印刷文字的力量：停止阅读后，思维开始“变薄”

英语流利说
在信息爆炸的时代，我们被海量数据与碎片化内容包围。一位教授指出：“我们的大多数学生在功能上是文盲。”这并非危言耸听，而是揭示了当代人阅读困境的严峻现实——能解码文字却难持续思考。那么，阅读究竟如何重塑大脑？深度思考能力又该如何守护？让我们和 Lala 一起走进今天的文章，探寻印刷文字背后那股不可忽视的力量。

讲解人 · Lala

职业双语播音员 资深美音口语培训师

原文


        

        



** When we stop reading, we forget how to think **

"Most of our students are functionally illiterate.


This is not a joke.”


That line,  from a pseudonymous college professor quoted by writer Derek Thompson in his essay,  The End of Thinking,  sounds exaggerated until you look at the trends.


Teachers and professors across North America describe students who struggle to follow an argument through more than a few pages of prose.


Many can decode words,  but not sustain attention or tolerate ambiguity.


At the same time,  reading itself is quietly shrinking.


Time-use surveys show that reading for pleasure has dropped sharply,  especially among young people.


They are not illiterate in the traditional sense — they text,  scroll and post constantly online — but they are losing the habit of deep reading.


Mr. Thompson calls this a “thinning of thought”:


A slow erosion of our collective ability to hold complex ideas in mind,  weigh evidence and live with uncertainty.


Neuroscience backs up what many humanists have intuited.


Reading does not simply fill the mind — it reshapes it.


In a landmark brain-imaging study,  French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene and his colleagues compared adults who had learned to read in childhood,  adults who became literate later in life,  and adults who had never learned to read.


Literacy,  they found,  reorganized the brain’s circuitry.


It strengthened connections between visual and language regions,  enhanced auditory processing and refined awareness of speech sounds.


The act of reading fused vision and language into a single circuit for understanding.


Picking up a book is no longer just a private pastime.


In an age of distraction,  it is a civic and cognitive act.


Each time we sit with a book — patient,  absorbed,  following an argument or a story — we are rebuilding the neural circuits of reason and empathy on which our institutions quietly depend.





带着问题听讲解
    

  • 如何理解文章中的 illiterate 一词？
    • 

  • 根据文章，传统意义上的文盲和现在一些年轻人有什么不同？
    • 

  • 文章中说阅读有什么作用？
    • 





讲解

        

            

        

        

