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Part HI Reading Comprehension (40% )
Section A (30%)
Passage 4
The debate as to whether the Internet or books are a boon to school education is conducted on the supposition that the medium is the message. But sometimes the medium is just the medium. What matters is the way people think about themselves while engaged in the two activities. A person who becomes a citizen of the literary world enters a hierarchical universe. There are classic works of literature at the top and beach reading at the bottom.
A person enters this world as a novice, and slowly studies the works of great writers and scholars. Respect is paid to the writers who transmit that wisdom. A citizen of the Internet has a very different experience. The Internet smashes hierarchy and is not marked by respect. Maybe it would be different if it had been invented in Victorian England, but Internet culture is set in contemporary America. Internet culture is egalitarian. The young are more accomplished than the old. The new media is supposedly cleverer than the old media. The dominant activity is free-wheeling, disrespectful, antiauthority disputation.
These different cultures foster different types of learning. The great essayist Joseph Epstein once distinguished between being well informed, being hip and being cultivated. The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also helps you become hip — to learn about what’s going on, as Epstein writes,“in those lively waters outside the boring mainstream. ”But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting importance. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher.
Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture still produces better students. It’s better at distinguishing the important from the unimportant, and making the important more prestigious.Perhaps that will change. Already, more “old-fashioned” outposts are opening up across the Web. It could be that the real debate will not be books versus the Internet but how to build an Internet counterculture that will better attract people to serious learning.
54. Unlike an Internet surfer, a book reader would feel that .
A. he is surrounded by helpful people
B. he is at the top of the academic world
C. he is hungry for fame and gain
D. he is getting educated step by step
55. It is implied that in the literary world, there are .
A. academic debates B. agreed authorities
C. disdainful readers D. careless scholars
56. It can be inferred that Victorian England .
A. emphasized submission to authority
B. produced most of the world classic
C. witnessed a fast growth of the media
D. regarded the new as better than the old
57. According to Epstein, “being hip” is being curious about .
A. crucial issues B. lasting disputes
C. outer space D. the latest fashion
58. In comparison with literary culture, Internet culture delivers information that is rather .
A. mixed B. basic C. vital D. useful
59. What is suggested about serious learning?
A. It will be the gap between the two cultures.
B. It could be available on the Internet.
C. It may still be the focus of debate.
D. It should be given greater attention.