首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A funny thing happened on the way to the communications revolution: we stopped talking to one another. I was walking in the pa
A funny thing happened on the way to the communications revolution: we stopped talking to one another. I was walking in the pa
admin
2013-02-04
39
问题
A funny thing happened on the way to the communications revolution: we stopped talking to one another.
I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and -- poof! -- I became invisible, absent from the conversation.
The park was filled with people talking on their cell phones. They were passing other people without looking at them, saying hello, noticing their babies or stopping to pet their puppies. Evidently, the untethered electronic voice is preferable to human contact.
The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Recently I was in a car with three friends. The driver shushed the rest of us because he could not hear the person on the other end of his cell phone. There we were, four friends zooming down the highway, unable to talk to one another because of a gadget designed to make communication easier.
Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a setback to the intimacy of human interaction. With e-mail and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.
As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated, the alienation index goes up. You can’t even call a person to get the phone number of another person anymore. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.
Pumping gas at the station? Why say good-morning to the attendant when you can swipe your credit card at the pump and save yourself the both.
Making a deposit at the bank? Why talk to a clerk who might live in the neighborhood when you can just insert your card into the ATM?
Pretty soon you won’t have the burden of making eye contact at the grocery store. Some supermarket chains are using a self-scanner so you can check yourself out, avoiding those annoying clerks who look at you and ask how you are doing.
I am no Luddite. I own a cell phone, an ATM card, a voice-mall system, an e-mail account. Giving them up isn’t an option -- they’re great for what they’re intended to do. It’s their unintended consequences that make me cringe.
More and more, I find myself hiding behind e-mall to do a job meant for conversation. Or being relieved that voice mail picked up because I didn’t really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier -- or at least facilitating my antisocial instincts.
So I’ve put myself on technology restriction: no instant messaging with people who live near me, no cell-phoning in the presence of friends, no letting the voice mall pick up when I’m home.
What good is all this gee-whiz technology if there’s no one in the room to hear you exclaim, "Gee whiz?"
What can NOT communications technology do according to the passage?
选项
A、To help people communicate without seeing each other.
B、To help conduct the conversation without talking with each other directly.
C、To help people get other’s phone numbers.
D、To help shorten the distance between people.
答案
D
解析
细节题。询问信息技术不能做什么,采用排除法即可。第五段中作者举例说,有了电子邮件,我们现在交流时彼此不看对方或彼此不交谈,故排除A;有了语音邮件,你就可以在不直接打电话给任何人的情况下进行整个谈话过程,故排除B;第六段中提到你甚至不用再给一个人打电话询问另一个人的电话号码,因为姓名地址查找系统几乎完全是自动的,排除 C。然而在第五段的开头作者就发出了感慨:联系更加密切,却感到隔膜加深了。可见,信息技术并不能真正缩短人们间的距离,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/47UYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ThebiggestproblemfacingChileasitpromotesitselfasatouristdestinationtobereckonedwith,isthatitisattheendof
Fishfarminginthedesertmayatfirstsoundlikeananomaly,butinIsraeloverthelastdecadeascientifichunchhasturned
AscientistIntoday’ssocietywearenowseeingmorechildrenundertheageoftwelvedevelopingeatingdisorders.Itisestima
ClassificationsofCulturesAccordingtoEdwardHall,differentculturesresultindifferentideasabouttheworld.Hallis
TheDemocrats’TradeTroublesLastweekHousespeakerNancyPelosiandCongressmanCharlesRangelshowedgenuineleadership
TheLandmarksPreservationCommissionapprovedahistoricaldistrictonablockofEast10thStreetalongTompkinsSquarePark
TheiPhonehastakenabigbiteoutoftheBlackBerryinamarketwheretheolderphoneoncedominated:businesscustomersinN
Madrid—ItwasnomistakethatuniversitycampusesproliferatedduringSpain’sdecade-long,construction-ledboomyears.Educatio
Madrid—ItwasnomistakethatuniversitycampusesproliferatedduringSpain’sdecade-long,construction-ledboomyears.Educatio
Accordingtothehostess,whatisthereasonforincreasedcompetitioninclothingindustry?
随机试题
软件生命周期分为系统规划、系统分析、______、系统实施和系统维护。
A、beggedB、punishedC、borrowedD、provedB
病人血清中HBsAg阳性,抗-HBc阳性时说明
在项目建议书阶段,投资估算是按项目建议书中的产品方案、项目建设规模、圭要生产工艺、初选建厂地点、配套的辅助和公用设施等估算建设项目所需要的投资额,其对投资估算精度的要求为:误差控制在()以内。
干燥的气候是森林大火的()。
当市场价格达到客户预先设定的触发价格时,用来锁定利润或控制损失的指令是( )。
甲上市公司为增值税一般纳税人,销售价格均为不含增值税价格,适用的增值税税率为17%,适用的所得税税率为25%。原材料和库存商品均按实际成本核算,商品售价不含增值税,其销售成本随销售同时结转。该公司2015年发生如下交易或事项:(1)向A公司销售产
商场将一批服装按成本价的130%定价,以定价销售了90%的服装后,再将剩下的以定价的5折全部售出,销售这批服装获得的毛利相当于成本的多少?()
按制定软件工程标准的不同层次和适用范围,软件工程标准可分为5级,(6)制定的是国际标准,(7)是行业标准。GB1256-89对程序流程图等做了明确、具体的规定,这种标准程序流程图的特点有(8)、(9)和(10)。
SummerSchoolandOnlineClassesIntheUnitedStates,【T1】______forhighschoolstudents【T2】______.But【T3】______.【T4】_____
最新回复
(
0
)