Issue38 【Persistence 小组】第二十三次作业，计时未成功，仍要继续努力

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38. "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 this era of rapid technological change, many modern media such as television offer us most developed way for our studies, and in this situation, some people, like the speaker, claims that reading books is not as important as it once was for watching television has the same, if not more, effects on people's studies as reading books did. From my perspective, both watching television and reading book are important in our studies as discussed below.

To begin with, watching television provides us more widely and quickly methods to learn about the world around us. As we all know, with one small TV set, people can know what are happening around them by watching news, learn the historical story by watching documentaries and even just relax by watching some humorous television drama. Modern media offer us huge information in certain limited time by video and audios or the interaction of them, and modern people can quickly get wide knowledge about the world by watching TV if the do not have enough time to get familiar with a special field. That is why some modern people who rarely read books in today's time still know well about what the world is.

However, reading books which cannot be replaced by using the modern media is a different learning style from watching TV. Usually, one book, except the encyclopedias, only provides us limited information or knowledge about one field, but, the knowledge in a book is in general deeper and benefits us in studying intensively what we have learned. We can mark or make some notes when reading a book and review or think about the contents of both the book and notes from time to time, while, if we want to do the same thing when watching TV, we have to use a video type recorder which brings us no convenience. Moreover, when one is traveling, he/she can bring a book of literature or science fiction to help him/her reduce the fatigues on the way. What can television do in this situation? No one would take a TV set on his/her back on the way of a journey.

Furthermore, it is hard to say which one, watching TV or reading book, is better for us to get knowledge, and both of them play important roles in our studies. Television provides us vivid picture and voice of the places all over the world and multicultural knowledge which we cannot get through one or several books, at the same time, reading books, as a traditional learning method, enable us deeply understand and appreciate the world. In another word, watching television and reading books are supplements to each other in people's studies.

In the final analysis, though we are provided many different ways, especially the most advanced technological ways, for studying in the age of television, reading books, which seems to be the traditional learning way, is still as important as it once was. Combining both the modern and the tradition learning ways is the better choice for us to make significant progress in our study.