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
考研
Last week the American novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke about the e-reader, which he said threatened the sense of permanence foun
Last week the American novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke about the e-reader, which he said threatened the sense of permanence foun
admin
2014-06-25
53
问题
Last week the American novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke about the e-reader, which he said threatened the sense of permanence found in the printed book. He went on to suggest that this loss of permanence might eventually prove "inconsistent with a system of justice and self-government".
I am all for taking shots at Amazon and its popular Kindle, because the company is showing the unmistakable ticks of the power-mad monopoly, but Franzen was talking nonsense. If the printed word were the guardian of all democratic values, how is it that the country Germany where, in 1439, Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press yielded almost 500 years later to a totalitarian hell, in which books, and the knowledge in them, were suppressed with a relatively small number of bonfires? Ink on paper is not a guarantor of good government either. So we need to tamp it down a bit: the e-reader is not the barbarian at the gate; governments become corrupt and civil society is lost for other reasons.
What I guess Franzen is complaining about is that people using e-readers may not bring the serious attention to a book that he applies in his writing, which is famously undertaken in conditions of monastic rigour that exclude an internet connectioa Like many, he believes that we have become shallow readers, less able to focus on the deeper meaning of books and are the worse for it.
This belief about our attention-deficit is not proven, but the obvious point is we still have a choice between screen or print, which is likely to remain, because people will always take pleasure in reading a work on the page, admiring the paper and typefaces(admittedly rare), marking a passage. Naturally, few of us read in the way that Dickens’s audience did, but that is because of a deficit of time, not necessarily one of attention. We do, however, read and write more every year. The statistics of our hyperactivity are astonishing and show, for instance, that the information passing through our minds has risen threefold in the past 30 years and increases by about 6% every year.
So, the truth is that serious books such as Franzen’s Freedom or The Corrections have to compete for our time, whether in print or on a screen. But if a book is good, it will earn the effort and reflection that no doubt Franzen’s books deserve. Yet this is not an entitlement and the idea that we are becoming incapable of sustained attention simply doesn’t hold up, as the sales of complicated science books attest. Indeed, I have a strong sense that the web has vastly increased our collective intelligence; that we are better informed, shrewder and able to grasp things more quickly than we were 20 years ago. If Dickens were alive today, guess who’d be blogging, offering the occasional tweet, setting up literary websites, digging out some of his old work and repackaging it in ebooks.
The author mentioned the sales of science books in paragraph 5 to show that______.
选项
A、most of us are incapable of sustained attention
B、books need to compete for our time
C、we haven’t lost the ability to read deeply
D、the web makes us better-informed
答案
C
解析
第五段第三句指出,“现代读者丧失了持久注意力”的观点站不住脚,复杂的科技图书的销量证明了这一点。由此可知,作者提到复杂的科技图书的销量是为了反驳Franzen的错误观点。之所以强调“复杂”的科技图书,是为了暗示这类图书需要人们的深入阅读,从而更能说明现代读者并未失去深人阅读的能力。[C]选项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PUK4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Everycultureattemptstocreatea"universeofdiscourse"foritsmembers,awayinwhichpeoplecaninterprettheirexperience
Untilthelate1940swhentelevisionbeganfindingitswayintoAmericanhomes,companiesreliedmainlyonprintandradiotopr
InPlato’sUtopia,herearethreeclasses:thecommonpeople,thesoldiers,andtheguardianschosenbythelegislator.Themain
Artistsroutinelymockbusinesspeopleasmoney-obsessedbores.Orworse.Manybusinesspeople,fortheirpart,assumethatartis
Artistsroutinelymockbusinesspeopleasmoney-obsessedbores.Orworse.Manybusinesspeople,fortheirpart,assumethatartis
Antibiotics,beforetheybecameusedasdrugs,werenaturalproducts.Anewfindingprovidesthefirstdirect【C1】______thatanti
Antibiotics,beforetheybecameusedasdrugs,werenaturalproducts.Anewfindingprovidesthefirstdirect【C1】______thatanti
Entertheinformationage.Informationistherawmaterialformanyofthebusinessactivitiesshapingthisnewera,(1)_____ir
Entertheinformationage.Informationistherawmaterialformanyofthebusinessactivitiesshapingthisnewera,(1)_____ir
Entertheinformationage.Informationistherawmaterialformanyofthebusinessactivitiesshapingthisnewera,(1)_____ir
随机试题
组织文化核心层与显现层的中间层是()
一企业为小规模纳税人,2007年8月发生如下业务:购进原料一批,支付货款5万元,增值税税款0.85万元;销售产品一批,取得收入(含增值税)9万元,请计算该企业8月份增值税应纳税额。
关于再生障碍性贫血的实验室检查正确的是
发明专利权的期限为20年,自()起计算。
在特定的条件下,有些负债可转换为权益资本,但权益资本不能转换为负债资金。()
经A省的防疫部门检测,在该省境内接受检疫的长尾猴中,有1%感染上了狂犬病。但是只有与人及其宠物有接触的长尾猴才接受检疫。防疫部门的专家因此推测,该省长尾猴中感染有狂犬病的比例,将大大小于l%。以下哪项如果为真,将最有力地支持专家的推测?
(2015春季多省联考)Wi-Fi依赖看不见的无线电波传输,设备功率越来越大,局部电磁辐射必增强;无线信号穿墙而过,网络信息不安全。这些安全隐患,在Li-Fi中“一扫而光”。光谱比无线电频谱大10000倍,意味着更大的宽带和更高的速度,网络设置又几乎不需要
在高二(1)班的一次联欢活动中,班主任老师说:“小明和小亮都没有参加活动。”班长小杰不同意班主任老师的说法。以下哪项最为准确地表达了班长小杰的意思?
IntheUnitedStates,itisnotcustomarytotelephonesomeoneveryearlyinthemorning.Ifyoutelephonehimearlyintheday,
A、Landlordandlodger.B、Receptionistandguest.C、Salesmanandclient.D、Policemananddriver.A根据关键词movein“搬进来”,rent“租金”和depo
最新回复
(
0
)