雅思考试2020真题 2020雅思考试听力答案正确写法规范

其实 剑桥 雅思真题是真题的一个总结，所以和真正考试难度相差不大，大家可以放心练习。

在雅思备考中剑桥雅思是最好的模拟题，1-3年代久远所以时间不够可以考虑不做，剑桥567推荐好好做，反复做，反复研究。

而且要注意现在的出题趋势有点复古，T/F/NG的比例还是很好，所以你应该 注意训练 下。相信如果把剑桥雅思567做到7分的同学，到了真实考试只可能分比这高。而且高半分。希望可以好好的研究剑桥雅思，题做的多了自然到了真是考试就有底。

至于难易程度，总之阅读听力在于做题，作文适当的准备模版，口语根据话题自己准备。

雅思难度增大

从历史的纵向来看， 雅思考试 的难度是在加大，随着出国人数的增加，这是必然的。这一点可以从剑桥真题1对比13，获得直观的感受，听力阅读所需词汇再增加，文章长度在变长，出现了大量理解性题目，以前只凭定位关键词就可以蒙对题目的情况越来越少。

随着培训行业的兴起，考猜陵羡生可以在很短时间内获得正确的方法指导，写的作文很多相似之处，考官对于写作口语逻辑性和语法多样性的要求不断提升，穗拍因此有了压分一说，这也是为什么很多烤鸭近些年选择出国考试的原因之一。汪模

雅思听力答案的正确写法，总是让许多考鸭都很烦恼。可以全大写吧?日期该怎么写?缩写简写得分吗?明明听到单数为什么答案是复数?赶紧对照下面的听力答案填写标准，缓氏厅改正自己的拼写习惯，不要最后明知道答案还因为写得不规范扣分!

2020雅思考试听力答案正确写法规范

此文致力于一次性解决大家关于雅思听力答案写法的困惑，大小写，日期，缩写，这里给大家重生一遍。进入考场后要牢记这些规范，避免不必要的错误。话不多说，内容自取：

雅思答案日期的写法

日月的写法

13th MAY

13th MAY

May 13th

May 13th

13 May

May 13

thirteen May

May thirteen

统一为：

May 13

13 May

May 13th

May 13th

日月年的写法

可行的有以下几种：

25 thFebruary 1975

13thJanuary, 1974 (英国)

March21st,2001(美国)

Aug.8th, 2008

02/06/2004

06/02/2004

统一为：

13 May, 1985

May 13, 1985

13th May, 1985

May 13th,1985

雅思考试听力答案写法之：常见时间写法

8:10AM

10.15 am

10.15 a.m

9.30-3.30

8.00am

8 am

统一为：

1. 数字中间统一为一个点，如10.15 am

2. 如有需要加am, pm的情况，大小写均可

3. am可以写为：a.m.或am

雅思考试听力答案写法之：大小写

按照常规区分大小写

(1)完整句句首字母需要大写。

例如：剑6 T2 S4 Q39

Sound effects were used for the first time on film in 1926.

(2)字母和数字在一起时，字母必须大写。核段

邮编：RA6 7BU; BH246GL

护照号：AL2880

航班号：AC937

注册会员号：UK765024EG

(3)专有名词首字母大写。

包括人名、地址、国家、语言、星球、节日、方位、书名、杂志名、电影名、职位、星期几、月份、特定的称谓等。

人名 Daniel Defoe;Professor John Smith;

地名 Chicago; Manchester;11B Lake Road; Gold Coast(黄金海岸); Tower ofLondon(伦敦塔);Greenwood Garden(绿林花园)

星期、月份 September

杂志 Fortune Magazine

不确定的情况下全部大写

不确定的情况下全部大写

不确定的情况下全部大写

雅思考试答案写法之：简称和缩写

简称

在录音中如为简称，在答案上填写简称和全称均可

录音中为ad

可写为ad或advertisement;

录音中为lab

可写为lab或laboratory;

录音中为info

可写为info或 information;

