四級長篇閱讀練習試題原文

　　[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 cell phones. 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, there by 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".

　　四級長篇閱讀練習試題選項

　　46. Rapid shifts in focus on screens during computer tasks can cause more automatic but less intensive thoughts.

　　47. People get less understanding from the texts filled with Internet links than normal reading.

　　48. According to Ms. Greenfield, growing use of screen-based media has improved our visual-spatial intelligence.

　　49. The richness of our memories relies on our ability to focus on something.

　　50. Unprecedented amounts of information can make our thoughts scattered.

　　51. When we turn off our computers and cellphones, the ill effects will not disappear.

　　52. When we are online, our brains cannot form distinctive and profound thinking.

　　53. Whereas the Internet distracts our attention, the book concentrates on it.

　　54. The experiment conducted at Cornell University indicates web surfing to school would distract students' thoughts.

　　55. According to the experiment at Stanford University, the multitaskers' attention was easily scattered.

　　四級長篇閱讀練習試題答案：

　　46. 譯文：電腦屏幕上注意力焦點的迅速轉移使人們的思維變得更加機械，而不那么嚴謹了。

　　定位：由關鍵詞Rapid shifts， automatic定位到原文劃線句。

　　47.譯文：人們閱讀網絡鏈接的文本所獲得的信息量不如傳統文本多。

　　定位：由 關 鍵 詞 understandin9。Internet links 定位到原文劃線句。

　　48. 譯文：格林菲爾德女士認為，我們使用屏幕媒體越來越多，這增強了我們的視覺空間智能。

　　定位：由關鍵詞Ms.Greenfield， screen-based media，visual intelligence定位到原文劃線句。

　　49. 譯文：我們記憶的豐富性取決于專注的能力。

　　定位：由關鍵詞richness， memories定位到原文劃線句。

　　50.譯文：所未有的大量信息讓我們 的思想變得支離破碎。

　　定位：由關鍵詞Unprecedented amountl of information定位到原文劃 線句。

　　51.譯文：當我們關掉電腦和手機時，這些負面影響不會隨之消失。

　　定位：由關鍵詞m effects，disappear定位到原文劃線句。

　　52.譯文：上網時，我們的大腦就不可能 形成獨特而富有深度的思考。

　　定位：由關鍵詞distinctive and profound thinking”定位到原文劃線句。

　　53. 譯文：互聯網分散了我們的注意力，書籍卻可以使我們集中精力。

　　定位：由關鍵詞attention， book，concentrates定位到原文劃線句。

　　54.T譯文：在康奈爾大學進行的一項 實驗表明網絡課堂會讓學生分心。

　　定位：由關鍵詞 Come University定位到原文劃線句。

　　55. 譯文：在斯坦福大學的測試中，經常同時使用多個媒體的人更容易分心。

　　定位:由關鍵詞Stanford University定位到原文劃線句。