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
25
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://jikaoti.com/ti/pknFFFFM
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
BargainbookshoppersmusthavebeenpleasedlookingatAmazon’sbestsellerlistthisweekend:Theonlinebooksellerhaddropped
WildBillDonovanwouldhavelovedtheInternet.TheAmericanspymasterwhobuilttheOfficeofStrategicServicesinWorldWar
“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
社会责任
五四运动(theMayFourthMovement)是1919年5月4日发生的一场反帝反封建(anti—imperialist,anti-feudal)的政治文化运动。这次运动以北京为中心,很快扩大到上海、天津、青岛等许多城市。五四运动是以青年学生为
高速公路(expressway)是一个国家走向现代化的桥梁,也是发展现代交通业的必要条件。近几年,中国高速公路蓬勃发展,截止到2012年,中国高速公路的总里程(totalmileage)已经达到9.6万公里,位居世界第二。国家高速公路网建成后,通车里程
长江(theYangtzeRiver)是世界第三长河,中国第一长河,全长6380公里。它发源于青海省,一路无数河流汇入,向东注入东海(theEastChina,Sea)。作为中国古文化的发祥地,长江在历史、文化和经济上都对中国的发展有着极其重要的作
郑和是明朝伟大的航海家(navigator),他完成了人类历史上伟大的壮举。1405年7月,他率领庞大的船队进行了首次远航(voyage),船队由240多艘船只、27400名船员组成。他们访问了30多个位于西太平洋和印度洋的国家和地区。他一共进行了7次远航
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledOnNewWordsfromtheInternet.Youressayshouldstar
TheImpactoftheInternetSlangonStudentsForthispart,youareallowed30minutestouniteastuntessaybasedonthep
随机试题
关于子宫内膜癌,下列哪项正确
下列哪项是治疗血脂异常的首要基本措施
未经本人同意,某吸毒者被公安人员送到戒毒所戒毒。这种求医类型是( )
关于基托磨光面形态的描述,正确的是A.凸形基托磨光面影响义齿固位B.基托磨光面凹形过分,进餐时易堆积食物C.下颌侧翼缘区基托磨光面为凹形D.A+BE.A+B+C
我国商业银行的风险预警体系中,红色预警法是一种()。
股票的内在价值即理论价值,也即股票已经取得收益。()
公务员服从和执行上级的决定和命令是公务员必须遵守的一项重要义务。是保证国家正常运行的基本要求。其含义错误的是()。
A、4B、8C、16D、32C前两个圆中数字的规律为1×2×2=1×4,3×6×2=2×18,故第三个圆中的问号处应为4×8×2÷4=16,故选C。
下面小题使用如下的“外汇名”表和“持有数”表:删除“持有数”表中所有外币名称为“法郎”的记录,下列SQL语句正确的是()。
Leavingforworkinplentyoftimetocatchthetrainwill____worryaboutbeinglate.
最新回复
(
0
)