雅思閱讀熟詞多義題解析（劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’SSPORTINGSUCCESS及答案解析）

今天大學路小編整理了雅思閱讀熟詞多義題解析（劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’SSPORTINGSUCCESS及答案解析）相關(guān)信息，希望在這方面能夠更好的大家。

本文目錄一覽：

• 1、雅思閱讀熟詞多義題解析
• 2、劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’SSPORTINGSUCCESS及答案解析
• 3、2020年8月1日雅思閱讀考試真題答案

雅思閱讀熟詞多義題解析

英語中純粹的單義詞很少，絕大多數(shù)詞都是多義詞，即一個詞項有兩個或兩個以上的意義。在雅思閱讀中，有很多詞匯看似很簡單，很熟悉，殊不知他有多個意思。把小伙伴們都迷得暈頭轉(zhuǎn)向的。今天我來為大家收集整理了雅思閱讀熟詞多義題解析，希望小伙伴們在雅思考試時能提高警惕，不再犯迷糊!

以下主要就雅思閱讀劍橋真題部分的一些存在熟詞多義的題目進行解析：

1.drive

C4T1P1：

In other words， they gave no indication of an appreciation of either the range of ways in which rainforests are important or the complex social， economic and political factors which drive the activities which are destroying the rainforests.

這是一個復雜的長難句，一共出現(xiàn)了三處定語從句，一處ways in which， 一處factors which，一處activities which。

drive的主語為連接代詞which代指的先行詞factors，提取之后變?yōu)閒actors drive the activities， 這里如果將這里作為動詞的drive 翻譯成駕駛，句子是完成不通順的，我們從后一處的定語從句中得知，activities指的是破壞雨林的行為，也就是前面的社會經(jīng)濟和政治因素drive了一些破壞雨林的行為，也就是說，這里的drive是導致，迫使的意思。

C6T1P2

選項型SUMMARY

Q24： Manufacturers of computers， for instance， are able to import 24................. from overseas， rather than having to rely on a local supplier.

文章E段 To see how this influences trade， consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world's disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives， while valuable， are *all and light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market.

通過manufacturers of computers定位到E段。閱讀后我們可以知道電腦*商集中在東南亞*和進口disk drives而不是本國市場。如果同學對電腦知識比較了解的話，對于drive在這里的理解應該問題不大。根據(jù)一定的語法知識我們看得出這里的disk drives和disk-drive是名詞用法，可通過drive的基本含義“駕駛”進一步引申理解，“駕駛磁盤”過渡為“讓磁盤啟動”，正確的理解含義為：磁盤驅(qū)動器。對應到題目提供的選項“B. components”

2.subject

我們知道它由“科目”的意思，詞匯稍好的同學還會知道它還有“主語”和“主題”的含義。我們來看下面一題：

C5T1P2

單選題 Q20 The teacher-subjects were told that they were testing whether

A a 450-volt shock was dangerous.

B punishment helps learning.

C the pupils were honest.

D they were suited to teaching.

文章A段 Specifically， Milgram told each volunteer 'teacher-subject' that the experiment was in the noble cause of education， and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils' ability to learn.

文章這里的'teacher-subject'打了引號，也就是說即便同學你不認識，把它當作一個特殊詞符號，不理解不影響做題。不過明顯的是，把“科目”“主語”“主題”放這里，都不好理解。在雅思閱讀學術(shù)實驗類的文章中，subject是個高頻詞匯，作為“實驗對象”的含義來使用， 有時會同義替換為volunteer或participant。

C8T1P3

表格填空Q38 The results were then subjected to a 38…………………….

文章：In 1987， results from hundreds of autoganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a 'meta-*ysis'， a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies.

