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If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, one of the most fundamental dreams of humank

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问题    If it were possible to expand indefinitely what consciousness is able to encompass, one of the most fundamental dreams of humankind would come true. It would be almost as good as being immortal or godlike. We could think everything, feel everything, do everything, scan through so much information that we could fill up every fraction of a second with a rich array of experiences.
   Unfortunately, the nervous system has definite limits on how much information it can process at any given time Thoughts have to follow each other, or they get jumbled. While we are thinking about a problem we cannot truly experience either happiness or sadness. 【F1】We cannot run, sing, and balance the checkbook simultaneously, because each one of these activities exhausts most of our capacity for attention.
   In our scientific knowledge we are on the verge of being able to estimate how much information the central nervous system is capable of processing. 【F2】It seems we can manage at most seven bits of information at any one time, and that the shortest time it takes to discriminate between one set of bits and another is about 1/18 of a second. By using these figures one concludes that it is possible to process at most 126 bits of information per second, or 7,560 per minute, or almost half a million per hour. Over a lifetime of seventy years, and counting sixteen hours of waking time each day, this amounts to about 185 billion bits of information. It seems like a huge amount, but in reality it does not go that far.
   The limitation of consciousness is demonstrated by the fact that to understand what another person is saying we must process 40 bits of information each second. 【F3】If we assume the upper limit of our capacity to be 126 bits per second, it follows that to understand what three people are saying simultaneously is theoretically possible, but only by managing to keep out of consciousness every other thought or sensation. 【F4】We couldn’t, for instance, be aware of the speakers’ expressions, nor could we wonder about why they are saying what they are saying, or notice what they are wearing.
   Of course, these figures are only suggestive at this point. 【F5】The optimists claim that through the course of evolution the nervous system has become very good at "gathering together" bits of information so that processing capacity is constantly expanded. But such ability does not help as much as one might expect. So the 185 billion events to be enjoyed over our mortal days might be either an overestimate or an underestimate. In any case, an individual can experience only so much.
【F3】
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答案假设我们能力的上限是每秒126个单位，那么，要同时理解三个人正在说什么，从理论上来说是有可能的，但前提是设法把每个其他的想法和感觉都排除在意识之外。
解析 ①本句为主从复合句，包含一个主语从句，一个条件状语从句和一个宾语从句。②主句为主谓结构，后接that引导的主语从句。主语从句为主系表结构，其中包含what引导的宾语从句；条件状语从句为主谓宾+宾补结构，其中of our capacity为宾语the upper limit的后置定语，说明这是我们能力的上限；to be 126 bits per second为宾语补足语，补充说明上限为每秒126个单位。③连接词but后的短语only by…sensation作方式状语成分，说明要达到上文所说目的的方式。
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