We already live in an over-communicated world that will only become more so in the next tech era. We’ve developed technology that gets us so much information that we’ve got cell phones ringing every second. We’ve got computers and laptops. We’ve got personal organizers.

And we’re just being bombarded with communication and every advancing technology seems to create more and more communications at us. We are thought of over-whelmed by the information flow.
　　
Research suggests that all the multi-tasking may actually make our brains work better and faster, producing a world-wide increase in IQ up to 20 points and more in recent decades. Is there any real benefit in all these mental gymnastics we now have to go through? We are not becoming a race of global idiots, but many do think certain skills are enhanced and certain are not. You know the ability to make fast decisions, to answer a dozen emails in 5 minutes or to fill out maybe big aptitude text. That’s enhanced.
　　
But when someone is out there with his kids laying in his little league, or something like that, he’s got his cell phone in his pocket, he is always wondering: “Jeez, did I get a voicemail?” This might have negative effects on our own brains patterns. Creativity is something that happens slowly. It happens when your brain is just noodling around, just playing. When it puts together ideas which you haven’t thought of, or maybe you have time to read a book. You are a business person but you have time to read a book about history or about a philosopher and something that happened long ago, or something or some ideas, some default of long ago.
　　
Actually, it might occur to you that you can think of your own business in that way. And so if this mixture of unrelated ideas that feeds your productivity, feeds your creativity, and if your mind is disciplined to answer every email, then you don’t have time for that playful noodling, you don’t have time for those unexpected conjunctions. So I think maybe we are getting smarter in some senses, but over communication is a threat to our creativity and to our reflection.
　　
解析：聽力填空選取的這篇文章，主題是關于over communication. 在這個信息充斥的時代，我們的所得和所失。文章第一段提出問題，即We already live in an over-communicated world that will only become more so in the next tech era. 我們已經處在一個溝通過剩的時代，而這一現象此后還會愈演愈烈。第二段論述在溝通過剩的這樣一個時代，我們需要同時處理多種事務，使得有一些技能得到增強，而另一些則被削弱了。得到增強的主要是快速決斷和某些領域做事效率的提高。但這并不是問題的全部。第三段轉而論述溝通過剩給我們帶來的一個負面影響即創造力的衰退。第四段聯系我們自身的情況，再次論述：溝通過剩對我們的創造力和思考都帶來了威脅。

文章條理清晰，觀點明確，且主題與我們的日常生活接近，所以理解上應該難度不大。考查詞匯多為關于“信息”“科技”“溝通”的詞匯，大多也是考生們平時有所涉及的詞匯，因此總體難度不大。