通過冠詞a我們可以知道此空填名詞單數(shù)，并且從表格縱軸同行的特殊定位詞in 1987，我們找到了定位句。但是定位句中存在冠詞a的三處，到底三處后的單詞填哪個呢。單詞不會，語法來湊，通過題目和文章的主干結(jié)構(gòu)的一致性：A be subjected to B和A be studied By B in C， 由于Honorton是人名且不符合填詞規(guī)定，順理成章的'meta-*ysis'成為我們的選填對象。那subject to到底什么意思呢，通過文章，我們可以知道大概是被研究的意思，查了字典我們就了解，正確含義為“受…支配”。

類似的用法單詞還有：

1. state n. (美國的)州，狀態(tài)，*，adj. 國家的，國立的 v.陳述，說明

C8T4P1 判斷題Q8 Private schools in Japan are more modern and spacious than state-run lower secondary schools. State-run adj國立的

C7T4P1 第5段 There was a huge initial force- five times larger than the steady state force， Gharib says. State n.狀態(tài)

2. coin n. 硬幣， v. 創(chuàng)造，鑄造

C7T1P1 E段 The American zoologist Donald Griffin， who was largely responsible for the discovery of sonar in bats， coined the term 'echolocation' to cover both sonar and radar， whether used by animals or by human instruments. Coin v 創(chuàng)造(first used)

3. spoke v. speak過去式，n 車輪的輻條(C4T1P3)

4. tuitionn. 學費，課程，講授，教學(C4T1P1)

5. complaint n. 抱怨，*，疾病(C4T2P2)

6. Interest v. 是感興趣n. 興趣，利益，利息(C4T3P1)

7. leaves v. leave的動詞三單形式 n.葉子(Pl)(C8T4P3)

8. press v. 按壓，n. 印刷，新聞工作者，新聞(C5T1P3/C5T4P2)

(pressing adj. 迫切的，急切的 C7T1P2)

希望以上內(nèi)容能對大家有所幫助!我預祝大家在雅思閱讀考試中能夠取得理想的成績!更多信息敬請關(guān)注雅思頻道!

劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’SSPORTINGSUCCESS及答案解析

做好雅思的閱讀題除了掌握對的 方法 ，也離不開我們?nèi)粘５男燎诰毩?，下面我給大家?guī)韯蜓潘奸喿xAUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS及答案解析，一起加油吧！

劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS

A They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sport*en and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.

B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one — such as building muscle strength in golfers — to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.

C A lot of their work comes down to measurement — everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D *ysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he *yses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (Swimming Analysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be *ysed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.

D ‘Take a look,’ says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says Mason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better.’ This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports. With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run. There’s more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

E Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model’, based on what they expect will be the winning times.’ You design the model to make that time,’ says Mason.’ A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.’ All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.

F Of course, there’s nothing to stop other countries copying — and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists’ and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the ‘a(chǎn)ltitude tent’, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS題目

Questions 1-7

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports

2 an explanation of how visual imaging is employed in investigations

3 a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity

4 how some AIS ideas have been reproduced

5 how obstacles to optimum achievement can be investigated

6 an overview of the funded support of athletes

7 how performance requirements are calculated before an event

Questions 8-11

Classify the following techniques according to whether the writer states they

A are currently exclusively used by Australians

B will be used in the future by Australians

C are currently used by both Australians and their rivals

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

8 cameras

9 sensors

10 protein tests

11 altitude tents

Questions 12 and 13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS ANDIOR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

12 What is produced to help an athlete plan their performance in an event?

13 By how much did some cyclists’ performance improve at the 1996 Olympic Games?

劍橋雅思閱讀AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS答案

Question 1

答案：B

關(guān)鍵詞：exchange of expertise, between different sports/collaborate, across a number of sports

定位原文：B段第2、3句“...and collaborates with… a number of sports …”

解題思路: 題干中講到不同體育領(lǐng)域的專業(yè)知識交流正好跟原文中跨不同體育專家之間的合作相對應，理解意思即可容易找到正確答案。

Question 2

答案：C

關(guān)鍵詞: visual imaging/3D, image

定位原文: C段第6句: “...shows off the prototype of a 3D *ysis …”

解題思路: 通過題干中的視頻成像可以很容易找到原文中對應的3D和成像。

Question 3

答案：B

關(guān)鍵詞: a reason for narrowing/ can’t waste time

定位原文: B段最后1句: “We can’t waste our time looking…”