录音中为dorm

可写为dorm或dormitory

缩写

雅思官方指南中明确写出：雅思听力不考缩写，所以“自创”的或者“约定俗成”的缩写都不应作为答案填充。

(1)月份不能缩写

January 不写Jan

February 不写 Feb

March 不写Mar

April 不写 Apr

June 不写 Jun

July 不写Jul

August 不写 Aug

September 不写Sep

October 不写 Oct

November 不写 Nov

December 不写Dec

(2)星期不能缩写

Monday 不写Mon

Tuesday 不写Tue

Wednesday 不写Wed

Thursday 不写Thur

Friday 不写Fri

Saturday 不写Sat

Sunday 不写Sun

(3)时间单位不能缩写

20 minutes不能写成20m

雅思考扰隐试答案写法之：连写

连写单词

airplane 飞机

armchair 扶手椅

background 背景

baseball 垒球

bathroom 浴室

bedsit 卧室

booklet 小册子

booklist 书单

bookshop 书店

bookstore 书店

breakdowns 故障

butterfly 蝴蝶

cameraman 摄影师

centimeter 厘米

checklist 清单

childcare 儿童 照管

clockwork 发条装置

clubhouse 俱乐部

clubroom 俱乐部聚会室

coastline 海岸线

cocktail 鸡尾酒

copyright 版权

craft*en 工匠

cupboard 碗柜

darkroom 暗房

database 数据库

daylight 白天

deadline 最后期限

dishwasher 洗碗机

downhill 下坡

ecosystem 生态系统

eyesight 视力

feedback 反馈

fieldwork 野外工作

firewood 柴火

firework 烟火

flashlight 手电筒

floodwater 洪水

footbridge 行人天桥

footnote 脚注

footprint 脚印

freshwater 淡水

greenhouse 温室

handbook 手册

handout 文字材料;施舍物

hardware 计算机硬件

headphone 耳机

healthcare 医疗保健

highway 公路

homesick想家的

Homework家庭作业

keyboard键盘

landlady女房东

landmark地界标

laptop 笔记本 电脑

layout布局;设计

leaflet传单

Lifeguard 救生员

lifespan寿命

lifestyle生活方式

lighthouse 灯塔

livestock家畜

Loudspeaker扩音器

microbiology微生物学

microchip微芯片

microfilm缩微胶卷

microscope显微镜

microwave微波

midday正午

midnight午夜

minibus小型公共汽车

motorcycle 摩托车

network网络

newsletter时事通讯

newspaper报纸

northwest西北方向

notebook笔记本

online在线的

outdoor户外的

outline大纲

overdue过期的

overfill满溢

overhead在头上的

painkillers止痛药

password密码

payphone付费*

photocopy 复印件、影印本

placement布置

platform讲台

playground操场

postcard明信片

PowerPoint(专有名词考点)