** 印刷文字的力量：停止阅读后，思维开始“变薄” **


"Most of our students are functionally illiterate. This is not a joke."
“我们的大多数学生是功能性文盲。这不是玩笑。”
That line, from a pseudonymous college professor quoted by writer Derek Thompson in his essay, The End of Thinking, sounds exaggerated until you look at the trends. Teachers and professors across North America describe students who struggle to follow an argument through more than a few pages of prose. Many can decode words, but not sustain attention or tolerate ambiguity.
这句话出自一位匿名大学教授之口，被作家德里克·汤普森（Derek Thompson）在他的文章《思考的终结》（The End of Thinking）中引用。乍一听似乎有些夸张，但一旦你看看相关趋势，就会发现这并非危言耸听。北美各地的中小学教师和大学教授都在描述这样一类学生：在读散文时，他们很难跟随超过几页文字展开的论证思路。许多人能够“识别”单词，却无法长时间保持注意力，也无法容忍含混、不确定的意义。
At the same time, reading itself is quietly shrinking. Time-use surveys show that reading for pleasure has dropped sharply, especially among young people. They are not illiterate in the traditional sense — they text, scroll and post constantly online — but they are losing the habit of deep reading.
与此同时，阅读本身正在悄然萎缩。时间使用调查显示，为了娱乐而阅读的时间大幅下降，尤其是在年轻人中间。他们并非传统意义上的文盲——他们发消息、刷手机、不停地在网上发帖——但他们正在失去深度阅读的习惯。
Mr. Thompson calls this a "thinning of thought": A slow erosion of our collective ability to hold complex ideas in mind, weigh evidence and live with uncertainty.
汤普森将这种现象称为“思维变薄”：也就是我们集体保持复杂想法、权衡证据、并与不确定性共处的能力，正在缓慢流失。
Neuroscience backs up what many humanists have intuited. Reading does not simply fill the mind — it reshapes it. In a landmark brain-imaging study, French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene and his colleagues compared adults who had learned to read in childhood, adults who became literate later in life, and adults who had never learned to read. 
神经科学的发现印证了许多人文学者早已有的直觉。阅读并不仅仅是向大脑输入信息——它会重塑大脑。在一项具有里程碑意义的脑成像研究中，法国神经科学家斯坦尼斯拉斯·德阿纳（Stanislas Dehaene）及其同事比较了三类人：童年时期学会阅读的成年人、成年后才获得读写能力的人，以及从未学会阅读的人。
Literacy, they found, reorganized the brain's circuitry. It strengthened connections between visual and language regions, enhanced auditory processing and refined awareness of speech sounds. The act of reading fused vision and language into a single circuit for understanding.
他们发现，读写能力会重新组织大脑的神经回路。它强化了视觉区域与语言区域之间的连接，提升了听觉处理能力，并细化了对语音细微差别的感知。阅读这一行为，把视觉与语言融合成一条统一的理解通路。
Picking up a book is no longer just a private pastime. In an age of distraction, it is a civic and cognitive act. Each time we sit with a book — patient, absorbed, following an argument or a story — we are rebuilding the neural circuits of reason and empathy on which our institutions quietly depend.
拿起一本书，已经不再只是个人的消遣。在一个充满干扰的时代，这是一种公民行为，也是一种认知行为。每一次我们安静地坐下来读书——耐心、专注，跟随一条论证或一个故事——我们都在重新建构理性与共情的神经回路，而我们的社会制度，正是在无声中依赖这些能力运转的。



重点词汇
 illiterate 




/ɪˈlɪt̬.ɚ.ət/




adj. 文盲的；不识字的；缺乏基本阅读能力的


    

  • 词根词缀：il-（表否定）；literate（adj. 识字的、有文化的）
    搭配短语：computer illiterate
    搭配短语：financially illiterate
    • 



 pseudonymous 
adj. 使用假名的；署笔名的


    

  • 词根词缀：pseudo-（prefix. 伪，假）
    • 相关词汇：pseudoscience
    词根词缀：-onym（名字）
    相关词汇：synonym（同义词）；antonym（反义词）
    • 搭配短语：pseudonymous literature
    • 



 prose 




/proʊz/




n. 散文


 decode 




/diːˈkoʊd/




v. 解码；破译；理解（文字或信息）


    

  • 英文释义：to understand the meaning of a word or phrase in a foreign language in the correct way
    例句：Grammatical information helps learners to decode sentences.
    • 



 ambiguity 




/ˌæm.bɪˈɡjuː.ə.t̬i/




n. 模糊性；不确定性；歧义


    

  • 例句：Be as precise as possible in your answer, so that there is no ambiguity.
    词性拓展：ambiguous（adj. 模糊的）
    • 例句：The wording of the agreement is ambiguous.
    • 



 read for pleasure 
为兴趣而阅读；休闲阅读


 scroll 




/skroʊl/




v. 滚动（屏幕、页面）浏览


    

  • 相关词汇：doomscrolling
    搭配短语：infinite scroll
    • 



 erosion 




/ɪˈroʊ.ʒən/




n. 侵蚀；削弱；逐渐流失


    

  • 词性拓展：erode（v. 侵蚀；流失）
    搭配短语：soil erosion
    搭配短语：coastal erosion
    • 



 collective 




/kəˈlek.tɪv/




adj. 集体的；共同的


    

  • 搭配短语：collective memory
    搭配短语：collective responsibility
    搭配短语：collective bargaining
    • 



 neuroscience 




/ˈnʊr.oʊˌsaɪ.əns/




n. 神经科学


    

  • 例句：Thanks to advances in neuroscience, we now know that adult brains can grow and change.
    • 



 humanist 




/ˈhjuː.mə.nɪst/




n. 人文学者；人文主义者


    

  • 英文释义：a person who believes in humanism
    例句：She is a liberal and a humanist.
    • 



 intuit 




/ɪnˈtuː.ɪ.t/




v. 直觉感知；凭直觉理解


    

