Writing:
Astatementgoesthat"boththedevelopmentoftechnologicaltoolsandtheusestowhichhumanityhasputthemhavecreatedmoderncivilizationsinwhichlonelinessiseverincreasing."Towhatdegreedoyouagreewiththisstatement?Writeanessayofabout400words.
Inthefirstpartofyouressayyoushouldstateclearlyyourmainargument,andinthesecondpartyoushouldsupportyourargumentwithappropriatedetails.Inthelastpartyoushouldbringwhatyouhavewrittentoanaturalconclusionormakeasummary.
Youshouldsupplyanappropriatetitleforyouressay.
Markswillbeawardedforcontent,organization,grammarandappropriateness.Failuretofollowtheaboveinstructionsmayresultinalossofmarks.
更新时间:2024-11-24 01:06:05Sample
For a Balance between Technology and Life
Technology, broadly defined as the use of tools, has a long history. Ever since Erg the caveman first conked an animal with a rock, people have been using technology. For thousands of years, the use of tools allowed people to move ever closer together. Because fields could be cultivated and the technology to store food existed, people would live in cities rather than in small nomadic tribes. However, in the past centuries, both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing.
First, the Industrial Revolution deprived people to a large extent of the pleasure of communication during work. It is true that the revolution introduced and spread technologies that mechanized many tasks and saved people much labor, but as a result of the drive toward more efficient production and distribution, people began to act as cogs in the technological machine. Clothing was no longer produced by groups of women sewing and gossiping together, but by down-trodden automation's operating machinery in grim factories.
Secondly, the new technology of today, computers and the Internet, pushed people further to the abyss of loneliness. Truly, they have made work ever more efficient and knit the world together in a web of information and phone lines. The world has been made into one in which Erg need not check in to his office; he can just dial in from home. He won't need to go to a bar to pick up women because there are all those chat rooms. Hungry? Erg orders his groceries from an online delivery service. Bored? Download a new game. And yet……However, many people, myself included, are a little queasy about that vision. Erg may be doing work, but is it real work? Are his online friends real friends? Can he really enjoy this solitude?
Actually, since the Industrial Revolution, we have been haunted by the prospect that we are turning into our machines: efficient, productive, and soulless. The newest technologies, we fear, are making us flat as our screens, turning us into streams of bits of interchangeable data. We may know a lot of people, but we have few real friends. We have a lot of things to do, but no reason to do them. In short, the new technology emphasizes a spiritual crisis that has been building for quite some time.
While I am certainly not a Luddite, I do believe we need to look for a bit more balance between technology and life. We have to tear ourselves away from the fatal distractions and go out into the world. Technology has given us long lives and endless supplies of information. Now we need to apply that information, use the time we're not spending conking our dinner with a club, and find our reasons for living.
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Bernard Bailyn has recentlyreinterpretedthe early historyof the United States by applyingnew socialresearchfindingson theexperiencesofEuropean migrants.Inhisreinterpretation,migrationbecomes the organizingprinciplefor rewritingthe historyofpreindustrial North America. His approach rests on four separate propositions.The firstof these asserts that residentsof early modern England moved regularlyabouttheir countryside; migrating to the New World was simply a natural spillover. Although atfirstthe colonies held littlepositiveattractionfor the English D they would rather havestayed home D by the eighteenth century people increasingly migrated to America becausethey regarded it as the land of opportunity. Secondly, Bailyn holds that, contrary to thenotion that used to flourish in America history textbooks, there was never a typical NewWorld community.For example, the economic and demographiccharacterof early New Englandtowns varied considerably.Bailyn's third proposition suggest two general patterns prevailing among the manythousands of migrants:one group came as indenturedservants,another came to acquire land.Surprisingly,Bailyn suggests that those who recruitedindentured servants were the drivingforces of transatlanticmigration.These colonialentrepreneurshelped determine the socialcharacterof people who came to preindustrialNorth America.At first,thousands ofunskilled laborers were recruited; by the 1730's, however, American employers demandedskilled artisans.Finally, Bailyn argues that the colonies were a half-civilized hinterland of theEuropean culture system. He is undoubtedly correct to insist that the colonies were partof an Anglo-American empire. But to divide the empire into English core and colonialperiphery, as Bailyn does, devalues the achievements of colonial culture. It is true, asBailyn claims, that high culture in the colonies never matched that in England. But whatof seventeenth-century New England, where the settlers created effective laws, built adistinguished university, and published books Bailyn might respond that New England wasexceptional. However, the ideas and institutions developed by New England Puritans hadpowerful effects on North American culture.Although Bailyn goes on to apply his approach to some thousands of indenturedservantswho migrated just prior to the revolution, he fails to link their experience with thepolitical development of the United States. Evidence presented in his work suggests howwe might make such a connection. These indentured servants were treated as slaves for theperiod during which they had sold their time to American employers. It is not surprisingthat as soon as they served their time they passed up good wages in the cities and headedwest to ensure theirpersonal independence by acquiringland. Thus, it is in the west thata peculiarly American political culture began, among colonists who were suspicious ofauthority and intensely anti-aristocratic.
1.Which of the followingstatements about migrants to colonialNorth America is supportedby information in the text
[A] A larger percentage of migrants to colonial North America came as indenturedservants than as free agents interested in acquiring land.
[B] Migrants who came to the colonies as indentured servants were more successful atmaking a livelihood than were farmers and artisans.
[C] Migrants to colonialNorth America were more successfulat acquiringtheir own landduring the eighteenth century than during the seventeenth century.
[D] By the 1730's,migrants already skilled in a trade were in more demand by Americanemployers than were unskilled laborers.
2.The author of the text states that Bailyn failed to
[A] Give sufficient emphasis to the cultural and political interdependence of thecolonies and England.
[B] Describe carefully how migrants of different ethnic backgrounds preserved theirculture in the United States.
[C] Take advantage of social research on the experiences of colonists who migrated tocolonial North America specifically to acquire land.
[D] Relate the experience of the migrants to the politicalvalues that eventuallyshapedthe character of the United States.
3.Which of the following best summarizes the author's evaluation of Bailyn's fourthproposition
[A] It is totally implausible.
[B] It is partially acceptable.
[C] It is highly admirable.
[D] It is controversial though persuasive.
4.According to the text,Bailyn and the author agree on which of the followingstatementsabout the culture of colonial New England
[A] High culture in New England never equaled the high culture of England.
[B] The culturalachievements of colonialNew England have generallybeen unrecognizedby historians.
[C] The colonistsimitatedthe high cultureof England , and did not develop a culturethat was uniquely their own.
[D] The southern colonies were greatly influenced by the high culture of New England.
5.The author of the text would be most likely to agree with which of the followingstatements about Bailyn's work
[A] Bailyn underestimates the effects of Puritan thought on North American culture.
[B] Bailyn overemphasizes the economic dependence of the colonies on Great Britain.
[C] Bailyn'sdescriptionof thecoloniesas part of an Anglo-American empireis misleading and incorrect.
[D] Bailyn failedto test his propositionson a specificgroup of migrants to colonialNorth America.
Thelittleboydidn’tknow_______.
Great as Newton was, many of his ideas ____ today and are being modified by the work of scientists of our time.
______ they are twin sisters, they don ’t look like each other.
IsTomatschooltoday?No,He’sathome______hehasabadcold.