解題思路: 題目中的research activity和原文中的scientific questions 屬于同義表達，定位答題區(qū)域，發(fā)現(xiàn)此句話所要表達的意思是不在一些飄渺的、不切實際的科學問題上浪費時間，也就是說要縮小研究的范圍。

Question 4

答案：F

關(guān)鍵詞：AIS ideas reproduce/ copying

定位原文: F段第1句話 “Of course, there’s nothing…”

解題思路: 題干中的reproduce是復制的意思，之后從 文章 中發(fā)現(xiàn) 句子 有復制copying，即可以直接定位。

Question 5

答案：D

關(guān)鍵詞：Obstacle, investigated/ impact, monitor

定位原文: D段第6句“... to monitor heart rate…”

解題思路: 題干提到理想成績的障礙是如何被調(diào)查研究的，而讀到對應句子之后看到正好是sensors(傳感器)對于運動員跑步的impact(影響)進行研究的儀器，而且obstacles和impact對應。

Question 6

答案：A

關(guān)鍵詞：Overview, funded support finance

定位原文: A段倒數(shù)第2句 “...finances programmes of excellence…”

解題思路: finances是解題關(guān)鍵，意思為資助，正好跟題干中funded support表達了相同的義項，直接對應。而且之后一句話提及以上項目所提供的服務和建議，可以確信答案。

Question 7

答案：E

關(guān)鍵詞：Calculated before an event/ using data, well before a championship

定位原文: E段第1句、第2句 “Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, ...”

解題思路: 首先通過well before a championship和文章中before an event定位到E段， 之后發(fā)現(xiàn)后面提及的“競爭模型”作用就是計算時間和速率，因此內(nèi)容對應上calculate，此時可斷定答案的位置。

Question 8

答案：A

關(guān)鍵詞: digital cameras

定位原文: C段倒數(shù)第3句: “..SWAN system now used in Australian national…”

解題思路: 前一句已經(jīng)提到該系統(tǒng)已廣泛應用于澳大利亞各項全國賽事之中，而沒有提到其他國家，因此可以判斷應該只有澳大利亞人在使用。

Question 9

答案：B

關(guān)鍵詞：sensor

定位原文: D段第7句：“...With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro…”

解題思路: 找到相同對應詞sensor，讀其前后的句子，發(fā)現(xiàn)有 Melbourne，斷定是澳大利亞人的發(fā)明。之后要特別留心動詞develop運用現(xiàn)在進行時，表示正在開發(fā);而且注意之后的定語從句采用了將來時，所以可以斷定此發(fā)明還沒有完成，應該屬于將來的成果。因此選擇B。

Question 10

答案: A

關(guān)鍵詞：protein

定位原文: D段倒數(shù)第4句: “… AIS and the University of Newcastle…”

解題思路: 非常容易在前面第一句話中找到跟題目protein tests所對應的詞語a test ...protein。之后細讀前后句，發(fā)現(xiàn)后面一句話對于此項科技成果的受益者文章中只提到AIS運動員，即澳大利亞體育學院的運動員，隸屬于澳大利亞，所以應該選擇A。

Question 11

答案：C

關(guān)鍵詞: altitude tent

定位原文: F段倒數(shù)第2句: “The same has happened to the ‘a(chǎn)ltitude tent ’…”

解題思路: 文章中很容易找到用引號括起來的題目中的名詞 短語 ，因此只要細心讀原句，就會發(fā)現(xiàn)開頭的‘The same has happened...’同樣的事情也發(fā)生在……根據(jù) 經(jīng)驗 應該順著文章向上追溯，發(fā)現(xiàn)跟‘a(chǎn)ltitude tent’相同情況的是1996年奧運會上澳大利亞人受益的流線型散熱運動服現(xiàn)在全世界都在用。因此 ‘a(chǎn)ltitude tent’也被世界各國應用。所以答案應該選擇C。且根據(jù)此段話大意可以了解文章只提到兩種研究成果被別國運用，即髙原帳蓬和流線型散熱服。所以可以間接判斷前三項成果是由澳大利人獨享的。

Question 12

答案： (a)competition model

關(guān)鍵詞： help an athlete plan, produced / prepare the athlete by, developing

定位原文: E段第1句“Using data…”