railway铁路

raincoat雨衣

rainfall降雨量

rainforest雨林

restroom休息室

riverside河边

sale*an*员

sandglass沙漏

seafood海鲜

showroom 陈列室

software软件

southeast东南方向

sportswear运动装

spotlight聚光灯

stopwatch跑表

storehouse 仓库

storeroom 库房

sunlight日光

sunset日落

sunshade遮阳伞

supermarket超市

teamwork团队合作

textbook课本

thunderstorm风暴

timetable时间表

toothpaste 牙膏

underestimate 低估

undergraduate大学生

underground 地下

undersea 水下的

upland高地

upstairs楼上

videotape录像带

warehouse 仓库

waterfall 瀑布

waterproof防水材料

website 网站

wheelchair 轮椅

whiteboard白板

wildlife野生动植物

woodland森林

workbook练习薄

workforce劳动力

workload 工作量

workplace 工作场所;车间

worksheet 工作表

workshop 研讨会

分开写的单词

air conditioner 空调

alarm clock 闹钟

mass media 大众传播媒介

case study 案例研究

central heating 中央暖气系统

contact lens 隐形眼镜

notice board 布告牌

remote control 遥控

safety check 安全检查

student card 学生卡

加连字符的单词

brother-in-law 内兄/弟，姊妹的丈夫

cost-effective 划算的

detail-oriented 注重细节的

door-to-doorservice 送货上门服务

drop-offsite 下客区

drop-out 中途退学的人

fast-foodshop 快餐店

first-aidkit 急救箱

first-yearstudent 大学新生

four-coursedinner 4道菜的晚饭

full-time 专职的，全日制的

high-energysnack 高热量食品

highly-trainedstaff 高度训练的员工

large-scale 大规模的，大范围的

little-known 鲜为人知的

low-impact 低强度的

low-riskinvestment 低风险投资

middle-aged 中年的

mid-range 中点值

mid-term 期中的

non-active 不活跃的

non-fiction 纪实小说

note-taking 记笔记

part-timejob *

second-hand 二手的

self-access 可自行选用的

self-centered 自我中心的

self-defense 正当防卫

self-employed 个体经营的

self-evaluation 自我评价

self-fundedstudent 自费生

self-sufficient 自给自足的

*all-scale 小规模的

well-organized 有序的，有条理的

wheelchair-access toilet 残疾人专用厕

雅思考试听力答案写法之：数字、货币等标准替代符号

在雅思听力考试中会经常把数字、货币作为考点。

在写这一类答案的时候，既可以写成 英语单词 也可以写成*数字或者是金钱符号。

比如：

twenty=20;

ten percent=10%;

15 dollars=$15;

120 pounds=￡120。

注意：关于金钱的单词要写在数字的后面，而符号要写在数字的前面。

建议大家最好使用*数字和金钱符号，这样既节省时间又可以节约空间。因为10%只算一个数字，而tenpercent则算两个单词。另外，使用这些符号也不容易犯错误。

雅思考试听力答案写法之：有发音符号的单词

有发音符号的单词，发音符号是否必须写?

如café字母e上的一撇，“café”写成“caf锓cafe”都得分。

不写撇确定给分，为了不画蛇添足，写错这一撇的位置或方向，建议不写撇.

雅思听力答案规范之：单复数问题

剑桥真题答案中，有很多单复数放在括号里。

听出单复数是最精确的拿分方案。

建议：所听即所得 上下文判断

雅思听力答案规范之：冠词

冠词a, an, the的问题：

剑桥雅思真题的答案，有些冠词是放在括号里的。

那些真题答案中放在括号里的单词：加不加都给分。

所以不写冠词即使不完全符合语法，是给分的。

而冠词又很容易听错，例如把a写成the，反而不给分。

建议：无论是否完全符合语法，在不确定的情况下，不如不写冠词。

雅思听力词汇的大小写区分

很多学生也会问到这样的问题，一个是您要明白，只要是专有名词就一定要把首字母答谢，另一个是一个专有名词，字母全部大写了也不扣分，所以其实重点就是首字母的问题，如果首字母不大写是一定要扣分的。

不知道是否说清楚了，呵呵~~简而言之，就是，专有名词首字母一定要大写，其他字母可大写可小写;如果专有名词首字母小写了，就一定扣分。

确定用大写的情况：

1)学科名，建筑名，场所名称，书名，机构名，人名，等

其中提问的标志是: what is the title/name of....., known as/called

2) 句子 第一个单词首字母

其它 情况是否用大写不是扣分点

单词一般没有明确说明是“two words”的时候，连起来写没问题。如果实在不能确定，用一下连字符。如：check-list.

剑桥雅思听力题型 总结

1、Filling out the table

You are asked to finish a chart or a table by filling the missing information.

这类题型是每次必考的，而且通常一次考试会出现多次，在4个Section中，都可能出现。

按照表格的形式，大致可分成3个类型：i. List型 ii. Table型 iii. Personal information型

2、Maps

按照地图描述的内容，大致可分为三型：

i. 街道型

一般是一个或几个街区的简易地图，已标出一些标志性建筑，需要考生根据录音内容，填上其他一些标志性建筑的名字。如，Smith Museum，Stern Park

ii. 区域型

与街道型相比，范围缩小到某一个区域，如，某一个楼面上的一些房间的方位，学校体育场地的分布等等。这一类型的地图需要考生根据录音内容，填上房间的名称或是场地的名称

iii. 摆设型

与前两个类型相比，这一类型的范围就缩小到一个较大房间的摆设了，如，办公楼大厅的摆设，图书馆中的某一个房间的内部布置等等。

按照出题的形式，可分为填空和选项两种。

3、Checking

题型介绍：

这类题型并不多见。但也是让考生比较头痛的一类题型。

按照题目的形式，可分为两种类型：

i. With headings

在一条或是几条需要判断的陈述之前，有一个标题，如，Time， Place，这一类型的出现形式和Filling out the table (General)中的List型很相似

