Our age is in many ways unique, full of events and phenomena which never occurred before and can never happen again. They distor

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问题 Our age is in many ways unique, full of events and phenomena which never occurred before and can never happen again. They distort our thinking, making us believe that what is true now will be true forever, though perhaps on a larger scale. Because we have annihilated distance on this planet, we imagine that we can do it once again. The facts are far otherwise, and we will see them clearly if we forget the present and turn our minds toward the past.
To our ancestors, the vastness of the earth was a dominant fact controlling their thoughts and lives. In all earlier ages than ours, the world was wide indeed, and no man could ever see more than a tiny fraction of its immensity. A few hundred miles—a thousand, at the most—was infinity. Only a lifetime ago parents waved farewell to their emigrating children in the virtual certainty that they would never meet again.
And now, within one incredible generation, all this has changed. Over the seas where Odysseus wandered for a decade, the Rome-Beiru comet whispers its way within the hour. And above that, the closer satellites span the distance between Troy and Ithaca in less than a minute.
Psychologically as well as physically, there are no longer any remote places on Earth. When a friend leaves for what was once a far country, even if he has no intention of returning, we cannot feel that same sense of irrevocable separation that saddened our forefathers. We know that he is only hours away by jet liner, and that we have merely to reach for the telephone to hear his voice.
In a few years, when the satellite communication network is established, we will be able to see friends on the far side of the earth as easily as we talk to them on the other side of the town. Then the world will shrink no more, for it will have become a dimensionless point.
(From We’ll Never Conquer Space written by Arthur Clarke in 1960)

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答案 我们的时代在许多方面都是独一无二的。在这个时代,重大事件频发,世界各地充满奇迹,真可谓是史无前例,空前绝后。它们扭转了我们的思维,让我们相信今天能实现的,就永远能实现,而且能在更大范围内实现。由于我们已成功地缩小了地球上的空间距间,所以就想当然地认为能够再次成功。然而,事实却并非如此,如果我们抛开现在,回顾过去,就会看得很清楚。 对我们的祖先而言,地球是广袤无际的这一观点,一直占据着他们的思想和生活。在我们之前的时代,世界茫无涯际,人们仅仅能够看到眼前的一小块儿地方一几百英里,最多一千英里——已是极限。我们上一代,父母挥手告别移民国外的子女时,心头往往有一种诀别的滋味。 而如今,令人难以置信的是,仅仅过了短短一代人的时间,一切就都变了。奥德修斯漂泊了十年的海洋,如今罗马一贝鲁特彗星号飞机在一小时内就能悄然横穿。更有甚者,离地球稍近的卫星,一分钟内,便能够跨越特洛伊和阿提刻岛。 不管从心理上还是生理上,地球上再也不存在任何对人们而言遥远的地方了。如果有朋友远赴一个曾经我们认为非常遥远的国家,即使他没有回来的打算,我们也不会感受到我们先辈当年那种令人悲痛的离愁。我们知道,那只是喷气式客机几个小时的航程,而且如果想和他说说话,只要打个电话就行了。 用不了几年,卫星通信网络一旦建立,我们就能见到地球另一端的朋友,就像跟城市另一端的朋友交谈一样方便。但到那时,世界就再也不会缩小了,它已经变成了一个没有三维的点了。

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