Unit 2
Bards of the Internet
Language Work
Paragraph 1
“One of the unintended side effects of the invention of the telephone was that writing went out of style.”
Paraphra呼吸骤停: When telephone was invented, no one realized at that time that it would outdate writing.
unintended adj. not deliberate or planned
e.g. an unintended slight
The group argues that many of the propod reforms will have unintended conquences.
“... and gave their fingers — and sometimes their mind — a rest.”
Explanation: ... and preferred to u the telephone rather than the pen (in a humorous way).
Paragraph 2
“Which makes what’s happening on the computer networks all the more startling.”
Explanation: Here “which” is a relative pronoun referring to the situation mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The ntence would be grammatically acceptable if it were restructured as “All this makes what’s happening on the computer networks all the more startling.”
“Just when the media of McLuhan were suppod to render obsolete the medium of Shakespeare, the online world is experiencing the greatest boom in letter writing since the 18th century.”
Paraphra: Contrary to what is expected, at a time when the media of McLuhan (e.g. television) were suppod to make the medium of Shakespeare (i.e. letter writing) out of date, letter writing on the Internet is enjoying the greatest development since the 18th century.
render vt. to make someone or something be or become something
to express, show, or perform something in a particular way
e.g. His rudeness rendered me speechless.
The singers rendered the song with enthusiasm.
小朋友睡前小故事obsolescent adj. (cf. obsolete) becoming replaced by something newer and more effective
e.g. The amateur movie gauges of 8 mm, Super 8 and 9.5 mm are obsolescent.
Much of our existing military hardware is obsolescent.
Note: Things that are obsolete are out of date or no longer in general u. Things that are obsolescent are fading from general u and soon to become obsolete.
boom n. an increa in the activity of a particular industry or part of a country's economy
e.g. This year has en a boom in book sales.
The insurance business suffered from a vicious cycle of boom and bust.
Paragraph 3
David Sewell ... likens netwriting to the literary scene Mark Twain discovered in San Francisco in the 1860s, “when people were reinventing journalism by grafting it onto the tall-tale folk tradition.”
Paraphra: David Sewell compares netwriting to the literary scene Mark Twain discovered in San Francisco in the 1860s, “when journalists were fond of writing news reports in the traditional tall-tale style.”
liken vt. liken someone/something to something
to say that someone or something is similar to someone or something el
e.g. She likened the experience to sinking into a warm bath.
巾帼不让须眉 Our small company can be likened to a big, happy family.
reinvent vt. to change something that already exists and give it a different form or purpo
e.g. The story of Romeo and Juliet was reinvented as a Los Angeles gangster movie.
He’s one of tho sportsmen who reinvent themlves as TV prenters.
graft vt. to add something and make it become a part of another thing
e.g. A piece of skin was removed from her leg and grafted onto her face.
The management tried unsuccessfully to graft new working methods onto the existing wa
ys of doing things.
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the tall-tale folk tradition n. the tradition in which people tell a story or a tale in a fanciful and exaggerated manner.
A tall tale/story is a tale or a story that is hard to believe, becau it is so exaggerated or unlikely. Here the author refers to a unique kind of journalism in which people report news in much the same way as people tell tall tales.
pamphleteers n. Though most pamphleteers were not professional writers, they were passionate advocators of North American independence.
Paragraph 4
发财树作文“For it can be very bad indeed: sloppy, meandering, puerile, ungrammatical, poorly spelled, badly structured and at times virtually content free.”
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Paraphra: For it can be very bad indeed: careless, pointless, childish, with many gram
matical and spelling mistakes, and structural mistakes, and sometimes it has no real message or meaning.如何能洗掉纹身
sloppy adj. done in a very careless way
e.g. Spelling mistakes always look sloppy in a formal letter.
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