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1、官网网站： _1新新 SAT 官方指南阅读第八篇全解析官方指南阅读第八篇全解析Passage 1 is adapted from Nicholas Carr, “Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, RewiresBrains.”2010 by Cond Nast. Passage 2 is from Steven Pinker,“Mind over Mass Media.” 2010 by The NewYork Times Company.Passage 1The mental consequences of our online in
2、fo-crunching are not universally bad. Certaincognitive skills are strengthened by our use of computers and the Net. These tend to involve moreprimitive mental functions, such as hand-eye coordination, reflex response, and the processing ofvisual cues. One much-cited study of video gaming revealed th
3、at after just 10 days of playingaction games on computers, a group of young people had significantly boosted the speed with5which they could shift their visual focus between various images and tasks.Its likely that Web browsing also strengthens brain functions related to fast-paced problemsolving, p
4、articularly when it requires spotting patterns in a welter of data. A British study of theway women search for medical information online indicated that an experienced Internet usercan, at least in some cases, assess the trustworthiness and probable value of a Web page in a10matter of seconds. The m
5、ore we practice surfing and scanning, the more adept our brain becomesat those tasks.But it would be a serious mistake to look narrowly at such benefits and conclude that theWeb is making us smarter. In a Science article published in early 2009, prominent developmental官网网站： _2psychologist Patricia G
6、reenfield reviewed more than 40 studies of the effects of various types of15media on intelligence and learning ability. She concluded that “every medium develops somecognitive skills at the expense of others.” Our growing use of the Net and other screen-basedtechnologies, she wrote, has led to the “
7、widespread and sophisticated development ofvisual-spatial skills.” But those gains go hand in hand with a weakening of our capacity for thekind of “deep processing” that underpins “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis,20critical thinking, imagination, and reflection.”We know that the hu
8、man brain is highly plastic; neurons and synapses change ascircumstances change. When we adapt to a new cultural phenomenon, including the use of a newmedium, we end up with a different brain, says Michael Merzenich, a pioneer of the field ofneuroplasticity. That means our online habits continue to
9、reverberate in the workings of our brain25cells even when were not at a computer. Were exercising the neural circuits devoted toskimming and multitasking while ignoring those used for reading and thinking deeply.Passage 2Critics of new media sometimes use science itself to press their case, citing r
10、esearch thatshows how “experience can change the brain.” But cognitive neuroscientists roll their eyes at suchtalk. Yes, every time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain changes; its not as if the30information is stored in the pancreas. But the existence of neural plasticity does not mean
11、 the brainis a blob of clay pounded into shape by experience.Experience does not revamp the basic information-processing capacities of the brain.Speed-reading programs have long claimed to do just that, but the verdict was rendered by WoodyAllen after he read Leo Tolstoys famously long novel War and
12、 Peace in one sitting: “It was about35官网网站： _3Russia.” Genuine multitasking, too, has been exposed as a myth, not just by laboratory studies butby the familiar sight of an SUV undulating between lanes as the driver cuts deals on his cellphone.Moreover, the effects of experience are highly specific t
13、o the experiences themselves. If youtrain people to do one thing (recognize shapes, solve math puzzles, find hidden words), they get40better at doing that thing, but almost nothing else. Music doesnt make you better at math,conjugating Latin doesnt make you more logical, brain-training games dont ma
14、ke you smarter.Accomplished people dont bulk up their brains with intellectual calisthenics; they immersethemselves in their fields. Novelists read lots of novels, scientists read lots of science.The effects of consuming electronic media are likely to be far more limited than the panic45implies. Med
15、ia critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, theinformational equivalent of “you are what you eat.” As with ancient peoples who believed thateating fierce animals made them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turnsyour mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and online postings turns yourthoughts into bullet points and online postings.50官网网站： _422. The author of Passage 1
