Завдання 4
Read the text below. For questions (1-6) choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D).
Write your answer on the separate answer sheet.
Keep clicking and you’ll be a snappy thinker
The net is making us good at quick decisions – but there is a cost
Brendan Montague and Helen Brooks


The internet is changing the way the human brain works, researchers
have found. It is improving people’s ability to make snap decisions and
filter large amounts of information – but at the cost of subtle skills such
as picking up the nuances of facial expression.
Overall, a new study concludes, the brains of those tested were
markedly more active when carrying out internet searches than when
reading books.
However, the stimulation was concentrated in the areas that control
decision-making and complex reasoning. Areas linked to abstract
thinking and empathy showed virtually no increase in stimulation.
Gary Small, director of the memory and ageing research centre at the
University of California, Los Angeles, who carried out the research, said
that, while computers have marked benefits in stimulating the brain,
their use needed to be moderated.
There was a possibility, he argued, that the saturation use of digital
technology could lead to long-term evolutionary change.
“Young people are growing up immersed in this technology and their
brains are more malleable, more plastic and changing than with older
brains,” said Small.
“The next generation, as [Charles] Darwin suggests, will adapt to this
environment. Those who become really good at technology will have a
survival advantage – they will have a higher level of economic success
and their progeny will be better off.”
Small is to publish his findings in the American Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry. He has set out his arguments in more depth in a new book,
iBrain.
His claims reignite the debate about the effects of technology on the
brain. Some scientists have blamed computer games for the growth of
attention deficit disorder among children.
Small scanned the brains of 24 volunteers. He found that browsing
websites stimulated the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the
brain, which control complex reasoning. Older users and those who
had not previously tried the internet all showed similar effects.
Baroness Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution and author of ID:
The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century, said: “The hypothesis in
iBrain is that natural selection will weed out people with brains that are
more emotional or more capable of abstract thought and that we will be
left with people who are more autistic in tendency. I would agree.”
However, Igor Aleksander, emeritus professor of neural systems
engineering at Imperial College London, said: “It may be that by using
the internet you stimulate different parts of the brain. However, it would
be difficult to show this could not be achieved through other situations.”

1 What approach was taken in the recent research to prove the influence
of the internet on the human brain?
A The brains’ subtleties were tested.
B Abstract thinking was stimulated.
C Net-browsing was compared to reading.
D Some areas were simulated virtually.

2 According to the text, which of the following is true of the way the
internet may improve the human brain?
A Our brains will be able to excel in subtle skills.
B Our brains will be able to take in a lot of information.
C Our brains will be able to respond fast to life options.
D Our brains will be able to do more complex tasks.

3 Why does Gary Small believe that the use of computers should be
moderated?
A Not all areas of our brain react similarly on the internet activity.
B The intensive use of computers may have far-reaching effects.
C The evolution of digital technology may take a long time to occur.
D The next generation will change faster than the people today.

4 Why does the author mention the fact that some scientists have blamed
computer games for the growth of attention deficit disorder among
children?
A To show that he condemns the use of computer games by kids.
B To prove that there is no consensus among the researchers.
C To illustrate the findings of Gary Small in the brain stimulation.
D To debate with the belief that technology gives a survival
advantage.

5 What does Small mean predicting that people will be “more autistic in
tendency” (line 38)?
A People will avoid social interaction.
B People will be focused on emotions.
C People will have deficit of attention.
D People will tend to abstract thinking.

6 What is the opinion of Igor Alexander on the
conclusions made by Small?
A He is skeptical about them.
B He takes them for granted.
C He disagrees with them.
D He is tentative about them.

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