
36 That is why a few pioneering companies are creating places or times for uninterrupted, focused creative thought.
What we urgently need is a revaluing and cultivating of the art of attention.
Beeped and pinged, interrupted and inundated, overloaded and hurried—that is how we live today.
However, in meetings where everyone is checking e-mail, opportunities for collective creative energy and critical
thinking are lost.
37 Such distraction is fragmenting and diffusing our powers of attention.
The first step is to learn to speak a language of attention.
Beeped and pinged, interrupted and inundated, overloaded and hurried—that is how we live today.
That is why a few pioneering companies are creating places or times for uninterrupted, focused creative thought.
38 Such distraction is fragmenting and diffusing our powers of attention.
And, once distracted, a worker takes nearly a half-hour to resume the original task.
That is why a few pioneering companies are creating places or times for uninterrupted, focused creative thought.
The first step is to learn to speak a language of attention.
第39 題至第 42 題為篇章結構,各題請依文意,從四個選項中選出最合適者,各題答案內容不重複
For many of us, while we are reading something, we may be listening to music or the radio at the same time. For people
who work online, they may be used to e-mailing or instant-messaging or checking stocks at the same time. Since the 1990s, we
have accepted multitasking without question. 39 While multitasking may seem to be saving time, psychologists and
neuroscientists are finding that it can put us under a great deal of stress and actually make us less efficient. Basically,
multitasking is shifting focus from one task to another in rapid succession. 40 It gives the illusion that we are
simultaneously tasking, but we are really not. In plain language, it is like playing tennis with three balls.
Of course, it depends what we are doing. For some people, listening to music while working actually makes them more
creative because they are using different cognitive functions. 41 We may all be familiar with the so-called “e-mail
voice,” when someone we are talking to on the phone suddenly sounds, well, disengaged. 42 They point out that it is a
big illusion that people think they can shift back and forth between tasks.
39 According to psychologists and neuroscientists, we cannot divide our attention like that.
But the researchers say that many of us do not like, or even hate, to do many things in a short period of time at work.
Virtually all of us spend part or most of our day either rapidly switching from one task to another or juggling two or
more things at the same time.
Although doing many things at the same time can be a way of making tasks more fun and energizing, we have to keep
in mind that we sacrifice focus when we do this.
40 According to psychologists and neuroscientists, we cannot divide our attention like that.
We may think that it would be nice to focus on just one thing at a time, but the real would does not seem to work that
way.
Virtually all of us spend part or most of our day either rapidly switching from one task to another or juggling two or
more things at the same time.
Although doing many things at the same time can be a way of making tasks more fun and energizing, we have to keep
in mind that we sacrifice focus when we do this.
41 According to psychologists and neuroscientists, we cannot divide our attention like that.
But despite what many of us think, people cannot simultaneously e-mail and talk on the phone.
But the researchers say that many of us do not like, or even hate, to do many things in a short period of time at work.
Although doing many things at the same time can be a way of making tasks more fun and energizing, we have to keep
in mind that we sacrifice focus when we do this.
42 According to psychologists and neuroscientists, we cannot divide our attention like that.
But despite what many of us think, people cannot simultaneously e-mail and talk on the phone.
But the researchers say that many of us do not like, or even hate, to do many things in a short period of time at work.
Virtually all of us spend part or most of our day either rapidly switching from one task to another or juggling two or
more things at the same time.
第43 題至第 46 題為篇章結構,各題請依文意,從四個選項中選出最合適者,各題答案內容不重複
Before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing took place, several athletes had faced charges of
taking substances banned by the International Olympic Committee. 43 Far from quelling such practices, the advent of
drug testing in sports in the late 1960s stimulated an arms race between regulators and the cheats.
Today, some athletes and their coaches continue to risk their reputation, and sometimes the athletes’ long-term health, for
the chance to dope undetected. 44 The latest drugs are designed with testing in mind, so that they either clear from the
body quickly or do not produce the tell-tale metabolite spikes in blood and urine samples. As a result, the testing labs must also
push to stay one step ahead of the cheats.
Donald Berry, a biostatistician, summarizes what he sees as problems with the way doping tests are conducted.
45 The ability of an anti-doping test to detect a banned substance in an athlete is calibrated in part by testing a small number of
volunteers taking the substance in question. But Berry says that individual labs need to verify these detection limits in larger
groups that include known dopers and non-dopers under blinded conditions that mimic what happens during competition.
46 Only by publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study
may the anti-doping authorities avoid a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy, and fear.