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
外语
The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by
The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by
admin
2013-01-28
74
问题
The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by Victor Hugo in a famous chapter of Notre-Dame de Paris. It was a Cathedral. On all parts of the giant building, statuary and stone representations of every kind, combined with huge widows of stained glass, told the stories of the Bible and the saints, displayed the intricacies of Christian theology, adverted to the existence of highly unpleasant demonic winged creatures, referred diplomatically to the majesties of political power, and in addition, by means of bells in bell towers, told time for the benefit of all of Pairs and much of France. It was an awesome engine of communication.
Then came the transition to something still more awesome. The new technology of mass communication was portable, could sit on your table, and was easily replicable, and yet, paradoxically, contained more information, more systematically presented, than even the largest of cathedrals. It was the printed book. Though it provided no bells and could not tell time, the over-all superiority of the new invention was unmistakable.
In the last ten or twenty years, we have been undergoing a more or less equivalent shift—this time to a new life as a computer-using population. The gain in portability, capability, ease, orderliness, accuracy, reliability, and information-storage over anything achievable by pen scribbling, typewriting, and cabinet filing is recognized by all. The progress for civilization is undeniable and, plainly, irreversible. Yet, just as the book’s triumph over the cathedral divided people into two groups, one of which prospered, while the other lapsed into gloom, the computer’s triumph has also divided the human race.
You have only to bring a computer into a room to see that some people begin at once to buzz with curiosity and excitement, sit down to conduct experiments, ooh and ah at the boxes and beeps, and master the use of the computer or a new program as quickly as athletes playing a delightful new game. But how difficult it is—how grim and frightful! —for the other people, the defeated class, whose temperament does not naturally respond to computers. The machine whirrs and glows before them and their faces twitch. They may be splendidly educated, as measured by book-reading, yet their instincts are all wrong, and no amount of manual-studying and mouse-clicking will make them right. Computers require a sharply different set of aptitudes, and, if the aptitudes are missing, little can be done, and misery is guaranteed.
Is the computer industry aware that computers have divided mankind into two new, previously unknown classes, the computer personalities and the non-computer personalities? Yes, the industry knows this. Vast sums have been expended in order to adapt the computer to the limitations of non-computer personalities. Apple’s Macintosh, with its zooming animations and pull-down menus and little pictures of life folders and watch faces and trash cans, pointed the way. Such seductions have soothed the apprehensions of a certain number of the computer-averse. This spring, the computer industry’s efforts are reaching a culmination of sorts. Microsoft, Bill Gates’ giant corporation, is to bring out a program package called Microsoft Bob, designed by Mr Gates’ wife, Melinda French, and intended to render computer technology available even to people who are openly terrified of computers. Bob’s principle is to take the several tasks of operating a computer, rename them in a folksy style, and assign to them the images of an ideal room in ideal home, with furniture and bookshelves, and with chummy cartoon helpers ("Friends of Bod") to guide the computer user over the rough spots, and, in that way, simulate an atmosphere that feels nothing like computers.
The printed book is more progressive than the Cathedral as a communication means, because ______.
选项
A、it could sit on your table and did no linger tell time
B、it was more reliable and didn’t tell the stories of saints and demons
C、it was small, yet contained more information
D、it did not flatter religious and political power
答案
C
解析
从文中第二段可知。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/9k1O777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
CrossingWesleyanUniversity’scampususuallyrequireswalkingovercolorfulmessageschalkedontheground.Theycanbeasinno
CrossingWesleyanUniversity’scampususuallyrequireswalkingovercolorfulmessageschalkedontheground.Theycanbeasinno
OnesillyquestionIsimplycannottolerateis"Howdoyoufeel?"Usuallythequestionisaskedofamaninaction-amanwalkin
Itisimportantthatanundergraduate_____agradepointaverageof"B"inhismajorfield.
WhenwethinkofHollywood--atermIuselooselytodescribeAmericanmovieproductioningeneral,notsimplyfilmsmadeinLos
HenryDavidThoreauusedtoramblethroughthewoodsbeforehewrotehismostfamousbookWalden(1854).
Lobbyinggroupsoftentrytodisguiseafinancialself-interestbyclumsilydressinguptheirargumentsintheguiseofconcern
Forfarmershopingforahealthyharvest,thebestplacetoturnforhelpthesedaysistheMonsantoCorp.Oneoftheworld’sle
Hisplanwas______bythecommittee.
IfyouhappenedtobewatchingNBConthefirstSundaymorninginAugustlastsummer,youwouldhaveseensomethingcurious.The
随机试题
当台阶和沟槽与其他零件的相应部位配合时,其尺寸精度要求较高,公差等级一般为IT()。
牡蛎、龙骨功效的共同点有
有关Ⅱ型超敏反应的叙述,错误的是
编制施工计划时,疏浚工程施工进度应包括()三个阶段。
已建成的电信设施的电信业务经营者应当将空余资源以()等方式向有需求的其他电信业务经营者开放。
某合伙企业解散时,在如何确定清算人的问题上,合伙人甲、乙、丙、丁各执一词。下列各合伙人的主张中,不符合合伙企业法律制度规定的是()。
“x=3”是“x2=9”的().
集合R与S的交可以用关系代数的5种基本运算表示为()。
数据结构分为逻辑结构和存储结构,循环队列属于_________结构。
Springisa【B1】________season.Thetemperaturesaremild,andthebloomingtreesandflowersmakethecitybright【B2】________T
最新回复
(
0
)