大学英语考试复习资料大学英语四级分类模拟题262文档格式.docx

1、Reading ComprehensionReading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer A. Gregory Currie, a professor of philosophy at the University of Nottingham, recently argued in the New York Times that we ought not to claim that literature improves us as people, because there is no convincing evidence that sugges

2、ts that people are morally or socially better for reading Tolstoy or other great books. B. Actually, there is such evidence. Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, and Keith Oatley, a retired professor of cognitive （认知的） psychology at the University of Toronto, reported in studies

3、 published in 2006 and 2009 that individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize （有同感） with them and view the world from their perspective. This link persisted even after the researchers factored in the possibility that more empathetic individuals mi

4、ght choose to read more novels. A 2010 study by Mar found a similar result in young children: the more stories they had read to them, the keener their theory of mind, or mental model of other peoples intentions. C. Deep readingas opposed to the often superficial reading we do on the Webis an endange

5、red practice, one we ought to take steps to preserve as we would a historic building or a significant work of art. Its disappearance would cause damage to the intellectual and emotional development of generations growing up online, as well as the perpetuation of a critical part of our culture: the n

6、ovels, poems and other kinds of literature that can be appreciated only by readers whose brains, quite literally, have been trained to understand them. D. Recent research in cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that deep readingslow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and e

7、motional and moral complexityis a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere understanding of words. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the built-in limits of the printed page are uniquely beneficial to the deep reading experience. A books la

8、ck of hyperlinks （超链接）, for example, frees the reader from making decisionsShould I click on this link or not?allowing her to remain fully focus on the narrative. E. That immersion is supported by the way the brain handles language rich in detail, implication and metaphor （暗喻）: by creating a mental

9、representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were displayed in real life. The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, prompting us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, st

10、udies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy. F. None of this is likely to happen when were visiting TMZ （美国名人消息网）. Although we call the activity by the same name, the deep reading of books and the information-driven reading we do on the Web are very different, both in the experience

11、 they produce and in the capacities they develop. A growing body of evidence suggests that online reading may be less engaging and less satisfying, even for the digital natives for whom it is so familiar. G. In May 2013, for example, Britains National Literacy Trust released the results of a study o

12、f 34,910 young people aged 8 to 16. Researchers reported that 39% of children and teens read daily using electronic devices, but only 28% read printed materials every day. Those who read only onscreen were three times less likely to say they enjoy reading very much and a third less likely to have a

13、favorite book. The study also found that young people who read daily only onscreen were nearly two times less likely to be above-average readers than those who read daily in print or both in print and onscreen. H. To understand why we should be concerned about how young people read, and not just whe

14、ther theyre reading at all, it helps to know something about the way the ability to read evolved. Human beings were never born to read, notes Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the R

15、eading Brain. Unlike the ability to understand and produce spoken language, which under normal circumstances will show up according to a program dictated by our genes, the ability to read must be acquired by each individual through effort. The reading circuits we construct are recruited from structu

16、res in the brain that evolved for other purposesand these circuits can be weak or they can be strong, depending on how often and how vigorously we use them. I. The deep reader, protected from distractions and adapted to the tiny differences of language, enters a state that psychologist Victor Nell, in a study of the psychology of pleasure reading, likens to a hyp