【英语时差8,16】享受阅读报纸的乐趣

Last month, our English Department invited a local radio star to deliver a public lecture on the topic of media influence on society. He described the tug¹ of war that has been going on in recent years between newspapers on real live paper (my words for the old-fashioned way) and newspapers available on the Internet.

Are old-fashioned newspapers only for us older folks? The majority of college students I know appear to consider reading anything, not only newspapers (online or "live") as a chore. Most seem to only read to pass exams.

For me, the pleasures of reading a newspaper, as with reading a novel or a well-crafted poem, essay, or drama, are intricately² connected with the pleasures of the human imagination. People read newspapers for many reasons. Newspapers offer information, and they also cover a variety of topics. But newspapers and reading in general can only add to our lives if we have imaginations sufficiently³ fertile and copious⁴ to appreciate them.

Many tell me the Internet has already taken over the job of old time reading, but I should not worry young people will suffer from underdeveloped imaginations as a result. PowerPoint presentations, video games, text messaging, YouTube, and countless⁵ other high-tech⁶ advances keep young imaginations very much alive and growing. I hope so.

1 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

2 intricately   

adv.杂乱地

参考例句：

• The door is intricately carved. 那扇门被杂乱地刻划。
• Each Viennese porcelain plaque is intricately painted and of very high quality. 每个维也纳瓷画牌匾是错综复杂的质量非常高。

3 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

4 copious   

adj.丰富的，大量的

参考例句：

• She supports her theory with copious evidences.她以大量的例证来充实自己的理论。
• Every star is a copious source of neutrinos.每颗恒星都是丰富的中微子源。

5 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

6 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。