You’re chatting with friends on the phone, but you can’t help browsing through shopping websites in the meantime. You’re having lunch alone in the canteen, but it only feels right when you start playing a show on your phone – as if it’s a necessary “side dish”.
We’re now living in a world that bombards us with information. It seems unnatural to do only one thing at a time. It’s as if we’re all suffering from what a recent daily article called “multitasking OCD (多任务强迫症)”.
“With news reduced to 140 characters and communication increasingly by emojis (表情符号), we have developed the ability to focus our attention on several activities and devices at once,” Sabry Otmani, founder of Pulpix website, once wrote. “We need lots of stimuli to keep us interested and to fight off boredom.”
But perhaps “fighting off boredom” is not the only reason.
My own obsession with multitasking mainly comes from the fact that everyone around me seems to be constantly studying. Each minute I’m not taking in something new feels like a waste of time. So I always have my headphones on, whether I’m commuting, exercising or walking in the park. I’m forever listening to something – a course on classical music, or on new media management, and heaven knows what else – just so I can keep up with the world.
People who can’t stay away from social media are known by “FOMO” (fear of missing out): They have to be constantly updated about what their friends are doing and saying. But I’d guess that “FOFO” better describes me – “fear of falling out”.
No matter what reason you’re doing it for, “multitasking” is already a part of the modern lifestyle. Just make sure you make the most out of it.
1. With the examples in the first paragraph, the author intends to ______.A.explain what “multitasking OCD” is like |
B.show how busy today’s life is |
C.show that people today often feel lost |
D.tell readers that people like comparing themselves with each other |
A.It can help them to communicate their ideas. |
B.It can prevent them from being bored. |
C.They lack the patience to finish one thing at a time. |
D.They are more able than the past generations. |
A.interest | B.knowledge |
C.understanding | D.worry |
A.She thinks it is boring to do one thing at a time. |
B.She wants to stay ahead of her friends. |
C.She wants to have something to show off. |
D.She doesn’t want to get left behind by others. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Have you ever caught a smell of something and been strongly reminded of a person or place? There seems to be a deep psychological link between smells and our memory. Some research even suggests that smells can influence our cognition (感知).
Our awareness of smells is primarily unconscious.
Research suggests that the power of smell can also affect how the brain performs.
A.Why do smells take us back? |
B.So, don’t take your nose for granted. |
C.How is the sense of smell connected to your brain? |
D.Scents can revive memories that have been long forgotten. |
E.We are not actively aware of them unless they are extremely strong. |
F.This is especially true when it comes to the fragrance of essential oils. |
G.Therefore, our responses to smells are learnt and highly individualized. |
For decades, sociologists have been trying to understand why certain people rise to the top of their fields. A number of theories have emerged, so if you're struggling on the path of success, perhaps these will give you some new clues.
IQ is Overrated
A high IQ is necessary, but it is not adequate to predict executive competence and corporate success. While people with high test scores do have more opportunities, that doesn't mean that smart people are more successful. In fact, in many fields the link between success and intelligence is often weak or non-existent. Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.
The 10,000 Hours Theory
A Professor at the University of Colorado named Anders Ericsson decided to look at the differences between amateurs and professionals. In 1993, he released a paper that found on average amateurs only got about 4000 hours of practice, but professionals had practiced for at least 10,000 hours. While there's some debate over whether 10,000 hours is a rule or just a theory, many experts agree that a significant number of people who are considered "great" have, on average, 10,000 hours of experience.
Deliberate Practice
If no one is born talented and you need 10,000 hours of practice, what's the most effective way of using those hours? One theory is something sociologists call "deliberate practice." Essentially, there are six elements. The practice needs to be meant to specifically improve performance, and is even more effective if there's coaching. It needs to be repeatable, and feedback regularly is crucial. It also has to be demanding, either physically or mentally. If you're doing all of this correctly, it shouldn't be a fun experience. An example would be a basketball player who isn't very good at free throws spending hours and hours just doing free throws while being coached. Not a great time no matter how big of a basketball fan you are.
No One Succeeds on Their Own
While it would be nice to succeed simply because we work hard, life doesn't work that way. We need help and support from friends, family and teachers, and then we need chances from employers and other key figures in the fields we choose to pursue. In order to succeed, the gifts and interests of a person need to be encouraged, especially at a young age. Then as they grow up, people need to be given opportunities, breaks and second chances. Without help from other people, it makes it impossible to succeed because as Gladwell points out, "… no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone."
