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Perhaps
you've heard the old saying "curiosity killed the cat." It's a phrase
that's often used to warn people—especially children—not to ask too many
questions. In fact, research has shown that curiosity is
just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school.
Curiosity
can also lead us to make unexpected discoveries, bring excitement into our
lives, and open up new possibilities. For example, one day in 1831, Michael Faraday
was playing around with a coil(线圈) and a
magnet(磁铁) when he suddenly saw how he could produce an
electrical current. At first, it wasn't clear what use this would have, but it
actually made electricity available for use in technology, and so changed the
world.
On
one level, this is because technology has become so advanced that many of us
are unable to think too deeply about how exactly things work anymore. While it
may be possible for a curious teenager to take a toaster apart and get some
sense of how it works, how much do you understand about what happens when you
type a website address into a browser? Where does your grasp of technology end
and the magic begin for you?
In
addition to this, there's the fact that we all now connect so deeply with
technology, particularly with our phones. The more we stare at our screens, the
less we talk to other people directly. Then
we feel we know enough about a person not to need to engage further with them.
The
final—and perhaps most worrying—way in which technology stops us from asking
more has to do with algorithms, the processes followed by computers. As we
increasingly get our news via social media, algorithms find out what we like
and push more of the same back to us. Perhaps the real key to
developing curiosity in the 21st century, then, is to rely less on the tech
tools of our age.
A. It is still not known why
learning gives us such pleasure.
B. We are always encouraged
to challenge our pre-existing beliefs.
C. Yet it's widely agreed
that curiosity actually makes learning more effective.
D. All too often we accept
the images of people that social media provides us with.
E. However, curiosity is
currently under the biggest threat, coming from technology.
F. In science, basic
curiosity-driven research can have unexpected important benefits.
G. That means we end up
inside our own little bubbles, no longer coming across new ideas.
答案:【1】C【2】F【3】E【4】D【5】G