Newspaper: the Media of the Past
Newspaper now seldom holds any appeal to me. It strikes us as something that represents a media of the past even in the present condition of science and technology, not to mention in future. Some of my friends, although benefit TV, radio and internet a great deal, they vigorously defend newspaper. Nothing can be compared, one of my friends maintains, with the redolence of the printing ink, the enjoyment of sitting at the desk with the lamp on, sipping coffee or tea. I can't help pointing out that he's quite forgetful. He forgot complaining about how to dispose of the piles of assorted newspaper with a heavy coat of dust on,about the huge space it occupies. He forgot last semester before the exam, when he spent a whole day sitting on the floor,searching materials from a pile of newspaper desperately. After a day's work, the newspapers comfortably lay on the floor like a carpet. The reason why he eulogized the virtue of newspaper and left all those vexing experience behind is beyond my understanding.
If you can manage to avoid being enchanted by newspaper and treat it properly, you can easily discover its disadvantage and the advantage of other media as TV, radio and internet. In addition to being space consuming, inconvenient to look up, hard to dispose of as mentioned above, the demerits of newspapers produce a long list.
Time is changing. Newspaper is inadequate to catch up with the pace of modern life and meet people's needs. Thus, it has to be eliminated while other media fully developed with progress of science and technology are capable of satisfying people's needs.Their advantages boil down to 3 Ls: lots of choices, low cost and little trouble.
Lots of choices. In the age of information, people's demand of information is sharply increasing. We can easily search information in various fields such as economy, news, military, medicine and so on very comprehensively on internet and TV. But newspaper, either specifying in a certain field or just having anextensive perspective of all fields can hardly satisfy the need.When internet is accessible, why bother to buy all sorts of newspaper?
Low cost. I mean it in two ways, individually and socially.The prices of newspaper is higher compared with radio, TV and internet. Statistics show that a piece of newspaper costs an average of 60 per month, thus three kinds of newspapers may cost readers nearly 200. Of course you won't spend that sum on other media. Its socially high cost should be paid more attention to. Hundreds of trees are cut for newspaper and our natural resource is scarce today. Internet never has such a problem. So science and technology do lower lost, don't they?
Little trouble is another advantage of new media. As mentioned before, newspaper is space consuming and hard to look up. By comparison, the space that TV occupies is shrinking even can be saved by hanging it on the wall. Furthermore, you can easily find the materials you once saw or you want on internet and never have to suffer the anxiety that my friend once experienced. It does save you a lot of time and energy.
Besides, radio and TV seem more idiosyncratic and userfriendly than newspaper. For instance, the blind and the deaf can also share its resource and benefit from modem science.
In a word, accordance is the most important. Newspaper once accorded with the time and people's need, but now with the development of science and technology it doesn't. This rule also works in future. Other more developed media must also come and replace the present.
简 评
本篇文章讨论了报纸相对于新兴媒体的弱势，并在大量的、全方位的分析比较基础上预言“报纸将成为昨天的传媒”。
本文在三个方面给读者留下了深刻的印象。首先是文章的信息量大。文章不仅道出报纸的贮存空间大、查询不便、难于处理等“硬件”方面的先天不足，而且挖掘出其“软件”方面的种种劣势如信息量局限，个体成本高，社会、环境代价昂贵。其次，作者严格把握书面语言的准确运用，如“hold appeal to，defend newspaper，dispose of，maintain，boil down to'等一系列属于正式语体的表达。如此以来，文章的基调庄重、严肃，令人不能视同儿戏。最后，作者动用多种修辞增强文章的说服力，如第一段中出现的平衡结构"he forgets"重复出现。另外，作者还别具匠心地设计了三个头韵词“3Ls”，“lots Of choices，low cost，little trouble”。因此，作者的观点给读者留下了更鲜明的印象。除此之外，作者多次运用了反问句，从而更好地赢得了读者的共鸣。
(点评教师：赵蓉)
