研究生英语internet因特网.ppt

I. Introduction This essay is a piece of argumentation. An argument is a reasoned, logical way of demonstrating that your position , belief, or conclusion is valid. One purpose of argument is to persuade reasonable people to agree with your position. Another is simply to defend your position, to establish soundness even if others cannot be persuaded to agree. A third purpose of argument is to attack some position you believe to be misguided, or evil without necessarily offering an alternative of your own. What is the author’s purpose in writing this essay? What the Internet cannot do Aug 17th 2000 1. “IT IS impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an instrument has been created for the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth.” acclaimed Victorian enthusiasts on the arrival in 1858 of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. People say that sort of thing about new technologies, even today (why?). Biotechnology is said to be the cure for world hunger. The sequencing of the human genome will supposedly eradicate cancer and other diseases. The wildest optimism, though, has greeted the Internet. A whole industry of cybergurus has enthralled audiences (and made a fine living) with exuberant claims that the Internet will prevent wars, reduce pollution, and combat various forms of inequality. However, although the Internet is still young enough to inspire idealism, it has also been around long enough to test whether the prophets can be right. 2. Grandest of all the claims are those made by some of the savants at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the Internet’s potential as a force for peace. One guru, Nicholas Negroponte, has declared that, thanks to the Internet, the children of the future “are not going to know what nationalism is”. His colleague, Michael Dertouzos, has written that digital communications will bring “computer-aided peace” which “may help stave off future flare-ups of ethnic h