备战2018年高考任务型阅读每日一练（6）

1. 请阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

An Extension of the Human Brain

       Other people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies (欠缺)，much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I've called a “social prosthetic (义肢的）system.” Such systems do notneed to operate face-to-face, and it's clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It's already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.

        Regarding memory: Once I look up something on the Internet, I don't need to keep all the details for future use—I know where to find that informationagain and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I'm writing; I'm no longer comfortable writing if I'm not connected to the Internet. It's become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.

        Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I'm writing a textbook, it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core andunderstand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a “new idea,” I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar—and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out whether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.

        These effects of the Internet have become even more striking since I've begun using a smartphone. I now regularly pull out my phone to check a fact, watch a video, read weibo. Such activities fill the spaces that used to be dead time (such as waiting for somebody to arrive for a lunch meeting).

        But that's the upside (好处). The downside is that in those dead periods I often would let my thoughts flow and sometimes would have an unexpected insight or idea. Those opportunities are now fewer and farther between.

An Extension of the Human Brain
A prosthetic nature	•    The can help make up for our mental and emotional deficiencies as a wooden leg can compensate for a bodily deficiency. •    It in our daily events, extending our intelligence, comprehending our feelings, and expanding the range of social activities.
Wonderful aspects: memory and judgment	•    On the Internet, we could quickly and easily locate the details, and check facts, without  them in mind.
	•    The Internet makes us smarter over   kinds of things. It provides a dozen definitions of a key term for us to find the   of the matter.   The Internet enables us to exchange ideas with many others to  our claims, and to  our actions.
The sides of smartphones	•     Smartphones make it easier and more  to check reality, watch video clips, read weibo.
	•    Smartphones  the possibility for new and insightful minds, and steal away our dead time.