解題思路: Help an athlete plan their performance 對應上prepare the athlete by之后，要認真研究題目所問的是what is produced,斷定所作答案必定要填一個名詞。因此要細讀原文發(fā)現(xiàn)有單詞developing恰與produced相對應，中文意思是“開發(fā)”，則答案必定是開發(fā)之后的名詞。

Question 13

答案： (by)2 percent/%

關(guān)鍵詞： 19% Olympic Games, cyclists, improve

定位原文: F段第3句“At the Atlanta…”

解題思路: 分析問句是 ‘By how much... improve’，意思為“提高了多少”，可以判斷出答案需要寫一個數(shù)字。因此仔細閱讀相關(guān)語句找到 sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists ‘a(chǎn)nd rowers’ time。很快就可以找到數(shù)字百分之二

。

2020年8月1日雅思閱讀考試真題答案

8月1號進行了八月初的第一場雅思的考試，相信大家對真題以及答案會非常的感興趣、今天就由的我為大家介紹2020年8月1日雅思閱讀考試真題答案。

一、考題解析

P1 土地沙漠化

P2 澳大利亞的鸚鵡

P3 多重任務

二、名師點評

1.8月份首場考試的難度總體中等，有出現(xiàn)比較多的配對題，沒有出現(xiàn)Heading題，其余主要以常規(guī)的填空，判斷和選擇題為主。文章的話題和題型搭配也是在劍橋真題中都有跡可循，所以備考重心依然還是劍橋官方真題。

2. 整體分析：涉及環(huán)境類（P1）、動物類（P2）、社科類（P3）。

本次考試的P2和P3均為舊題。P2是動物類的話題，題型組合為：段落細節(jié)配對+單選+summary填空，難度中等。題型上也延續(xù)19年的出題特點，出現(xiàn)配對題，考察定位速度和準確度。P3也出現(xiàn)了段落細節(jié)配對，主要是段落細節(jié)配對+單選+判斷。三種題型難度中等，但是文章理解起來略有難度。

3. 部分答案及參考文章：

Passage 1：土地沙漠化

題型及答案待確認

Passage 2：澳大利亞的鸚鵡

題型：段落細節(jié)配對+單選+Summary填空

技巧分析：由于段落細節(jié)配對是完全亂序出題，在定位時需要先做后面的單選題及填空題，最大化利用已讀信息來確定答案，盡量避免重復閱讀，以保證充分的做題時間。

文章內(nèi)容及題目參考：

A 概況，關(guān)于一個大的生物種類

B 一些物種消失的原因，題干關(guān)鍵詞：an example of one bird species extinct

C 一種鸚鵡不能自己存活，以捕食另一種鳥為生，吃該鳥類的蛋。題干關(guān)鍵詞：two species competed at the expense of oneanother

D 吸引鸚鵡的原因以及鸚鵡嘴的特點。題干關(guān)鍵詞：*ysis of reasons as Australian landscapeattract parrots

E 植物是如何適應鸚鵡。題干關(guān)鍵詞：plants attract birds which make the animal adaptto the environment

F 南半球?qū)τ⒄Z的影響

G 兩種鸚鵡從環(huán)境改變中獲益并存活下來。題干關(guān)鍵詞：two species of parrots benefit fromm theenvironment change

H 外來物種及本地鸚鵡

I 鳥類棲息地被破壞以及人類采取的措施

J 作者對于鸚鵡問題的態(tài)度

單選題：

why parrots in the whole world are lineal descendants of

選項關(guān)鍵詞：continent split from Africa

the writer thinks parrots species beak is for

選項關(guān)鍵詞：adjust to their suitable diet

which one is not mentioned

選項關(guān)鍵詞：should be frequently maintained

填空題：分布在文章的前兩段

one-sixth

16th century

mapmaker

John Gould

Passage 3：多重任務

題型：段落細節(jié)配對+單選+判斷

參考答案及文章

28 F

29I

30C

31B

32G

33C

34B

35A

36YES

37YES

38NO

39NOT GIVEN

40NO

Passage3： multitasking

Multitasking Debate—Can you do them at the same time？

Talking on the phone while driving isn＇t the only situationwhere we＇re worse at multitasking than we might like to think we are. Newstudies have identified a bottleneck in our brains that some say means we arefundamentally incapable of true multitasking. If experimental findings reflectreal-world performance， people who think they are multitasking are probablyjust underperforming in all-or at best， all but one -of their parallelpursuits. Practice might improve your performance， but you will never be asgood as when focusing on one task at a time.

