It amazes me when people proclaim that they are bored. Actually, it amazes me that I am ever bored, or that any of us are. With so much to occupy us these days, boredom should be a relic of a bygone age—an age devoid of the internet, social media, multi-channel TV, 24-hour shopping, multiplex cinemas, game consoles, texting and whatever other myriad possibilities are available these days to entertain us. Yet despite the plethora of high-iniensity entertainment constantly at our disposal, we are still bored. Up to half of us are "often bored" at home or at school, while more than two-thirds of us are chronically bored at work. We are bored by paperwork, by the commute and by dull meetings. TV is boring, as is Facebook and other social media. There are a number of explanations for our ennui. This, in fact, is part of the problem—we are overstimulated. The more entertained we are the more entertainment we need in order to feel satisfied. The more we fill our world with fast-moving, high-intensity, ever-changing stimulation, the more we get used to that and the less tolerant we become of lower levels. Our attention spans are now thought to be less than that of a goldfish ( eight seconds). We are hard-wired to seek novelty, which produces a hit of dopamine, that feel-good chemical, in our brains. As soon as a new stimulus is noticed, however, it is no longer new, and after a while it bores us. To get that same pleasurable dopamine hit we seek fresh sources of distraction. Our increasing reliance on screentime is also to blame. We seem to live in a varied and exciting world with a wealth of entertainment at our fingertips, and many of these amusements are obtained in remarkably similar ways—via our fingers. On average we spend six to seven hours in front of our phone, tablet, computer and TV screens every day. The irony is that while our mobile devices should allow us to fill every moment, our means of obtaining that entertainment has become so repetitive and routine that it's a source of boredom in itself. Research suggests that chronic boredom is responsible for a profusion of negative outcomes such as overeating, gambling, truancy, antisocial behaviour, drug use, accidents, risk taking and much more. We need less, not more, stimulation and novelty. It seems paradoxical, but feeling bored in the short term will make us less bored in the long term.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：细节题。由文章第一段可知，当人们宣称自己感到无聊时，作者很惊讶。随后在第三句boredom should be a relic of a bygone age中，作者认为无聊应该是上个时代的“遗留物”。因为如今的娱乐活动可谓千奇百怪，令人眼花缭乱。令人不解的是，正是过多的消遣方式才导致人们容易感到厌倦无聊。换言之，容易感到无聊的原因就是we are overstimulated。