《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词4500》72 E-mail Is Here to Stay
时间：2018-12-30 作者：英语课 分类：英语流行话题阅读：语境识词4500
Unit 72
E-mail Is Here to Stay
Is e-mail a blessing 1 or a curse? Last month, after a week's vacation, I discovered 1,218 unread e-mail messages waiting in my inbox. I pretended to be dismayed, but secretly I was pleased. This is how we measure our wired worth in the late 1990s -- if you aren't overwhelmed by e-mail, you must be doing something wrong. Never mind that after subtracting the stale office chitchat and dumb jokes forwarded by my friends who should know better, there were 7 messages actually worth reading. I was doomed 2 to spend half my workday just deleting junk.
E-mail. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Artists, advertisers and freedom fighters, lovers and sworn enemies -- they've all turned to e-mail as they would to any new medium of expression. E-mail is convenient, saves time, brings us closer to one another, helps us manage our ever-more-complex lives. Books are written, campaigns conducted, crimes committed -- all via e-mail. But it is also inconvenient 3, wastes our time, isolates 4 us in front of our computers and introduces more complexity 5 into our lives. To some, e-mail is just the latest chapter in the evolving his story of human communication.
Yet e-mail -- and all online communication -- is something different; it captures the essence of life at the close of the 20th century with an authority that few other products of digital technology can claim. E-mail simultaneously 6 allows us to cope with that acceleration 7 and contributes to it. Are our attention spans shortening under attacks of new, improved forms of stimulation 8? If we accept that the creation of the global-spanning Internet is one of the most important technological 9 innovations over past 500 years, then we must give e-mail -- the living embodiment of human connection across the Net. The way we interact with people is changing; e-mail is both the catalyst 10 and the instrument of that change.
It may even help us find those whom we want love in the first place. E-mail encourages the shy. It offers a semi-risk environment to start romance. Because it lacks the immediate 11 threat of physical rejection 12, people who are shy or had painful romantic failures in the past can use the Net as a way to build a relationship in the early romantic stages. But it's not just about love. E-mail also flattens 13 hierarchies 14 in the bounds of an office. It's far easier to make a suggestion to your superiors and colleagues via e-mail than it is to do so in a pressure-filled meeting room. Anytime when we have something that is difficult to say, e-mail can make it easier. It serves as a buffer 15 zone.
E-mail, ultimately, is a fragile thing, easy to forge, easy to destroy. A few weeks ago a co-worker of mine accidentally and irretrievably wiped out 1,500 of his own saved messages. For a person who conducts the bulk of his life online, such a digital tragedy is like erasing 16 part of your own memory.
Meanwhile, now that we are all connected across time zones and corporate 17 firewalls, we are beginning to lose sight of the difference between what is work and what is play. Six years after I logged onto CompuServe for the first time, I went to Alice Springs, a frontier town in Australia for a holiday. Instead of wandering through the desert and seeking camels, I found myself checking my mail to see if the Wired Magazine had fresh inquires for me about a story I had submitted. I was on the job -- in large part because I had an e-mail address and had made the Devil's bargain with the wired world. As I listened for the sound of the modem 18 connecting in Alice Springs, I felt I had lost control over some valuable part of my life. Your boss will refrain from calling you at 11:30 pm, but not from sending an enquiring 19, must-be-answered-as-soon-as-you-log-on e-mail. E-mail doesn't just collapse 20 distance. It demolishes 21 all boundaries. And that can be, depending on the moment, either a blessing or a curse.
- The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
- A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。
- The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
- A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。
- You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
- Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？
- The transformer isolates the transistors with regard to d-c bias voltage. 变压器可在两个晶体管之间隔离直流偏压。 来自辞典例句
- In regions with certain isolates of TRV, spraining is more prominent. 在具有TRV某些分离物的地区，坏死是比较显著的。 来自辞典例句
- Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
- The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。
- The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
- The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。
- All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
- He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。
- The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
- You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。
- A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
- Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。
- A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
- The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。
- His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
- We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
- He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
- The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。
- After Oxford the countryside flattens out. 过了牛津以远乡村逐渐平坦。
- The graph flattens out gradually after a steep fall. 图表上的曲线突降之后逐渐趋于平稳。
- That's a trip of two hierarchies. 那是两个领导层之间的互访。
- Hierarchies of authority, spans of control, long-range plans, and budgets. 等级森严的权力机构，控制范围，长期计划，预算。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦
- A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
- Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。
- He was like a sponge, erasing the past, soaking up the future. 他象一块海绵，挤出过去，吸进未来。 来自辞典例句
- Suddenly, fear overtook longing, erasing memories. 突然，恐惧淹没了渴望，泯灭了回忆。 来自辞典例句
- This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
- His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
- Does your computer have a modem?你的电脑有调制解调器吗？
- Provides a connection to your computer via a modem.通过调制解调器连接到计算机上。
- a child with an enquiring mind 有好奇心的孩子
- Paul darted at her sharp enquiring glances. 她的目光敏锐好奇，保罗飞快地朝她瞥了一眼。
- The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
- The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
- Huge surges cause severe flooding that demolishes buildings, washes out beaches and highways, and drowns people. 巨大的涌浪引起剧烈的泛滥，从而摧毁房屋，冲坏海滩与公路，使人们惨遭灭顶之灾。 来自辞典例句