ii. Without headings

直接是一条条的陈述，这一类型相对更常出现，难度也较有标题的要大

4、Answering the Question

题型介绍：比较常规的题型。只是要注意题设要求的回答字数的限定

5、Multiple Choice

题型介绍：

这一题型对中国考生来说应该是非常熟悉的，从小考到大，都是选择题，那么它的难度就在于录音的难度上，这类题型，一般出现在Section 3，4中。

按照出题的形式，可把这一题型，分成两类：

i. 多选一，这应该很熟悉

ii. 多选多，很多考生觉得多选多看似很难，其实多选多的考点都是一些容易听到的例子或是细节，而且题目会告诉考生要选几个，如Which three ……，考生只要当心不要遗漏就可以了

有时，选择题不是以问题加选项这种常规的方式出现，而是以图表，或是表格的形式出现，不管怎么变形，只要我们找出问题和选项，都可以还原到最常规的形式

6、Gap Filling

题型介绍：

这也就是填空题，填空题也是常考的一类题型。

7、Picture

题型介绍：

对于习惯文字题的中国考生来说，这一题型无疑是比较难的一类。

图片题涉及的范围很广，可以是食品，相貌，地点，时间，甚至是动作等等。

8、Matching

题型介绍：

配对 题在考试中，常出现在Section3、4。由于对题型的不熟悉，而且给出的配对项常常多于需要配对的问题，甚至有时选项还可以复用，问题也可以多选，一旦有听不懂的时候非常容易心虚。

9、Illustration

题型介绍：

这一题型可以说是所有题型中最难的，通常在Section 3、4中出现，但是由于题型实在太难，所以在考试中出现的频率不高。

2020雅思考试听力答案正确写法规范相关 文章 ：

★ 2020年雅思听力打分标准

★ 【高分技能必备】详解雅思听力拼写及常用缩写规范

★ 2020年最新的雅思英语听力中的核心考词汇总

★ 雅思听力日期怎么书写正确

★ 雅思听力时间写法格式有哪些

★ 雅思听力考试流程和答题的注意事项,你都知道了吗?

★ 雅思听力答题卡到底该大写还是小写

★ 雅思听力审题中的常见错误,看完不丢冤枉分

★ 雅思听力考试中要注意11个基本原则

★ 雅思听力流程及注意事项介绍

雅思考试大作文真题：

Many museums and historical sites are mainly visited by tourists, not local people. Why is this the case and what can be done to attract local people?

解析&审题：

题材：旅游

题型：原因分析及解决办法

关键词：tourists + local people + museums and historical sites

需要讨论的观点：为什么本地人不访问当地博物馆和历史遗迹?

建议思路：原因分析+解决办法

复现情况消拦旦：2021年2月7日原题

关于 “museum”(博物馆)的雅思写作真题：

1. Some museums charge visitors for admission while others are free. Do you think the advantages of free admission to museum outweigh its disadvantages? (2021/8/25)博物馆应该收费吗?

2. Museums are getting less important, when people can have access to information on the Internet. To what extent do you agree or disagree? (2021/12/4)互联网时代，博物馆不重要了吗?

3. Report shows that it is increasingly expensive to keep museums open to public. Find the best way to fund museums among these funding possibilities—governments, businesses, individuals. (2021/10/20)博物馆的费用该谁支持：衡告*，企业还是个人?

4. Some people claim that public museums and art galleries will be not be needed because people can see historical objects and works of art by using a computer. Do you agree or disagree with this opinion?(2021/8/31)网络时代还需要博物馆和艺术馆吗?

本题的核心问题很明显：很多博物馆和景点只有外地人去，当地人不去。请问这是什么原因?怎样才能吸引当地人去看?本地人不去参观当地景点，原因可能是他们对这些景点已经非常熟悉，没有新鲜感了，他们不愿意为自己熟悉的东西支付门票。如何吸引当地人去参观?措施无非是组织新颖的活拿扰动，引入与当地文化不同的内容，等等。

高分范文：

Nowadays, there is a growing tendency that many museums and historical sites, which seem less attractive for local dwellers, are mainly visited by tourists from other parts of the world. As for the reasons and solutions, my points are listed as follows.

First, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds boredom. People always prefer things that they have never seen before or that belong to others. Such is human nature that people do not have curiosity about what they are familiar with. As most local people are familiar with the history and culture of their own city, they prefer to pay a visit to the museums and historical sites in other cities, so that they can experience different customs and cultures. What is more, some museums and historical sites require visitors to pay entrance fee, which further prevents the local people from visiting them. That is one of the main reasons why the local Beijing people would rather leave Beijing and visit other cities while crowds of tourists from other places flow to the prominent sites in the city, such as the Great Wall and The Temple of Heaven.

Several measures should be adopted to attract more local people. First of all, the local museums and historical sites should provide a greater variety of activities rather than focus on the local elements only. For example, they can hold cultural expositions regularly and encourage local people to be the performers or volunteers. Moreover, it is advisable for museums and historical sites to offer special discounts for locals or more preferably, carry out the free-admission policy. Last, greater effort should be made by government to strengthen the publicity of local sites and spark people’s interest in local culture.

以上就是小编整理的2020年8月9日雅思考试大作文真题。更多关于雅思考试的备考技巧，备考干货，新闻资讯等内容，小编会持续更新。希望各位考生都能认真备考，取得满意的成绩。

8月1号进行了八月初的第一场雅思的考试，相信大家对真题以及答案会非常的感兴趣、今天就由的我为大家介绍2020年8月1日雅思阅读考试真题答案。

一、考题解析

吵碰销P1 土地沙漠化

P2 澳大利亚的鹦鹉

P3 多重任务

二、名师点评

1.8月份首场考试的难度总体中等，有出现比较多的配对题，没有出现Heading题，其余主要以常规的填空，判断和选择题为主。文章的话题和题型搭配也是在剑桥真题中都有迹可循，所以备考重心依然还是剑桥官方真题。

2. 整体分析：涉及吵胡环境类（P1）、动物类（P2）、社科类（P3）。

本次考试的P2和P3均为旧题。P2是动物类的话题，题型组合为：段落细节配对+单选+summary填空，难度中等。题型上也延续19年的出题特点，出现配对题，考察定位速度和准确度。P3也出现了段落细节配对，主要是段落细节配对+单选+判断。三种题型难度中等，但是文章理解起来略有难度。

3. 部分答案及参考文章：

Passage 1：土地沙漠化

题型及答案待确认

Passage 2：澳大利亚的鹦鹉

题型：段落细节配对+单选+Summary填空

技巧分析：由于段落细节配对是完全乱序出题，在定位时需要先做后面的单选题及填空题，最大化利用已读信息来确定答案，尽量避免重复阅读，以保证充分的做题时间。

文章内容及题目参考：

A 概况，关于一个大的生物种类

B 一些物种消失的原因，题干关键词：an example of one bird species extinct

C 一种鹦鹉不能自己存活，以捕食另一种鸟为生，吃该鸟类的蛋。题干关键词：two species competed at the expense of oneanother

D 吸引鹦鹉的原因以及鹦鹉嘴的特升游点。题干关键词：*ysis of reasons as Australian landscapeattract parrots

E 植物是如何适应鹦鹉。题干关键词：plants attract birds which make the animal adaptto the environment

F 南半球对英语的影响

G 两种鹦鹉从环境改变中获益并存活下来。题干关键词：two species of parrots benefit fromm theenvironment change

H 外来物种及本地鹦鹉

I 鸟类栖息地被破坏以及人类采取的措施

J 作者对于鹦鹉问题的态度

单选题：

why parrots in the whole world are lineal descendants of

选项关键词：continent split from Africa

the writer thinks parrots species beak is for

选项关键词：adjust to their suitable diet

which one is not mentioned

选项关键词：should be frequently maintained

填空题：分布在文章的前两段

one-sixth

16th century

mapmaker

John Gould

Passage 3：多重任务

题型：段落细节配对+单选+判断

参考答案及文章

28 F

29I

30C

31B

32G

33C

34B

35A

36YES

37YES

38NO

39NOT GIVEN

40NO

Passage3： multitasking

Multitasking Debate—Can you do them at the same time？

Talking on the phone while driving isn＇t the only situationwhere we＇re worse at multitasking than we might like to think we are. Newstudies have identified a bottleneck in our brains that some say means we arefundamentally incapable of true multitasking. If experimental findings reflectreal-world performance， people who think they are multitasking are probablyjust underperforming in all-or at best， all but one -of their parallelpursuits. Practice might improve your performance， but you will never be asgood as when focusing on one task at a time.

