BBC 6分钟英语 为什么读书，而不是看屏幕

6 min English from BBC learning english dot com.

Hello, this is Minute English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Phil and I'm Georgie. For me, there's nothing like reading a book.

I love turning to pages and the smell of the paper.

But nowadays, the fact is that much of the time

we read from the electronic screens, not paper.

Yes, like Georgie, I love books.

I also find that it too much screen time hurts my eyes.

But the availability of digital information means that they end up reading from screens most days, so apart from sore eyes.

Is this a problem? Is reading from screens harmless, or could it be damaging us in some way, such as reducing our attention span, the length of time that someone can keep concentrated on what they are doing?

That's what we'll be discussing in this program.

And of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary too.

Great. But 1st, it's time for my question.

Whether you prefer paper or screens, as humans were now reading more words than ever before.

So how many words does the averaged person read a day?

Is it A? 50000 words? B-A?

Hundred thousand words, or see, 200000 words?

I guess it's 50000 words a day.

Okay, georgie, we'll find out the correct answer later in the program.

Of there's little doubt that any kind of reading is good for you.

Here's Crested a Cow, author of the How To Train Your Dragon children's Books.

Speaking with BBC ideas, reading brings three magical powers creativity, intelligence and empathy.

Reading, for the joy of it, is one of the two key factors in the kids later economic success.

You're more likely to not be in prison, to vote, to own your own home.

All of these advantages and benefits happen as a result of lipsy.

Cresset talks about the importance of reading for the joy of it.

When you do an activity for the joy of it, you do it simply for the pleasure of doing it, rather than as a way to gain something else.

Crescida lists the many benefits of reading for children, including economic success in later life, but many of these benefits depend on a state known as deep reading, analyzing a text to understand its deeper meaning.

And in test after test, researchers have shown that deep reading skills develop better when kids read from books.

Professor Marianne Wolf is a teacher an advocate for children's literacy around the world.

Here she explains more about deep reading to BBC ideas.

When we read at a surface level, we're just getting the information.

When we read deeply, we use much more of our cerebral cortex.

Deep breathing means that we make analogies, we make inferences, which allows us to be truly critical, analytic, empathic human beings.

The reality is, it's not what or how much we read, but how we read that's really important.

The very volume is having negative effects, because to absorb that much, there's a propensity towards skinny Professor wolves.

Research shows that reading from screens encourages reading at the surface level, quickly and superficially, looking at what can be easily understood.

Reading books, on the other hand, activate different areas of the brain, allowing a reader to develop positive traits like empathy and to understand the deeper level of a book, including analogies and inferences.

An analogy is a comparison between things that have similar features, e.g.

you might talk about the human heart using the analogy of a pomp.

An inference is a guess, opinion or conclusion that you make based on the information you already have.

E.g. seeing smoke in the distance, you would make an inference that there's fire.

It's these types of deeper, more subtle understanding that we get from reading books.

So why is it that reading from screens doesn't develop these skills in the same way?

Well, the answer has to do with the volume, the sheer number of words, pins and notifications that screens bombard us with every day.

Instead of deep reading, this encourages skimming, reading rapidly in order to get a general overview of something.

I think it's time to reveal the answer to my question.

Georgie, I asked you, how many words does the average modern person read a day?

And I guessed it was 50000 words.

Well, you were half right. In fact, the correct answer was double that, 100000 words, right?

Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this program, starting with

attention span, the length of time that someone can stay concentrated on one thing.

If you do something for the joy of it, you do it simply for the pleasure you get, rather

than as a way to get something else.

The phrase, on the surface level, describes looking at something quickly and superficially, rather than trying to understand its full.

deeper meaning. An analogy is a comparison between things that have similar features, e.g.

a human heart and a pump.

And an inference is a guess or conclusion that you make based on the information you already have, like infaring fire from seeing smoke.

And finally, skimming is reading rapidly in order to get a general overview of the text being read.

Once again, as 6 min are up.

Goodbye for now. Bye. 6 min English from BBC learning english dot com.

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