Over the past few years, I’ve had a(n) _1_________ feeling that I’m not thinking the way I used to think, particularly when I am _2_________. In the past, I would be able to _3_________ myself in lengthy articles. But it is a different story now. It has become an exacting thing for me to do some 4________ reading. This, I think, can be attributed to universal medium—the Net, which provides immediate 5_________ to such an incredibly rich store of information. Reliance on the Net is leading to the gradual loss of my capability for 6__________ and contemplation. Similar troubles with reading also fall upon other people, including Scott Karp, who recently confessed that he has 7__________ reading books altogether, and Bruce Friedman, who claimed that the Internet has 8__________ his mental habits. A recently published study of online research also points to the 9_________ in the way we read and think. Although the Internet and text-messaging on cell phones facilitate our reading, it’s a(n) 10__________ kind of reading. According to Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University, we tend to become “mere _11________ of information” while reading online. As a consequence, our ability to interpret and make rich mental connections remains tremendously _12________. Another good example, illustrating the point that _13_________ extend across many regions of the brain when we apply different media, is Friedrich Nietzsche. When his vision was failing and it was tough for him to keep his eyes focused on a page, he bought a typewriter, with which _14_________ could once again flow from his mind to the page. But, as one of Nietzsche’s friends claimed, it made Nietzsche’s terse prose even 15_________ and more telegraphic.