The problem， according to René Marois， a psychologist atVanderbilt University in Nashville， Tennessee， is that there＇s a sticking pointin the brain. To demonstrate this， Marois devised an experiment to locate nteers watch a screen and when a particular image appears， a red circle，say， they have to press a key with their index finger. Different colouredcircles require presses from different fingers. Typical response time is about half a second， and thevolunteers quickly reach their peak performance. Then they learn to listen todifferent recordings and respond by making a specific sound. For instance， whenthey hear a bird chirp， they have to say ＂ba＂； an electronic soundshould elicit a ＂ko＂， and so on. Again， no problem. A normal personcan do that in about half a second， with almost no effort. The trouble comeswhen Marois shows the volunteers an image， then almost immediately plays them asound. Now they＇re flummoxed. ＂If you show an image and play a sound atthe same time， one task is postponed，＂ he says. In fact，if the second taskis introduced within the half-second or so it takes to process and react to thefirst， it will simply be delayed until the first one is done. The largestdual-task delays occur when the two tasks are presented simultaneously； delaysprogressively shorten as the interval between presenting the tasks lengthens（See Diagram）.

There are at least three points where we seem to getstuck， says Marois. The first is in simply identifying what we＇re looking  can take a few tenths of a second， during which time we are not able tosee and recognise a second item. This limitation is known as the＂attentional blink＂： experiments have shown that if you＇re watchingout for a particular event and a second one shows up unexpectedly any timewithin this crucial window of concentration， it may register in your visualcortex but you will be unable to act upon it. Interestingly， if you don＇texpect the first event， you have no trouble responding to the second. Whatexactly causes the attentional blink is still a matter for debate.

A second limitation is in our short-term visual ＇s estimated that we can keep track of about four items at a time， fewer ifthey are complex. This capacity shortage is thought to explain， in part， our astonishinginability to detect even huge changes in scenes that are otherwise identical，so-called ＂change blindness＂. Show people pairs of near-identicalphotos -say， aircraft engines in one picture have disappeared in the other -andthey will fail to spot the differences （if you don＇t believe it， check out theclips at /~rensink/flicker/download）. Here again， though， thereis disagreement about what the essential limiting factor really is. Does itcome down to a dearth of storage capacity， or is it about how much attention aviewer is paying？

A third limitation is that choosing a response to astimulus -braking when you see a child in the road， for instance，or replyingwhen your mother tells you over the phone that she＇s thinking of leaving yourdad -also takes brainpower. Selecting a response to one of these things willdelay by some tenths of a second your ability to respond to the other. This iscalled the ＂response selection bottleneck＂ theory， first proposed in1952.

Last December， Marois and his colleagues published apaper arguing that this bottleneck is in fact created in two different areas ofthe brain： one in the posterior lateral prefrontal cortex and another in thesuperior medial frontal cortex （Neuron， vol 52， p 1109）. They found this byscanning people＇s brains with functional MRI while the subjects struggled tochoose among eight possible responses to each of two closely timed tasks. Theydiscovered that these brain areas are not tied to any particular sense but aregenerally involved in selecting responses， and they seemed to queue theseresponses when presented with multiple tasks concurrently.

Bottleneck？ What bottleneck？

But David Meyer， a psychologist at the University ofMichigan， Ann Arbor， doesn＇t buy the bottleneck idea. He thinks dual-taskinterference is just evidence of a strategy used by the brain to prioritisemultiple activities. Meyer is known as something of an optimist by his  has written papers with titles like ＂Virtually perfect time-sharing indual-task performance： Uncorking the central cognitive bottleneck＂（Psychological Science， vol 12， p101）. His experiments have shown that withenough practice -at least 2000 tries -some people can execute two taskssimultaneously as competently as if they were doing them one after the  suggests that there is a central cognitive processor that coordinates allthis and， what＇s more， he thinks it uses discretion： sometimes it chooses todelay one task while completing another.

