion in the internet. So technology reveals that our brains are being changed by technology, and then offers a potential solution—the book.
    Rationally, we know that reading is the foundation stone of all education, and therefore an essential underpinning of the knowledge economy. So reading is—or should be—an aspect of public policy. But perhaps even more significant is its emotional role as the starting point for individual voyages of personal development and pleasure. Books can open up emotional and imaginative landscapes that extend the corridors of the web. They can help create and reinforce our sense of self.
    If reading were to decline significantly, it would change the very nature of our species. If we, in the future, are no longer wired for solitary reflection and creative thought, we will be diminished. But as a reader and a publisher, I am optimistic. Technology throws up as many solutions as it does challenges: for every door it closes, another opens. So the ability, offered by devices like e-readers, smartphones and tablets, to carry an entire library in your hand is an amazing opportunity. As publishers, we need to use every new piece of technology to embed long-form reading within our culture. We should concentrate on the message, not agonize over the medium.
For a teenager who is not sensitive to others’ inner feelings, the author may suggest him to______.
选项 A、stay far away from modern technology
B、immerse himself in reading books
C、abandon his old way of viewing the world
D、listen more to the emotional chatter of the real world
答案B
解析 紧接文章第二段的内容，作者在第三段中继续探讨读书对人脑的益处。读书能够重塑人们的世界观，使我们变得更加善解人意。当然这种转变只有在我们忘我地沉浸于某一本书，也就是进入深度阅读状态，摒弃真实世界中情感和精神的喧嚣时才可能发生。This transformationonly takes place when we lose ourselves in a book， abandoning the emotional and mentalchatter of the real world．作者在第四段中提到了读书能够使人们的同情心增强这个发现的现实意义。因为近期的科学研究发现，西方青少年的同情心急剧减弱。虽然这一现象的原因尚无定论，但很有可能是由于青少年沉迷网络造成的。因此，如果想要提升他们的同情心，让他们对他人的内在生命更加敏感，一个好的办法就是阅读，当然是进行深度的阅读。本题的正确答案应该选[B]。immerse himself in reading books是原文lose ourselves in a book的同义改写。[A]说得过于笼统，作者也许希望青少年能够尽量少使用互联网，但是不见得希望他们远离所有的现代科技。[C]错误，改变世界观和题干中的“使……变得更有同情心”有同意反复之嫌。[D]利用原文中的chatter of the real world设置原文干扰，在弄清[D]选项表示“更多倾听现实世界的喧嚣”之后，不难判断这个是一个明显的干扰项。
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