托福阅读： Technology

毒瘾可怕，而如今许多大学生对于现代科技的痴迷也如上瘾一般，这让很多人失去了正常生活规律非常不利于健康。下面的新托福考试阅读练习资料就与大家讨论这个话题。

Withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of gadgets and technology is compared to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”, a study has concluded.

Researchers found nearly four in five students had significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation when forced to unplug from technology for an entire day.

They found college students at campuses across the globe admitted being “addicted” to modern technology such as mobile phones, laptops and television as well as social networking such as Facebook and Twitter.

A “clear majority" of almost 1,000 university students, interviewed at 12 campuses in 10 countries, including Britain, America and China, were unable to voluntarily avoid their gadgets for one full day, they concluded.

The University of Maryland research described students’ thoughts in vivid detail, in which they admit to cravings, anxiety attacks and depression when forced to abstain from using media.

One unnamed American college student told of their overwhelming cravings, which they confessed was similar to “itching like a crackhead (crack cocaine addict)”.

The study concluded that “most students... failed to go the full 24 hours without media”.

The research, titled The World Unplugged, also found students used “virtually the same words to describe their reactions”. These included emotions such as fretful, confused, anxious, irritable, insecure, nervous, restless, crazy, addicted, panicked, jealous, angry, lonely, dependent, depressed, jittery and paranoid.

Prof Susan Moeller, who led the research, said technology had changed the students’ relationships.

"Students talked about how scary it was, how addicted they were,” she said.

"They expected the frustration. But they didn't expect to have the psychological effects, to be lonely, to be panicked, the anxiety, literally heart palpitations.

“Technology provides the social network for young people today and they have spent their entire lives being ‘plugged in’."

以上就是这篇托福阅读材料，同学们可以积累其中的词汇及优美句式，找到托福阅读段的主题句，了解托福阅读的几个出题点。托福阅读训练是个长期的过程。大家如果每天做几篇阅读，坚持下来，一定会有不小的进步。预祝大家能有一个好的阅读成绩。