The problem， according to René Marois， a psychologist atVanderbilt University in Nashville， Tennessee， is that there＇s a sticking pointin the brain. To demonstrate this， Marois devised an experiment to locate nteers watch a screen and when a particular image appears， a red circle，say， they have to press a key with their index finger. Different colouredcircles require presses from different fingers. Typical response time is about half a second， and thevolunteers quickly reach their peak performance. Then they learn to listen todifferent recordings and respond by making a specific sound. For instance， whenthey hear a bird chirp， they have to say ＂ba＂； an electronic soundshould elicit a ＂ko＂， and so on. Again， no problem. A normal personcan do that in about half a second， with almost no effort. The trouble comeswhen Marois shows the volunteers an image， then almost immediately plays them asound. Now they＇re flummoxed. ＂If you show an image and play a sound atthe same time， one task is postponed，＂ he says. In fact，if the second taskis introduced within the half-second or so it takes to process and react to thefirst， it will simply be delayed until the first one is done. The largestdual-task delays occur when the two tasks are presented simultaneously； delaysprogressively shorten as the interval between presenting the tasks lengthens（See Diagram）.

There are at least three points where we seem to getstuck， says Marois. The first is in simply identifying what we＇re looking ?can take a few tenths of a second， during which time we are not able tosee and recognise a second item. This limitation is known as the＂attentional blink＂： experiments have shown that if you＇re watchingout for a particular event and a second one shows up unexpectedly any timewithin this crucial window of concentration， it may register in your visualcortex but you will be unable to act upon it. Interestingly， if you don＇texpect the first event， you have no trouble responding to the second. Whatexactly causes the attentional blink is still a matter for debate.

A second limitation is in our short-term visual ＇s estimated that we can keep track of about four items at a time， fewer ifthey are complex. This capacity shortage is thought to explain， in part， our astonishinginability to detect even huge changes in scenes that are otherwise identical，so-called ＂change blindness＂. Show people pairs of near-identicalphotos -say， aircraft engines in one picture have disappeared in the other -andthey will fail to spot the differences （if you don＇t believe it， check out theclips at /~rensink/flicker/download）. Here again， though， thereis disagreement about what the essential limiting factor really is. Does itcome down to a dearth of storage capacity， or is it about how much attention aviewer is paying？

A third limitation is that choosing a response to astimulus -braking when you see a child in the road， for instance，or replyingwhen your mother tells you over the phone that she＇s thinking of leaving yourdad -also takes brainpower. Selecting a response to one of these things willdelay by some tenths of a second your ability to respond to the other. This iscalled the ＂response selection bottleneck＂ theory， first proposed in1952.

Last December， Marois and his colleagues published apaper arguing that this bottleneck is in fact created in two different areas ofthe brain： one in the posterior lateral prefrontal cortex and another in thesuperior medial frontal cortex （Neuron， vol 52， p 1109）. They found this byscanning people＇s brains with functional MRI while the subjects struggled tochoose among eight possible responses to each of two closely timed tasks. Theydiscovered that these brain areas are not tied to any particular sense but aregenerally involved in selecting responses， and they seemed to queue theseresponses when presented with multiple tasks concurrently.

Bottleneck？ What bottleneck？

But David Meyer， a psychologist at the University ofMichigan， Ann Arbor， doesn＇t buy the bottleneck idea. He thinks dual-taskinterference is just evidence of a strategy used by the brain to prioritisemultiple activities. Meyer is known as something of an optimist by his ?has written papers with titles like ＂Virtually perfect time-sharing indual-task performance： Uncorking the central cognitive bottleneck＂（Psychological Science， vol 12， p101）. His experiments have shown that withenough practice -at least 2000 tries -some people can execute two taskssimultaneously as competently as if they were doing them one after the ?suggests that there is a central cognitive processor that coordinates allthis and， what＇s more， he thinks it uses discretion： sometimes it chooses todelay one task while completing another.

