单选题 .  Forget the widely unloved redesign. Facebook has committed a greater offense. According to a new study by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University and her co-author Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, college students who use the 200 million-member social network have significantly lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than those who do not.
    The study surveyed 219 undergraduate and graduate students and found that GPAs of Facebook users typically ranged a full grade point lower than those of nonusers—3.0 to 3.5 for users versus 3.5 to 4.0 for their non-networking peers. It also found that 79% of Facebook members did not believe there was any link between their GPA and their networking habits.
    Karpinski says she isn't surprised by her findings but clarifies that the study does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. "Maybe Facebook users are just prone to distraction," said Karpinski.
    John Kamin, a student at Hofstra University in New York who uses Facebook, says it's "absurd" to associate the social network with poor grades. "It's a networking tool for people," says Kamin, who adds that he spends about an hour a day on Facebook, far less time than he spends playing the addictive game Brick Breaker on his BlackBerry—there's that question of users' distractibility. But, Kamin says, "I don't think someone is more or less intelligent because they sign up for it."
    Karpinski and Duberstein's study isn't the first to associate Facebook with diminished mental abilities. In February, Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield cautioned Britain's House of Lords that social networks like Facebook and Bebo were "infantilizing (使幼儿化) the brain into the state of small children" by shortening the attention span and providing constant instant excitement. And in his new book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small warns of a decreased ability among devotees of social networks and other modern technology to read real-life facial expressions and understand the emotional context of subtle gestures. Young people are particularly at risk for these problems, he writes, because "young minds tend to be the most sensitive, as well as the most exposed, to digital technology."
    Some experts dismiss all studies of Internet use as flawed, since there is no reasonable way to control the countless variables that may affect such research. For its part, Facebook declined to address the specific findings of the new study but issued a statement on Monday, April 13, saying that Facebook isn't the only diversion around; TV and video games can be just as distracting as online social networks. The company also pointed to a study released earlier this month by researchers at the University of Melbourne showing that personal Internet use at work can help focus workers' concentration and increase productivity.1.  Karpinski and Duberstein find that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】 第1段最后一句和第2段第1句。
   原文这两句以数据说明Facebook的学生用户平均成绩分数普遍低于非Facebook用户，B与此内容相同，故为本题答案。
   A与第3段最后一句Maybe后的内容相同，但Maybe一词表明这个内容只是猜测，是未经证实的，A纯属断章取义；同样，C也不正确；第3段第1句表明研究人员仍不能确定成绩差是否由使用Facebook引起，可见，D的说法过于绝对。
[参考译文]
   忘了那些不讨人喜欢的重新设计吧。Facebook社交网络已经发起了更大的进攻。俄亥俄州立大学的博士生阿芮·卡尔平斯基和她的合著人、俄亥俄多米尼加大学的亚当·杜伯斯坦的最新研究发现，使用这个拥有2亿会员的社交网络的大学生平均学习成绩(GPAs)明显低于没有使用社交网络的学生。
   该研究调查了219名本科生和研究生，发现Facebook学生用户的平均成绩分数普遍低于非Facebook用户——Facebook用户的分数一般处于3.0到3.5之间，而非Facebook用户则在3.5到4.0之间。研究还发现，79%的Facebook用户不相信他们的平均成绩与他们的上网习惯有关系。
   卡尔平斯基说她对她的研究结果并不感到意外，但她也承认这项研究并不能说明Facebook直接导致了成绩差，只是说明两者之间存在一定的关系。“也许Facebook用户只是容易分心，”卡尔平斯基说。
   Facebook的一个用户、纽约霍夫斯特拉大学的学生约翰·卡明说把成绩差与社交网络联系在一起是“荒谬可笑的”。“Facebook是人们使用的一个网络工具，”卡明补充道，他每天花约一个小时在Facebook上，远远少于他沉迷于黑莓手机上砖块游戏的时间——是有用户注意力分散的问题存在。但是，卡明说：“我并不认为因为他们注册了Facebook的帐号，就代表他们不够聪明。”
   卡尔平斯基和杜伯斯坦的研究并不是第一个把智力下降与Facebook相联系的研究。2月份，牛津大学的神经科学家苏珊·格林菲尔德告诫英国上议院，像Facebook和Bebo这样的社交网络会缩短人们注意力持续的时间，让人不断处于兴奋状态，从而使大脑幼儿化。加州大学洛杉矾分校的神经学家盖瑞·斯莫尔在其新书《网络化大脑：适应现代大脑的技术变革》中告诫人们说，沉迷于社交网络和其他现代技术的人解读现实生活中人们的面部表情、理解细微的肢体语言所体现的情感的能力会下降。在书中他还写道，年轻人特别容易出现这样的问题，因为“年轻人往往是最敏感、也是接触数码技术最多的人群”。
   由于没有合理的途径来控制众多可能影响研究的变量，一些专家认为所有的网络研究都有或多或少的缺陷。而Facebook则拒绝谈论这项新研究的具体结果，但在4月13日的周一发表了一份声明，称Facebook并不是唯一让人分心的东西；电视和视频游戏也可能像在线社交网络一样让人分心。该公司还指出，本月早些时候发布的墨尔本大学研究人员的研究显示，在工作中使用网络可以帮助员工集中注意力、提高生产力。