Unit ThreeUnit ThreeUnit ThreeUnit ThreeAlienation and the Internet

Teaching ObjectivesPre-reading QuestionsGlobal ReadingDetailed ReadingExtended knowledge

Teaching Objectives

• Practice reading, writing, listening and talking, and translating about cyberspace;

• Discuss the pluses and minuses of the Internet world —what has caused the unintended negative consequences

Pre-reading Questions• Have you got access to Internet? At home or on c

ampus?

• Do you go Internet-surfing everyday? What attracts you to the Internet?

• What’s your opinion about net worms and cyberphobics?

Global Reading

Is this text a piece of narration, argumentation, description or explanation? What is the author’s contention?.

How does the author reveal the self-contradiction of the virtual reality?

Detailed ReadingParagraph 1-2 Paragraphs 3-6Paragraph 7

Paragraph 1-2Questions:

What is the contradiction of Internet?

What has caused the author to hold the idea that Internet should be responsible for global unification?

Language work: forum:1. place where important public issues

can be discussed 2. usu. singlee.g. He set up the 20-minute guest

spot to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas.

given: =taking (sth.) into account; considering

Given her interest in photography, I believe it is a good choice for her to be a TV reporter.

Given that they are inexperienced, they’ve actually done a good job.

position (on sth.) ： =view; point

e.g. The participants have to state their position on anti-dumping and outsourcing.

alter:• 1. (cause sb./sth.to) become different; c

hange in character, position, size, shape,etc

• 2. usu. Indicates the making of a small difference of sth.

e.g. Who may make him alter his mind?

alienate:• 1. alienate sb from sb/sthe.g. Chairman Mao once advocated tha

t Chinese intellectuals should not alienate themselves from society.

contradiction:• synonym: paradox, antinomy

Paragraph 3-6

Questions:

• What is the main idea of the paragraphs?

• What makes the author cite the example of his friend in Para. 3?

• Why does the author mention the fragmentation of society in this part?

Language work

give: to impute to, ascribe the blame to e.g. Nobody would give the blame of hypocrisy to him.

give sb pause make sb hesitate before doing sth

e.g. Weather conditions were terrible enough to give Thomas pause about driving to Shanghai by himself.

skew: distort; cause to be not straight or exacte.g. They found their conception of politics has been sk

ewed heavily by their rivals.

by God: God promiseeg. If you work hard enough, by God you’ll make it.

Exten ded family:family structure where uncles, aunts and cousins are regarded as close relatives≠nuclear family

otherwise:adv. in another or a different way, in other respectse.g. His stubbornness ruined his otherwise blameless career.

simulate:reproduce by means of a model, etc, eg for study or training purposese.g. The computer simulates El Nino weather conditions.

simulated: (usu. attrib.) look, sound, etc like (sth)synonym: mock

Paragraph 7Questions:

• What, according to the author, is the root of the overusing of the Internet?

• For what purpose does the author say “I do know that we all have the ability to maintain our sense of place in the world”?

Language work

the world is one’s/sb’s oyster: One is able to enjoy all the pleasures and opport

unities that life has to offer.e.g. You’ve covered all of the hurdles and the w

orld is your oyster.

Extended knowledgeInternet glossary

• BLOG or WEB LOG – A blog (short for "web log") is a type of web page that

serves as a publicly accessible personal journal (or log) for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Blog software usually has an archive of old blog postings. Many blogs can be searched for terms in the archive. Blogs have become a vibrant, fast-growing medium for communication in professional, political, news, trendy, and other specialized web communities.

• CACHE – In browsers, "cache" is used to identify a space

where web pages you have visited are stored in your computer. A copy of documents you retrieve is stored in cache. When you use GO, BACK, or any other means to revisit a document, the browser first checks to see if it is in cache and will retrieve it from there because it is much faster than retrieving it from the server.

• COOKIE • A message from a web server computer, sent to and stored by

your browser on your computer. When your computer consults the originating server computer, the cookie is sent back to the server, allowing it to respond to you according to the cookie's contents. The main use for cookies is to provide customized Web pages according to a profile of your interests. When you log onto a "customize" type of invitation on a Web page and fill in your name and other information, this may result in a cookie on your computer which that Web page will access to appear to "know" you and provide what you want. If you fill out these forms, you may also receive e-mail and other solicitation independent of cookies.

• GROUPS – Discussion forums one can participate in, share

ideas with, and form community. Most are free and some are open to new members. Yahoo Groups and Google Groups are both popular. Blogs are replacing some of the need for this type of community sharing and information exchange.

HOST Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users.

PHRASE More than one Keyword, searched exactly as keyed (all terms required to be in documents, in the order keyed). Enclosing keywords in quotations " " forms a phrase.

other search tools. Some times a phrase is called a "character

POPULARITY RANKING of search results Some search engines rank the order in which search results appear primarily by how many other sites link to each page (a kind of popularity vote based on the assumption that other pages would create a link to the "best" pages). Google is the best example of this.

SERVER, WEB SERVER A computer running that software, assigned an IP address, and connected to the Internet so that it can provide documents via the World Wide Web. Also called HOST computer. Web servers are the closest equivalent to what in the print world is called the "publisher" of a print document. An important difference is that most print publishers carefully edit the content and quality of their publications in an effort to market them and future publications. This convention is not required in the Web world, where anyone can be a publisher; careful evaluation of Web pages is therefore mandatory. Also called a "Host."

STEMMING In keyword searching, word endings are automatically removed (lines becomes line); searches are performed on the stem + common endings (line or lines retrieves line, lines, line's, lines', lining, lined). Not very common as a practice, and not always disclosed. Can usually be avoided by placing a term in " ".

THESAURUS In some search tools, the terms you choose to search on can lead you to other terms you may not have thought of. Different search tools have different ways of presenting this information, sometimes with suggested words you may choose among and sometimes automatically. The terms are based on the terms in the results of your search, not on some dictionary-like thesaurus.

Post-reading practice

1. 有的官员太过热衷于等级制了。Some officials are too addicted to

hierarchy.

2. 高考结束的时候，她还以为从此可以享受生活中的一切快乐了

• After the Entrance Examinations to College, she thought that the world from then on would be her oyster.

3. 寒暄几句后，他就说他想去探望我的母亲。• After we had exchanged a few

commonplaces, he told me that he wanted to pay a visit to my mother.