  • 英文释义：to know or understand something because of a feeling that you have rather than because of facts or what someone has told you
    例句：He intuited that I was worried about the situation. 
    • 



 landmark 




/ˈlænd.mɑːrk/




n. 里程碑；重大转折点


    

  • 搭配短语：a landmark decision
    搭配短语：a landmark case
    • 



 literacy 




/ˈlɪt̬.ɚ.ə.si/




n. 读写能力；文化素养


    

  • 搭配短语：digital literacy
    搭配短语：financial literacy
    搭配短语：media literacy
    • 



 circuitry 




/ˈsɝː.kɪ.tri/




n. 神经回路系统；电路系统；结构网络


 auditory 




/ˈɑː.də.tɔːr.i/




adj. 听觉的；听觉系统的


    

  • 例句：It's an artificial device that stimulates the auditory areas of the brain.
    词根词缀：aud-（听）
    相关词汇：audio; audience; auditorium
    • 



 refined 




/rɪˈfaɪnd/




adj. 精细的；经过强化的；高度发展的


    

  • 搭配短语：refined sugar
    搭配短语：refined oil
    搭配短语：refined taste
    • 



 fuse 




/fjuːz/




v. 融合；结合；熔合


    

  • 词性拓展：fusion（n. 融合，合并）
    • 搭配短语：fusion cuisine
    • 搭配短语：nuclear fusion
    • 



 pastime 




/ˈpæs.taɪm/




n. 消遣；娱乐活动


    

  • 例句：Gardening is her favorite pastime.
    • 



 civic 




/ˈsɪv.ɪk/




adj. 公民的；公共事务的；社会责任相关的


    

  • 搭配短语：civic duty
    搭配短语：civic center
    搭配短语：civic pride
    • 



 cognitive 




/ˈkɑːɡ.nə.t̬ɪv/




adj. 认知的；思维过程的


    

  • 搭配短语：cognitive ability
    搭配短语：cognitive psychology
    搭配短语：cognitive decline
    • 



 neural circuit 
神经回路；神经通路


 reason 




/ˈriː.zən/




n. 理性；推理能力；理智


    

  • 英文释义：the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments
    • 



 institution 




/ˌɪn.stəˈtuː.ʃən/




n. 制度；机构；社会体制


    

  • 英文释义：a custom or tradition that has existed for a long time and is accepted as an important part of a particular society
    • 



拓展阅读
印刷文字：在数字时代依旧熠熠生辉
科技飞速发展、数字信息源激增，有人觉得印刷文字成了过去式，甚至认为图书馆和博物馆该“缩水”，实则不然。
印刷文字，如书籍、报刊等传统书面交流形式，是知识传播与文化传承的坚定象征。数字革命虽改变了信息获取与消费方式，但印刷文字凭借独特属性，在社会中仍价值重大。
印刷媒体有着不可复制的历史文化传承。报纸杂志是集体记忆宝库，记录着重大事件、文化变迁与社会变革。翻阅它们，触觉体验唤起与过去的联系，其物理性搭建起当下与过去的桥梁，保存着人类思想进步的记录。
印刷媒体带来独特沉浸式阅读体验。数字内容易被浏览丢弃，而印刷出版物鼓励深度钻研。手持纸质读物，能让人全神贯注，更有效吸收信息、思考影响。无广告、通知等干扰，阅读更专注沉浸。
印刷媒体可靠性、可信度更高。知名报刊杂志遵循严格编辑标准、事实核查流程和道德准则，内容准确可信。与之相比，数字领域常受虚假信息困扰，印刷出版物是准确报道和可靠分析的堡垒。
在数字疲劳、信息过载时代，印刷文字带来慰藉。长时间接触屏幕会引发健康问题，印刷媒体让人摆脱设备束缚，享受悠闲舒缓阅读，翻页动作和无蓝光排放让信息消费更放松。
数字信息源革新了知识传播，但印刷文字仍是文化领域不可替代的部分，其历史文化价值、阅读体验、可靠性等共同铸就了其持久意义，我们应珍视并保护其内在价值。
以上内容原载于网络，由流利说®阅读团队修改编辑。


英语流利说Lala 
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