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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2024-03-07  16
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] What does the passage say about the World Wide Web?
选项 A、It was developed primarily for universities worldwide.
B、It was created to connect people in different countries.
C、It was viewed as a means to quest for knowledge.
D、It was designed as a discussion forum for university students.
答案 C
解析 根据题干中的信息词the World Wide Web，以及出题顺序和文章段落顺序基本一致的原则，可以把答案线索定位至第三段第二句，it指代首段提到的the World Wide Web。第三段首句指出，万维网诞生之初看起来与当时的主流趋势相反，随后讲到，当在20世纪80年代末作为一种纯粹基于文本的媒体出现时，网络被视作一种追求知识而非娱乐的工具。选项C中的a means to quest for knowledge是对原文a tool to pursue knowledge的同义转述，故本题选C。文中只提及各个大学是最早使用网络的一批用户之一，没有说明网络是为大学开发的，也没有提及创建它的目的，故排除选项A和选项B。文中提及论坛和讨论组等信息是为了例证万维网早期的正面影响，选项D是对原文的曲解，故排除。
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