Issue38 [米国有米]第一次作业
Issue38
"In the age of television, reading books is not as important as it once was. People can learn as much by watching
television as they can by reading books."
In such an information era, television programs are everywhere in our life. Some people argue that reading books is
not as important as it once was and its place may be substituted by television. However, as far as I concerned, I
strongly disagree. I concede that watching television cannot replace reading books in most aspects of our life.
Admittedly, prompted by the highly advanced technology, television has played a considerable part by providing
instant record and vivid scenery which written books hardly offer. For example, it may be that only by the
television program can the beauteous scenery of the National Forest Park be well shown for most of audiences who
have never been there. The series of moving images of the old forest, the grotesque mountains and the flowing limpid
water in the Mississippi River, together with the sweet sound of birds and insects, can give every audience a sense
of dulcet enjoyness. Television allows us to stay abreast of current affairs, which make us acquire information as
short time as possible. Meanwhile, we can appreciate the live scorching competition between Dallas Mavericks and
Miami Heat at home, enjoying the delight the players bring us. The TV shows with entertainment similarly enrich our
spare time. These functions can be provided only by television, and television serves to make our life colorful.
At the same time, we should not ignore the weakness of television and the negative impact it bring us. Our populace
are under a circumstance of diversiform information, and the television station's purpose is to pursue the maximum
profit, inevitably they sometimes will be driven by power and mislead the populace to some extent. On one hand, more
often than not, to raise the audience rating, some news, for instance scandals and celebrity’s privacy are showed
out without filter, which will undermine the reliability of television program. On the other hand, audience, in
facing of diverse programs, might lost their control and discretion. Consequently, its function of learning will be
limited and undermined.
However, written books have its indispensable role in human's learning scope. As a great educator put it (and I
paraphrase) "there is a golden house in book". The written books covering myriad of knowledge provide us deeper
consistent knowledge. Books from hundreds or even thousands years ago makes us retrospect our history accordingly,
while the record of the television only has to resort to the written books to depict the same event. Unfortunately,
most of records have distorted the author's natural idea, misleading the audience. Furthermore, books are cheaper
and do less harm to our eyes, comparing with the high cost of television. All these make reading books'
indispensability.
In conclusion, though television has some advantages at providing information to some extent, it can hardly outweigh
reading books as the most important means for people getting information and knowledge. Whenever one is not sure
about something, what she or he firstly wants to do might be to refer to some books, seldom to watch some TV
programs.
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