Directions:

1) Print this page.

2) Click on the link, The Thief of Time.

3) Answer the questions. (You may need to listen several times while answering these questions.)

Multitasking: The Thief of Time

(If you don’t have Realplayer, click here to download it. This will allow you to listen to the report.)

1) What does the Roman sage mean, when he says, “To do two things at once is to do neither?”

2) Circle the examples that Joanne Silberner mentions in her introduction to the story.

a) cooking breakfast while listening to reports on the radio

b) talking to someone while watching TV

c) talking on a cell phone and driving

d) feeding your dog while playing with your children

e) worrying about your family while working

f) thinking about your lawn while working

3) What does the report say about doing multiplication and addition problems at the same time?

4) How did they study the brain?

5) What does the word simultaneously mean?

6) What can you infer from this report about how to best study?

7) Based on this report, when editing an essay, is it better to look for one type of problem at a time (subject/verb agreement, punctuation)