You Have Amazing Potential
On average, the human mind can remember a sequence of seven to nine numbers. After that it becomes incredibly hard to remember all the numbers in the right order. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University wanted to know if someone of average intelligence could break that barrier with practice. Through a lot of tests, researchers discovered what they called "the remarkable potential of 'ordinary' adults and their amazing capacity for change with practice." Their research showed that even "ordinary" people have the potential to be great by challenging themselves. If you work hard, your goals can be more attainable than you thought.
Passage outline | Supporting details | |
Introduction | Sociologists have been wondering what makes some people successful for years and the following will give you some | |
Some | IQ is Overrated | ◆By itself, a high IQ doesn’t ◆People show |
The 10,000 Hours Theory | ◆What | |
Deliberate Practice | ◆Deliberate Practice needs to be ◆Deliberate Practice needs to be repeatable and feedback on a regular ◆Whatever | |
No One Succeeds on Their Own | ◆ | |
You Have Amazing Potential | ◆Through much practice and by challenging youselves, you can break the barrier and |
【推荐3】Birds do it. People do it. Owls do it in the daytime. Even Caenorhabditis elegans, a primitive roundworm made up of a few thousand cells, does something that looks an awful lot like it. Sleep is an ancient, universal experience.
But partly because it is so commonplace, for a long time sleep was a subject that scientists had not woken up to. It is only in the past half-century or so that it has attracted the attention of dedicated researchers. A new book from Kenneth Miller, a science journalist, sets out to elaborate the field’s short but fascinating history. The book is organized around the life and hard work of a scientist named Nathaniel Kleitman who set up a pioneering sleep-research programme at the University of Chicago.
The early pages of the book, before there is much in the way of established science to describe, are the weakest. A good deal of time is spent on biographical details and pen portraits of the world through which Kleitman moved. But the story soon picks up. It ranges from the discovery of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep and circadian rhythms — the biological clocks that govern humanity’s days — to the effects of sleep deprivation (which can be fatal, at least in lab animals). It also probes the purpose, if any, of dreams.
Underlying it all is a sense of psychology's slow maturing as a science. New technologies such as electroencephalographs, which monitor electrical activity in the brain, have offered practitioners the ability to study brains directly, rather than trying to infer what they are doing from the behaviour of their owners.
Discoveries often lead to new questions in turn. That is why neat, tidy endings are hard to achieve in science books; this one is no difference. Despite all the progress of the past 50 years, scientists are still unsure what sleep is for. For anyone curious about asking the right questions, however, Mr. Miller’s book is a good place to start.
1. What is the book aimed at?A.Setting up a pioneer programme. |
B.Introducing the contribution of a scientist. |
C.Attracting the attention of other researchers. |
D.Recording the development of sleep research. |
A.Recovers. | B.Refreshes. | C.Improves. | D.Accelerates. |
A.Portraits of the author. | B.Sleep patterns and dreams. |
C.The history of psychology. | D.The importance of the brain. |
A.Favorable. | B.Disapproving. | C.Doubtful. | D.Ambiguous. |
【推荐1】Learning a second language is tricky at any age (and it only gets tougher the longer you wait to open that dusty French book). Now, in a new study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.
The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it’s “nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second tongue after 10. But that doesn’t seem to be because language skills go downhill. “It turns out you’re still learning fast. It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,” says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.
Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they’re better able to adapt and respond to new information. “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says, “and children’s brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing.”
Kids may also be more willing to try new things (and to potentially look foolish in the process) than adults are. Their comparatively new grasp on their native tongue may also be advantageous. Unlike adults, who tend to default(默认)to the rules and patterns of their first language, kids may be able to approach a new one with a blank sheet of paper.
These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 - when language learning ability starts to drop off - seems relatively old.
“People fared better when they learned by immersion(沉浸), rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that’s not an option, you can mimic an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities,” Hartshorne says. By doing so, it’s possible to become conversationally proficient - even without the advantage of a child’s brain.