Even with practice， not all people manage to achieve thisharmonious time-share， however. Meyer argues that individual differences comedown to variations in the character of the processor -some brains are just more＂cautious＂， some more ＂daring＂. And despite urban legend，there are no noticeable

differences between men and women. So， according to him，it＇s not a central bottleneck that causes dual-task interference， but rather＂adaptive executive control＂， which ＂schedules task processesappropriately to obey instructions about their relative priorities and serialorder＂.

Marois agrees that practice can sometimes eraseinterference effects. He has found that with just 1 hour of practice each dayfor two weeks， volunteers show a huge improvement at managing both his tasks atonce. Where he disagrees with Meyer is in what the brain is doing to achievethis. Marois speculates that practice might give us the chance to find lesscongested circuits to execute a task -rather like finding trusty back streetsto avoid heavy traffic on main roads -effectively making our response to thetask subconscious. After all， there are plenty of examples of subconsciou*ultitasking that most of us routinely manage： walking and talking， eating andreading， watching TV and folding the laundry.

But while some dual tasks benefit from practice， otherssimply do not. ＂Certain kinds of tasks are really hard to do two atonce，＂ says Pierre Jolicoeur at the University of Montreal， Canada， whoalso studies multitasking. Dual tasks involving a visual stimulus andskeletal-motor response （which he dubs ＂in the eye and out the hand＂）and an auditory stimulus with a verbal response （＂in the ear and out themouth＂） do seem to be amenable to practice， he says. Jolicoeur has foundthat with enough training such tasks can be performed as well together asapart. He speculates that the brain connections that they use may be somehowspecial， because we learn to speak by hearing and learn to move by looking. Butpair visual input with a verbal response， or sound to motor， and there＇s nodramatic improvement. ＂It looks like no amount of practice will allow youto combine these，＂ he says.

For research purposes， these experiments have to be keptsimple. Real-world multitasking poses much greater challenges. Even the upbeatMeyer is sceptical about how a lot of us live our lives. Instant-messaging andtrying to do your homework？ ＂It can＇t be done，＂ he says. Conducting ajob interview while answering emails？ ＂There＇s no way you wind up being asgood.＂ Needless to say， there appear to be no researchers in the area ofmultitasking who believe that you can safely drive a car and carry on a phoneconversation. In fact， last year David Strayer at the University of Utah inSalt Lake City reported that people using cellphones drive no better thandrunks （Human Factors， vol 48， p 381）. In another study， Strayer found thatusing a hands-free kit did not improve a driver＇s response time. He concludedthat what distracts a driver so badly is the very act of talking to someone whoisn＇t present in the car and therefore is unaware of the hazards facing thedriver.

“No researchers believe it＇s safe to drive a car andcarry on a phone conversation”

It probably comes as no surprise that， generallyspeaking， we get worse at multitasking as we age. According to Art Kramer atthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign， who studies how ageing affectsour cognitive abilities， we peak in our 20s. Though the decline is slow throughour 30s and on into our 50s， it is there； and after 55， it becomes moreprecipitous. In one study， he and his colleagues had both young and oldparticipants do a simulated driving task while carrying on a conversation. Hefound that while young drivers tended to miss background changes， older driversfailed to notice things that were highly relevant. Likewise， older subjects hadmore trouble paying attention to the more important parts of a scene than youngdrivers.

It＇s not all bad news for over-55s， though. Kramer alsofound that older people can benefit from practice. Not only did they learn toperform better， brain scans showed that underlying that improvement was achange in the way their brains become active.

Whileit＇s clear that practice can often make a difference， especially as we age， thebasic facts remain sobering. ＂We have this impression of an almightycomplex brain，＂ says Marois， ＂and yet we have very humbling andcrippling limits.＂ For most of our history， we probably never needed to domore than one thing at a time， he says， and so we haven＇t evolved to be ableto. Perhaps we will in future， though. We might yet look back one day on peoplelike Debbie and Alun as ancestors of a new breed of true multitaskers.