［Write a short essay (250-500 words).... To help us understand how your reason and formulate ideas, the Honors Committee would like you to write a short essay on the impact of communication on your future based on one of the articles. ]

Each morning I roll out of bed and stumble upstairs to my computer to check my e-mail.Without fail, waiting in my inbox is the daily New York Times. I scan the headlines and follow the hyperlinks to stories about the impeachment trial and the collapse of Brazil’ s currency.
Without internet access, the cost for subscribing to one of the world’ s greatest newspapers would be out of my reach. For reasons such as this, one of the most significant ways that the communications age has affected (and will continue to affect the world) is in the realm of news reporting. In November of 1995,when Michael Kinsley left the co-host seat of CNN’ s Crossfire to create and edit an on-line magazine, Slate, critics called him crazy.。

Few would realize that in only three years, on-line news reporting would revitalize the media business. Not only have on-line magazines such as Slate gained readership, but pioneers such as Kinsley have had countless effects on print magazines. Most magazines, journals, and newspapers have web sites offering full text articles free to any web citizen and release archived articles for nominal fees. This evolution of news reporting certainly has benefits. The obvious advantage to on-line magazines is the immediate turnaround on articles. Minutes after the air strikes against Iraq, on-line news sources had feature stories pasted on their homepages. With traditional newspapers and magazines, the story took hours and, in some cases, days to reach the homes of readers. In addition, on-line magazines save on postage and paper costs, and eliminate unwanted advertising waste.

The depth of articles can be increased greatly, allowing an article regarding social security reform to have hyperlinks to the privatization plan proposed on the Senate floor, the AARP position, and the Social Security Administration page. However, all progress has disadvantages. One prime adversity that on-line publications must face is attitudinal.

Who wants to curl up in their bathrobe with a cup of coffee to complete the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle in front of their computer terminal? As Ken Auletta points out in his article “ The Reëducation of Michael Kinsley” (New Yorker May 13,1996), Many individuals have difficulty paying subscription fees for something that doesn’ t physically “ exist” . More importantly however, creating an on-line magazine takes only a few hundred dollars, computer, and a reliable server. This creates many dangerous credibility problems and forces readers to check numerous sites before discovering the facts regarding a situation. Biased reporting is also more common on-line because of the availability of web space and the ease of publishing. Even Slate, while reputable, is a subsidiary of the Microsoft Corporation which could lead to prejudiced reporting concerning such issues as the Netscape/AOL merger or the anti-trust law suit.

The daily New York Times in my e-mail inbox has allowed me to gain a new perspective on the world that I live in. Similarly, the communications age has clearly reinvented the media industry. Michael Kinsley’ s extraordinary outlook has significantly changed the way that citizens of the world receive and interpret their news, leading to many benefits and drawbacks that will continue to be examined for decades to come.

點評

結構：

作者一開始用一種輕松明快的方式展開故事，作者用記敘自己的親身感受說出了網絡帶給人們的方便與快捷，在一定程度上代表了一類網民的心聲，同時作者又對網絡的弊端和種種問題（網絡文章的可信性，文章轉載的合法性等等）做出了評論對比，表明了自己對網絡可行性的態度！
 
分析：

文章選材不是非常新穎，缺少事例，給人一種空乏的感覺，讀完整篇文章后感覺虎頭蛇尾，作者應該更多的寫些自己的事例，在表達上應該更多的運用第一視角來看待整個故事，讓整個作故事感覺更有生趣，而不是長時間一味的敘述。

譯文：

［命題要求：為了讓我們更好了解你的觀點、你的想法，請寫一篇250－500字的短文，描述一下通訊是如何影響你的未來生活的。］

喬治華盛頓的榮耀

網絡的出現無疑為人們的生活提供了方便快捷和有效資源的合理利用。了解了現代網絡的同時作者用了一個“Netscape/AOL”的例子告訴我們合理合法的利用網絡會給個人乃至公司帶來不可限量的利益空間。提倡網絡精神的同時讓讀者對將來的互聯網發展頗感深思。了解和掌握計算機網絡知識，就是闖蕩未來信息時代的最強有力的武器。讓我們相信，運用好這一時代工具，終將會聚沙成塔，終將會站在巨人的肩膀上。

每天早晨我從床上爬起平且上樓瀏覽我的計算機里是否有電子郵件。無疑, 等待我的是郵箱里的每日紐約時代周刊。我瀏覽著新聞摘要并在網上看到了對關于彈劾審判和巴西崩潰的故事。沒有互聯網,想訂閱到一個這樣世界性的報紙，在費用上會對我說是遙不可及的。這就是我為什么選擇他的原因, 在新聞媒體的領域上，網絡通信時代在我們的生活中氣力最重大的作用 (并且將繼續影響世界) 。

在1995 年11月, 當離開美國有線電視新聞網，主辦創造和編輯一本網上雜志, 別的評論家多認為他瘋狂。很少有人會意識到, 在僅僅三年里, 網上新聞報告成為重要的媒介。吸引了很多了讀者, 邁克爾作為一個網絡雜志之父，有著無可限量的影響在印刷品雜志。他為大多數雜志、學報, 和報紙有網站任意提供全文文章對于任一個網民和發布其歸檔的文章會象征性收取一定的費用。

這樣的變革在一定程度上對新聞傳播是有好處的。明顯的好處就是網上雜志可以很快地出現在我們身邊。在反對空襲伊拉克戰爭以后, 網上新聞來源在第一時間被粘貼在他們的主頁。與傳統報紙和雜志, 故事需要幾小時和, 在某些情況下, 幾天才能到達讀者的家。另外, 網上雜志包含著郵費和紙張費用, 并且在一定程度上消滅不必要的廣告垃圾。文章的內容可能很大地被增加。有一篇文章是關于網絡雜志在上社會保險改革對私有化計劃提議在參議院議席上出現,允許和贊成美國退休人員組織和保障社會保險管理位置的確保，但是, 所有網上雜志進展都有不利因素。網上出版物必須面對的第一個問題就是態度問題的。縱橫兩方面看，誰愿意在計算機前，圍著他們的浴巾一邊喝著咖啡完成星期天紐約時代周刊? 就像肯指出在他的文章里"邁克爾理論" (紐約人1996年5月13), 許多個人都有困難支付訂購費的問題,不是完全存在的" 。然而更加重要地是創造一本網上雜志采取唯一辦法就是幾百美金、一臺計算機, 和一臺可靠的服務器。其中存在著許多潛在的可信度問題，使讀者不得不搜索許多網站尋找到最佳答案。有些報告有存在著偏見，在網上同樣由于網絡空間的有限性和可讀性而出版。值得一提的是, 當網絡公司名聲的好壞會導致帶有偏見的報告，比如關于Netscape/AOL問題。合并或反壟斷法都依賴于微軟公司的輔助。

郵箱里每天更新的每日紐約時報的新聞，每天都讓我對這個世界有一個全部的認識。與之類似，通訊時代已經徹底改變了現在的媒體工業。Michael Kinsley偉大的outlook正在讓人們的生活方式發生成重大的改變：人們接受閱讀新聞的方式，引導著很多的利益與退稅在下一個十年繼續接受檢驗。