每天看一些托福閱讀材料不僅可以積累背景知識，還能培養(yǎng)一定的語感。以下是出國留學網(wǎng)(www.liuxue86.com)托福頻道小編為大家整理的托福閱讀材料-社交平臺的影響，社交平臺確實給人們帶來了不小的影響，具體請看下文。
Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives, a top scientist believes.
Repeated exposure to social networking sites leaves users with an 'identity crisis', wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying: 'Look at me, Mummy, I've done this.'
Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes the growth of internet 'friendships' – as well as greater use of computer games – could effectively 'rewire' the brain.
This can result in reduced concentration, a need for instant gratification and poor non-verbal skills, such as the ability to make eye contact during conversations.
More than 750million people across the world use Facebook to share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts. Millions have also signed up to Twitter, the 'micro-blogging' service that lets members circulate short text and picture messages about themselves.
Baroness Greenfield, former director of research body the Royal Institution, said: 'What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out on Twitter.
'Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? It reminds me of a small child (saying): “Look at me Mummy, I'm doing this”, “Look at me Mummy I'm doing that”.
'It's almost as if they're in some kind of identity crisis. In a sense it's keeping the brain in a sort of time warp.'
The academic suggested that some Facebook users feel the need to become 'mini celebrities' who are watched and admired by others on a daily basis. They do things that are 'Facebook worthy' because the only way they can define themselves is by 'people knowing about them'.
'It's almost as if people are living in a world that's not a real world, but a world where what counts is what people think of you or (if they) can click on you,' she said.
'Think of the implications for society if people worry more about what other people think about them than what they think about themselves.'
Vocabulary:
obsessed: 著迷的，癡迷的，迷戀的。
toddler: a child who has only recently learnt to walk(學步的兒童;剛學會走路的孩子)
pharmacology: the scientific study of drugs and their use in medicine(藥物學;藥理學)
rewire: to put new electrical wires into a building or piece of equipment 給(建筑物或設備)換新電線。文中是比喻用法。
gratification: the state of feeling pleasure when something goes well for you or when your desires are satisfied; something that gives you pleasure(滿足;滿意)
non-verbal: not involving words or speech(不涉及言語的;非言語的)
circulate: to send goods or information to all the people in a group(傳送)
banality: the quality of being banal; things, remarks, etc. that are banal(平庸;平淡乏味;陳腐的事物;陳詞濫調)
time warp: an imaginary situation, described, for example, in science fiction, in which it is possible for people or things from the past or the future to move to the present 時間錯位(如科幻小說中所描述的過去或將來的人或事都可能移到現(xiàn)在)
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