【正文】 this while on a conference call, pushing your child on a swing— or both. But is multitasking really a good idea, or does it make us do everything more slowly and less well than if we were concentrating on one task at a time? Psychologists cite convincing research that paying more attention to a task improves performance. Humans, they argue, are good at doing rapidly sequential tasks, rather than simultaneous ones. My teenagers insist it is fine to revise while texting and watching YouTube— but they are wrong. In 2020, a research team from Stanford, led by Clifford Nass, pared heavy versus light media multitaskers in a series of tests. Nass thought the heavier multitaskers would be better at anizing and storing information and have superior memories, but it turned out that the opposite was true. When the groups were shown layout of colored shapes and asked to remember their positions and ignore others, the multitaskers couldn’t do it. They were constantly distracted and their ability to switch between tasks, disregard irrelevant information and remember what they had seen was worse than the lighter multitaskers. A team led by David Strayer at the University of Utah looked at people who drive while using the phone and found that they were more than twice as likely to miss stop signs. In a later study, Strayer found that people who are most likely to multitask are those who think they are great at it. Seventy per cent of the 310 students in his study thought they were above average at multitasking. People who multitasked the most had high levels of impulsive behaviour and were generally the most illsuited to attempt more than one job at a time. Using a mobile, even handsfree, while driving delays the amount of time needed to brake in an emergency and halves the information that drivers are aware of. But Strayer found that people consistently overestimated how good they were at driving while on the phone. Nass’s research led him to suggest that we should spend 20 minutes on one task and then switch to another, rather than flitting any faster between the two. Tests that measure the ability to remember shapes are less pelling than reallife multitasking research, but the evidence suggests that we cheat ourselves if we think we can do more than one thing well at the same time. Limited research s uggests that women may be a tiny bit better at it, but few of us are naturals. Strayer’s research suggests that around 3% of the population are “supertaskers” who do better the more they do. The rest of us, however, should stick to one thing at a time. 35. Which of the following behavior may the author show approval to? A. Revising while texting and watching Youtube. B. Reading while pushing your kid on a swing. C. Switching between TV and homework. D. Handling sequential items on the agenda. 36. What could be concluded from Nass experiment? A. Heavy multitaskers were inadequate for such an experiment. B. The result of the experiment contradicted their previous assumption. C. Irrelevant information made the multitaskers fail to remember the positions of colored shapes. D. Multitasking was totally impossible in daily life. 37. According to Stayer, people who multitasked most generally ________. A. tended to be aggressive B. yielded more outes C. had a false image of themselves D. overweighed those light multitaskers 38. What does the underlined “it” refer to in the last paragraph? A. Remembering shapes B. Cheating themselves C. Multitasking D. Doing rapidly sequential tasks 四、任務(wù)型閱讀 We all need to feel understood, recognized and affirmed (證實(shí) ) by our friends, family and romantic partners. We all need to find our tribe. Research has shown that among the benefits that e with being in a relationship or group, feeling accepted is regarded as the most important driver of meaning. When other people think you matter and treat you as if you matter, you believe you matter, too. Though we all share a need to belong, in the first decades of the 20th century, many influential psychologists and physicians did not acknowledge this fundamental aspect of human nature. The idea that children needed parental love and care to live a full and meaningful life was not only considered medically dangerous, it was dismissed as immoral and disgusting. As behavioral psychology came into fashion and academic psychologists turned their attention to childraising, this view shifted and they began to examine and affirm the vital importance of attachment in early life. They discovered that people, whatever their age, needed more than food and shelter to live full and healthy lives. But, sadly, many of us lack close ties. At a time when we are more connected digitally than ever before, rates of social isolation (孤立 ) are rising. The results of an Age UK poll published recently suggest that half a million people over the age of 60 usually spend each day alone, and it’s not unusual for another half a million people to go five or six days without seeing or speaking to someone. All these figures reveal more than a rise in loneliness—they reveal a lack of meaning in people’s lives. In surveys, we list our close relationships as our most important sources of meaning. Research shows that people who are lonely and isolated feel their lives are less meaningful. While close relationships are critical for living a meaningful life, they ar