任务型阅读
请阅读下面短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意:请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
An Extension of the Human Brain
Other people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies (欠缺),much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I’ve called a “social prosthetic (义肢的)system.” Such systems do not need to operate face-to-face, and it’s clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It’s already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.
Regarding memory: Once I look up something on the Internet, I don’t need to keep all the details for future use—I know where to find that information again and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I’m writing; I’m no longer comfortable writing if I’m not connected to the Internet. It’s become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.
Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I’m writing a textbook, it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core and understand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a “ new idea,” I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar—and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out whether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.
These effects of the Internet have become even more striking since I’ve begun using a smartphone. I now regularly pull out my phone to check a fact, watch a video, read weibo. Such activities fill the spaces that used to be dead time (such as waiting for somebody to arrive for a lunch meeting).
But that’s the upside (好处).The downside is that in those dead periods I often would let my thoughts flow and sometimes would have an unexpected insight or idea. Those opportunities are now fewer and farther between.
An Extension of the Human Brain | |
A prosthetic nature | 荫 ●The 1. can help make up for our mental and emotional deficiencies as a wooden leg can compensate for a bodily deficiency. • ●It 2. in our daily events, extending our intelligence, comprehending our feelings, and expanding the range of social activities. |
Wonderful aspects: memory and judgment | • ●On the Internet, we could quickly and easily locate the details, and check facts, without 3. them in mind. |
• ●The Internet makes us smarter over 4. kinds of things. It provides a dozen definitions of a key term for us to find the 5. of the matter. • ●The Internet enables us to exchange ideas with many others to 6. our claims, and to 7. our actions. | |
The 8. sides of smartphones | • ●Smartphones make it easier and more 9. to check reality, watch video clips, read weibo. |
• ●Smartphones 10. the possibility for new and insightful minds, and steal away our dead time. | |
Section B
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. account B. adjustable C. appliances D. capture E. decorations F. direct G. experiment H. intended I. operated J. soulless K. squeeze |
Golden Rules of Good Design
What makes good design? Over the years, designers and artists have been trying to 1. the essentials of good design. They have found that some sayings can help people understand the ideas of good design. There are four as follows.
Less is more. This saying is associated with the German-born architect Mies van der Rohe. In his Modernist view, beauty lies in simplicity and elegance, and the aim of the designer is to create solutions to problems through the most efficient means. Design should avoid unnecessary 2.
More is not a bore. The American-born architect Robert Venturi concluded that if simplicity is done badly, the result is 3. design. Post-Modernist designers began to 4. with decoration and color again. Product design was heavily influenced by this view and can be seen in kitchen 5. such as ovens and kettles.
Fitness for purpose. Successful product design takes into consideration a product’s function, purpose, shape, form, color, and so on. The most important result for the user is that the product does what is 6. . For example, think of a(n) 7. desk lamp. It needs to be constructed from materials that will stand the heat of the lamp and regular adjustments by the user. It also needs to be stable. Most importantly, it needs to 8. light where it is needed.
From follows emotion. This phrase is associated with the German designer Hartmut Esslinger. He believes design must take into 9. device that allows us to easily 10. the toothpaste onto our brush.