Question

If you remember taking class notes in longhand(速記), there’s a good chance you also remember more about a variety of topics than today’s students do. A study investigated whether taking notes by hand helps you learn better than taking notes on a laptop. It was no contest.

Study authors and psychologists Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California– Los Angeles conducted three separate experiments involving a total of 327 students. All students got the same lectures, but some used laptops, and others took notes by hand.

When it came to learning the concepts, the handwriters won. When it came to retrieving facts, the groups were comparable, except when given time to go home and look at their notes, at which point the handwriters did better.

“Even when allowed to review notes after a week’s delay, participants who had taken notes with laptops performed worse on tests of both factual content and conceptual（概念的）understanding,” the study states.

Learning suffered not because of “multitasking” or the distraction available to students using Wi-Fi– enabled laptops. In the lab, scientists allowed no extraneous（不相干的）activity. Students who paid attention and took deep notes on their laptop still didn’t learn as well—in fact, the study suggests the thoroughness of their notes contributes to the problem.

Laptop users tend to record long, verbatim quotes, which they type mindlessly. Handwriters are more selective. They “wrote significantly fewer words than those who typed,” according to the study. By processing and selecting the more important information, they studied more efficiently, said researchers.

Here’s what’s a bit frightening: When the laptop students were instructed to cut down or eliminate the verbatim note taking, they couldn’t. The study adds to a ton of evidence that for learning, writing is better and that the hand has a “unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas.”

Of course, the chance of persuading students to put away their laptops is probably zero. Many of them can’t write longhand, a forgotten subject in many American schools, itself a source of controversy.

So are we stuck with traditional classrooms and learning techniques if we want the brightest pupils? Perhaps not: Another possibility, some have suggested, is apps that permit handwriting on tablets, a compromise that students might accept.

1.The reason why taking notes by hand is considerably better than taking notes on a laptop may be that_______.

A. longhand note takers engage in more processing than laptop note takers

B. students using laptops paid attention and took deep notes

C. handwriters have a tendency to use long verbatim quotes

D. laptop users are more selective when taking notes

2.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “verbatim”?

A. 板書(shū)的 B. 冗長(zhǎng)的

C. 完全照字面的 D. 重要的

3.What can be inferred from the passage?

A. The experiments show that there are advantages of longhand over laptop note taking.

B. In many American schools, longhand has always been popular with the students.

C. When allowed to review notes after a week’s delay, participants who had taken notes with laptops performed equivalently to longhand note takers.

D. There is a good chance that many students will put away their laptops and take class notes in longhand.

4.The passage is most likely to be taken from _____.

A. National Geography B. The Economist

C. Psychological Science D. Wall Street Journal

 

Answer 1

1.A

2.C

3.A

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：如果你會(huì)使用速記在課堂上做筆記的話，你會(huì)比其他學(xué)生記住更多的知識(shí)。一項(xiàng)研究關(guān)注了速記和用筆記本電腦做筆記哪一個(gè)更有助于學(xué)習(xí)。結(jié)果顯示，用手進(jìn)行速記的學(xué)生對(duì)信息進(jìn)行了更多的腦加工，記憶效果比用筆記本的學(xué)生更好。

1.By processing and selecting the more important information, they studied more efficiently”可知，用手寫(xiě)記筆記的學(xué)生比用筆記本記筆記的表現(xiàn)更好，是因?yàn)樗麄冇羞x擇性地記下他們認(rèn)為重要的內(nèi)容，他們?cè)陬^腦中進(jìn)行了更多的信息加工(process)，故選A。

2.which they type mindlessly”可知，使用筆記本記筆記的學(xué)生，往往是心不在焉地記下那些冗長(zhǎng)的、字面的內(nèi)容，他們不會(huì)進(jìn)行深層次的思考，這些學(xué)生使用筆記本long是“冗長(zhǎng)的”意思，排除B，D項(xiàng)與語(yǔ)境不符，故選C。

3.Students who paid attention and took deep notes on their laptop still didn’t learn as well”和第七段“The study adds to a ton of evidence that for learning, writing is better”可知，研究表明，用手進(jìn)行速記比使用筆記本做筆記更有優(yōu)勢(shì)，故選A。

4.A study investigated whether taking notes by hand helps you learn better than taking notes on a laptop.”和文章大意可知，文章豬樣講述的是一項(xiàng)研究，研究表明，用手速記包含了更多的腦加工，比用筆記本做筆記對(duì)學(xué)習(xí)更有幫助。由此可知，這是一篇研究速記的心理機(jī)制的文章，故選C。

考點(diǎn)：教育類短文閱讀