1. The word “plummet” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _________.A.dive | B.rise | C.end | D.vary |
A.Age 10-18 is the best time to learn a second language. |
B.Children are too young to grasp a second language. |
C.Communicating with native speakers enables you to master all the language skills. |
D.Adults go beyond the critical period for learning a second language. |
A.Adults are less influenced by their mother tongues. |
B.Adults spend more time responding to new information. |
C.Adults are only too willing to experience something awkward in the process. |
D.Adults prefer an immersive environment to a classroom in learning a second language. |
A.the best age for language learning |
B.the approaches to learning a second language |
C.the fact that kids learn a second language more easily than adults |
D.why adults need an immersive environment for second language learning |
【推荐2】A new analysis of photographs from the International Space Station has identified a shift in the kind of lighting technologies that European countries are using at night to brighten streets and buildings. Researchers have found that the old warm high-pressure street lights are rapidly being replaced by cooler LED lights. The University of Exeter study, published in Science Advances, claimed that “this phenomenon is widely increasing the risk of harmful effects to ecosystems”.
LED lighting was promoted as being intended to reduce emissions, but its usage has raised energy consumption. One explanation of this is that the increase in power efficiency and the associated decrease in economic cost have driven increased demand for lighting, therefore, any efficiency gains have been counteracted by increased consumption of light.
The study also claimed that previous research into the effects of light pollution have underestimated the impacts of blue light radiation. Chief among the health consequences of blue light is its ability to reduce the production of melatonin(褪黑素)that regulates sleep patterns in humans and other organisms. Scientific studies have warned that increased exposure to artificial blue light can worsen people’s sleeping habits.
The increase in blue light radiation in Europe has also reduced the visibility of stars in the night sky, which may have impacts on people’s sense of nature. Blue light can also alter the behavioral patterns of animals including bats and moths, as it can change their movements towards or away from light sources.
David Smith, of the conservation charity Buglife, said, “Light pollution can dramatically impact animals. We should consider light from a wider biological perspective than that of just humans and focus on better quality lighting that is harmonious with our natural world. Better quality and lower levels of lighting would help save energy, and lower financial costs, while also making our environment safer for living beings. Authorities can dim the lights during night hours, and change the bandwidths(带宽值)of their LED bulbs to produce less harmful blue light.”
1. What is the phenomenon described in paragraph 1?A.The rising demand for public lighting. |
B.The increasing use of LED lights. |
C.Old street lights producing lots of emissions. |
D.Artificial lights at night wasting much energy. |
A.Judged. | B.Maintained. |
C.Balanced. | D.Strengthened. |
A.Sleep patterns. | B.Eyesight. |
C.Learning ability. | D.Social behaviors. |
A.To stress the importance of saving energy. |
B.To persuade authorities to avoid using LED lights. |
C.To show ways of improving the quality of LED bulbs. |
D.To provide suggestions on reducing light pollution. |
【推荐3】Some of the best thing in life don’t happen until you grow old enough to recognize them. I can say that about tea. .
I didn’t start to drink tea until I was 35. The first time felt a genuine urge to drink tea was in 2003, when I stayed briefly in the United Kingdom. After a time of consuming local food, I started to really like strong black tea.
I took packs of green tea with me as gifts but was disappointed to find my British friends preferred much stronger black tea from Sri Lanka. Later I learned that although people know China for its tea, it ranks only third among the world’s black tea exporters, after Sri Lanka and Kenya.
After I came back to China and started to cover food stories, I met friends in the tea-drinking circle and learned more. Although the majority of the rest of the world drinks black tea, which the Chinese call “red tea”, China processes and drinks mostly green tea.
I feel lucky to be Chinese because of the great variety of tea available in the county. It is estimated that there are more than 2000 tea in China it you divide them geographically,] including more than 600 locally famous tea. A more simple way to categorize it is by color ; and extent of fermentation(发酵). That comes down to six main categories --- green, white, yellow, dark greenish(oolong), red and black tea.
Tasting tea can be compared to our life. It can be plain and predictable but sometimes it is j full of pleasant surprises. Occasionally it can even seem too good to be true. The best thing is, you know there’s always more to explore.
1. Which country ranks first among the worlds black tea exporters?A.China. | B.Sri Lanka. |
C.Kenya. | D.United Kingdom. |
A.journalist | B.manager |
C.scientist | D.tea grower |
A.varieties of tea is planted and produced each year in China |
B.tea in China can be divided into more than 2000 categories geographically |
C.tea in China can be categorized by color and extent of fermentation |
D.all tea in China can be divided into six categories with no exception |
A.World. | B.Business. |
C.Lifestyle. | D.Travel. |