Even with practice， not all people manage to achieve thisharmonious time-share， however. Meyer argues that individual differences comedown to variations in the character of the processor -some brains are just more＂cautious＂， some more ＂daring＂. And despite urban legend，there are no noticeable

differences between men and women. So， according to him，it＇s not a central bottleneck that causes dual-task interference， but rather＂adaptive executive control＂， which ＂schedules task processesappropriately to obey instructions about their relative priorities and serialorder＂.

Marois agrees that practice can sometimes eraseinterference effects. He has found that with just 1 hour of practice each dayfor two weeks， volunteers show a huge improvement at managing both his tasks atonce. Where he disagrees with Meyer is in what the brain is doing to achievethis. Marois speculates that practice might give us the chance to find lesscongested circuits to execute a task -rather like finding trusty back streetsto avoid heavy traffic on main roads -effectively making our response to thetask subconscious. After all， there are plenty of examples of subconsciou*ultitasking that most of us routinely manage： walking and talking， eating andreading， watching TV and folding the laundry.

But while some dual tasks benefit from practice， otherssimply do not. ＂Certain kinds of tasks are really hard to do two atonce，＂ says Pierre Jolicoeur at the University of Montreal， Canada， whoalso studies multitasking. Dual tasks involving a visual stimulus andskeletal-motor response （which he dubs ＂in the eye and out the hand＂）and an auditory stimulus with a verbal response （＂in the ear and out themouth＂） do seem to be amenable to practice， he says. Jolicoeur has foundthat with enough training such tasks can be performed as well together asapart. He speculates that the brain connections that they use may be somehowspecial， because we learn to speak by hearing and learn to move by looking. Butpair visual input with a verbal response， or sound to motor， and there＇s nodramatic improvement. ＂It looks like no amount of practice will allow youto combine these，＂ he says.

For research purposes， these experiments have to be keptsimple. Real-world multitasking poses much greater challenges. Even the upbeatMeyer is sceptical about how a lot of us live our lives. Instant-messaging andtrying to do your homework？ ＂It can＇t be done，＂ he says. Conducting ajob interview while answering emails？ ＂There＇s no way you wind up being asgood.＂ Needless to say， there appear to be no researchers in the area ofmultitasking who believe that you can safely drive a car and carry on a phoneconversation. In fact， last year David Strayer at the University of Utah inSalt Lake City reported that people using cellphones drive no better thandrunks （Human Factors， vol 48， p 381）. In another study， Strayer found thatusing a hands-free kit did not improve a driver＇s response time. He concludedthat what distracts a driver so badly is the very act of talking to someone whoisn＇t present in the car and therefore is unaware of the hazards facing thedriver.

“No researchers believe it＇s safe to drive a car andcarry on a phone conversation”

It probably comes as no surprise that， generallyspeaking， we get worse at multitasking as we age. According to Art Kramer atthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign， who studies how ageing affectsour cognitive abilities， we peak in our 20s. Though the decline is slow throughour 30s and on into our 50s， it is there； and after 55， it becomes moreprecipitous. In one study， he and his colleagues had both young and oldparticipants do a simulated driving task while carrying on a conversation. Hefound that while young drivers tended to miss background changes， older driversfailed to notice things that were highly relevant. Likewise， older subjects hadmore trouble paying attention to the more important parts of a scene than youngdrivers.

It＇s not all bad news for over-55s， though. Kramer alsofound that older people can benefit from practice. Not only did they learn toperform better， brain scans showed that underlying that improvement was achange in the way their brains become active.

Whileit＇s clear that practice can often make a difference， especially as we age， thebasic facts remain sobering. ＂We have this impression of an almightycomplex brain，＂ says Marois， ＂and yet we have very humbling andcrippling limits.＂ For most of our history， we probably never needed to domore than one thing at a time， he says， and so we haven＇t evolved to be ableto. Perhaps we will in future， though. We might yet look back one day on peoplelike Debbie and Alun as ancestors of a new breed of true multitaskers.

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