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  3. The trend toward rationality and enlightenment was endangered long before th

The trend toward rationality and enlightenment was endangered long before th

游客2023-08-05  30
问题     The trend toward rationality and enlightenment was endangered long before the advent of the World Wide Web. As Neil Postman noted in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, the rise of television introduced not just a new medium but a new discourse: a gradual shift from a typographic (印刷的) culture to a photographic one, which in turn meant a shift from rationality to emotions, exposition to entertainment. In an image-centered and pleasure-driven world, Postman noted, there is no place for rational thinking, because you simply cannot think with images. It is text that enables us to "uncover lies, confusions and overgeneralizations, and to detect abuses of logic and common sense. It also means to weigh ideas, to compare and contrast assertions, to connect one generalization to another."
    The dominance of television was not confined to our living rooms. It overturned all of those habits of mind, fundamentally changing our experience of the world, affecting the conduct of politics, religion, business, and culture. It reduced many aspects of modern life to entertainment, sensationalism, and commerce. "Americans don’t talk to each other, we entertain each other," Postman wrote. "They don’t exchange ideas; they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials."
    At first, the web seemed to push against this trend. When it emerged towards the end of the 1980s as a purely text-based medium, it was seen as a tool to pursue knowledge, not pleasure. Reason and thought were most valued in this garden—all derived from the project of the Enlightenment. Universities around the world were among the first to connect to this new medium, which hosted discussion groups, informative personal or group blogs, electronic magazines, and academic mailing lists and forums. It was an intellectual project, not about commerce or control, created in a scientific research center in Switzerland. And for more than a decade, the web created an alternative space that threatened television’s grip on society.
    Social networks, though, have since colonized the web for television’s values. From Facebook to Instagram, the medium refocuses our attention on videos and images, rewarding emotional appeals—’like’ buttons—over rational ones. Instead of a quest for knowledge, it engages us in an endless zest (热情) for instant approval from an audience, for which we are constantly but unconsciously performing. (It’s telling that, while Google began life as a PhD thesis, Facebook started as a tool to judge classmates’ appearances.) It reduces our curiosity by showing us exactly what we already want and think, based on our profiles and preferences. The Enlightenment’s motto (座右铭) of ’Dare to know’ has become ’Dare not to care to know.’ [br] According to the passage, what is the advantage of text reading?
选项 A、It gives one access to huge amounts of information.
B、It allows more information to be processed quickly.
C、It is capable of enriching one’s life.
D、It is conducive to critical thinking.
答案 D
解析 根据题干中的信息词text，答案线索可以定位至第一段倒数第二句。第一段倒数第二句中作者指出，是文本使我们能够“发现谎言、混淆和过度概括，并察觉出逻辑和常识的滥用。它还意味着权衡想法、比较和对比断言以及将一种概论与另一种概论联系起来”。选项D中的critical thinking正是对此部分内容的概括总结，故本题选D。选项A说法过于宽泛，文本阅读和电视等新媒体都可以让人获得海量信息，而且这个内容文中并未直接提及，故排除。文中未提及处理信息的速度，故排除选项B。第三段对互联网诞生初期的叙述可以让人联想到当时网络能够“充实人的思想”，但作者此部分要论证的是互联网早期带来的正面影响，且描述的是社会群体现象，而不是对个人生活的影响，选项C属于过度推断，故排除。
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