The Internet and nostalgia

廣東 李奕群

1History is a combination of events hidden in darkness.Archaeological (考古 學的) evidence and the written language were previously our only insights into what once happened.The invention of the printing press was a major milestone in our ability to engage with history.The Internet, though, appears later, will provide a window into the past, consisting of tiny units of digital data.

2A recent advertisement for a web browser showed a series of important events in a child's life, each one belonging to a different part of the Internet—the first steps on websites, birthday e-mails and photos of teenage parties.

3This, of course, has a significant effect on how we remember things.Online, major events and experiences can be read again and again.Computers and the Internet combine all our technological means of artificial memory—text,sound and image—to create a combination that can recall memories more intensely than anything before.

4Some have suggested that this trend is making young people more nostalgic (懷舊的)and more continually engaged in their own past.Through blogging and social networking,the Internet allows young people to remember their own past and also visit others' pasts.

5Nostalgia, though, is not quite the same thing as caring about the past.In fact, nostalgia is more about our own reconstruction of the past than anything else.Yet the Internet makes nostalgia more difficult to feel.It does the work of constructing the past for us,meaning that our imaginations play a considerably smaller role.Those dependent on the Internet are not more nostalgic, but less.The Internet has the potential to undo the mysteries of the past.Perhaps nostalgia is most fully contained in those elements of the past that are unreal, created by our imaginations.

6The poet T.S.Eliot once asked, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Nostalgia is a kind of ancient wisdom, and the Internet, with its floods of information, threatens to drown it.

Reading Check

1.What do the printing press and the Internet have in common?

A.They both record history.

B.They both change history.

C.They both consist of digital data.

D.They both offer evidence to the archaeology.

2.What does paragraph 2 mainly want to show?

A.A child's life is easily mistaken on the Internet.

B.A child's life is completely guarded on the Internet.

C.A child's life is fully expressed through the Internet.

D.A child's life is wonderful on special parts of the Internet.

3.What is nostalgia more about?

A.Recalling memories intensely.

B.Collecting the real data in the past.

C.Allowing people to visit others' pasts.

D.Constructing the past with our imaginations.

4.Why does the author mention the saying of T.S.Eliot in paragraph 6?

A.To tell where the wisdom is.

B.To explain why we are less smart.

C.To state that the Internet threatens nostalgia.

D.To call on people's attention to knowledge.

?語篇解碼

本文是一篇說明文。在互聯網時代，網絡上能保存更多的歷史印記，但這并不代表人們會更懷舊，因為太多信息讓我們失去了重構歷史的能力。

?語言學習

Ⅰ.語料薈萃

語篇單詞combination n.結合（體）hidden adj.隱藏的evidence n.證據invention n.發明advertisement n. 廣告（活動）artificial adj.人造的recall v. 回想intensely adv.強烈地construct v.建筑；組成potential adj.潛在的contain v.裝有；包含element n.要素wisdom n.智慧；明智ancient adj.古代的；古老的threaten v.恐嚇；對……構成威脅_____________drown v.蓋過；淹沒

（續表）

Ⅱ.語句分析

1.Computers and the Internet combine all our technological means of artificial memory—text, sound and image—to create a combination that can recall memories more intensely than anything before.計算機和互聯網結合了我們所有的人工記憶技術手段——文本、聲音和圖像——創造出一種比以往任何東西都更能勾起記憶的組合。

【點石成金】該句中，破折號后面的內容是插入語，舉例說明前面的technological means of artificial memory，包括文字、聲音和圖像；that引導的是一個定語從句，先行詞是a combination，且that在從句中作主語。

2.It does the work of constructing the past for us, meaning that our imaginations play a considerably smaller role.它為我們構建過去，這意味著我們的想象力發揮的作用要小得多。

【點石成金】該句中，meaning 為非謂語動詞作狀語，本句的謂語是動詞does；that引導的是一個賓語從句；play a role意為“起作用”；considerably意為“相當；非?！?。

?語言運用

Ⅰ.例句仿寫

1.我發現了一些在寒假期間你可以去參觀的很有趣的地方的照片。

I have found some pictures of the most interesting places________________________________during the winter holidays.

2.他轉身又睡了一覺，以為時間還很早。

He turned and slept again, _________________________________.

Ⅱ.寫作實踐

假定你是李華，最近你們班的同學在英語課堂上就“網絡是否讓人們更懷舊”這個話題進行辯論。請向你的外國朋友Smith介紹本次辯論的情況，內容包括：

1.辯論的主題；2.各方的觀點和理由；3.你的看法。

注意：

1.詞數80左右；

2.可以適當增加細節，以使行文連貫。

Dear Smith,

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua