题目：ISSUE150 - "Because of television and worldwide computer connections, people can now become familiar with a great many places that they have never visited. As a result, tourism will soon become obsolete."
字数：602 用时：0:45:00 日期：2008-2-26
As the development of electronic technology and internet industry, people can get access to the beauty of many places from the television and the internet. While the speaker asserts that because of this, tourism will soon become obsolete, I do not think so. Actually, television and computer can never take place of tourism. Moreover, they will serve to promote it. My reasons of the contention are reflected in the following discussion.
In the first place, television and internet can only provide people with vision and sound experience. People will never have a experience of other senses, if they only watch television or serf on the internet. Without tourism, they will have no chance to smell, taste and touch. For example, if you only watch television and serf on the internet, maybe you can get a well experience of the beautiful scene of the Amazon plain, and will hear the birds singing under the sun, but you will never feel the wild wind, and smell the sweet flowers there. Without such experience, it cannot say that your experience of the Amazon is completed, and you can never claim that you have known what the Amazon is. In this sense, without tourism, any kind of experience of a place will not be a completed and thorough one. So, television and internet will never take place of tourism.
In the second place, the ultimate goal for a person to visit a place is not to get knowledge, but to put him/her into such an environment and experience another kind of life. In this course, people accumulate experience and get relaxed. For instance, in tourism, you can lie yourself on the famous beach, and feel the burn of the sun and the wind from the sea for a whole day. During this day, you can forget all the issues on work, forget all the unhappy things, and enjoy the whole day belonging to you. However, in front of the television and computer, you will get knowledge of the beach in a few minutes. In these few minutes, you are still in your house, in your own life, and will not get any relaxed. There lies the difference between tourism and watching television or surfing the internet. The former is to immerse oneself in another kind of environment and experience another kind of life, while the latter is just to get knowledge of a place. So, in this sense, television and computer will never take place of tourism.
What is more, not only computer and television can never make tourism obsolete, on the contrast, they will serve to improve the industry of tourism. Before the electronic age, people can only know a place from other people's describe or word introduction on books and newspapers. This kind of information can never provide people with a direct and accurate understanding. However, from television and computer, people can get a direct knowledge about the beauty of that place. They will be attracted by the beautiful pictures of the landscapes and will desire to have a real experience of these places. That is why so many tourism companies advertise on the television and internet. In this sense, television and computer connections can serve as tools to make tourism develop better.
In sum, I disagree with the statement that the development of television and worldwide computer connections, people will watch television or surf the internet to get knowledge of a place rather than visit it. Actually, the development of tourism industry will not be blocked because of television and internet. To the opposite, tourism will develop better thanks to the electronic age.作者: ustcroad 时间: 2008-2-27 13:01:22