The Internet and nostalgia

广东 李奕群

1History is a combination of events hidden in darkness.Archaeological (考古 学的) 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 (怀旧的)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.

➢语篇解码

本文是一篇说明文。在互联网时代，网络上能保存更多的历史印记，但这并不代表人们会更怀旧，因为太多信息让我们失去了重构历史的能力。

➢语言学习

Ⅰ.语料荟萃

语篇单词combination n.结合（体）hidden adj.隐藏的evidence n.证据invention n.发明advertisement n. 广告（活动）artificial adj.人造的recall v. 回想intensely adv.强烈地construct v.建筑；组成potential adj.潜在的contain v.装有；包含element n.要素wisdom n.智慧；明智ancient adj.古代的；古老的threaten v.恐吓；对……构成威胁_____________drown v.盖过；淹没

（续表）

Ⅱ.语句分析

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.计算机和互联网结合了我们所有的人工记忆技术手段——文本、声音和图像——创造出一种比以往任何东西都更能勾起记忆的组合。

【点石成金】该句中，破折号后面的内容是插入语，举例说明前面的technological means of artificial memory，包括文字、声音和图像；that引导的是一个定语从句，先行词是a combination，且that在从句中作主语。

2.It does the work of constructing the past for us, meaning that our imaginations play a considerably smaller role.它为我们构建过去，这意味着我们的想象力发挥的作用要小得多。

【点石成金】该句中，meaning 为非谓语动词作状语，本句的谓语是动词does；that引导的是一个宾语从句；play a role意为“起作用”；considerably意为“相当；非常”。

➢语言运用

Ⅰ.例句仿写

1.我发现了一些在寒假期间你可以去参观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.他转身又睡了一觉，以为时间还很早。

He turned and slept again, _________________________________.

Ⅱ.写作实践

假定你是李华，最近你们班的同学在英语课堂上就“网络是否让人们更怀旧”这个话题进行辩论。请向你的外国朋友Smith介绍本次辩论的情况，内容包括：

1.辩论的主题；2.各方的观点和理由；3.你的看法。

注意：

1.词数80左右；

2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Smith,

_________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

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Yours,

Li Hua