新目標(biāo)大學(xué)英語綜合教程3綜合訓(xùn)練課后閱讀翻譯

TogetherwiththeNationalLibrariesofScotlandandWales,theBodleianLibraryinOxford，theCambridgeUniversityLibraryandTrinityCollege'slibraryinDublin,theBritishLibraryisnowempoweredtoreceiveacopyofeveryU.K。electronicpublication。Thisisalogicalenoughextensioninthedigitalageofitsancientrighttoreceiveandstoreallbooks，newspapers,magazinesandotherprintedmatter,butitisstillachallengingtask.Thefirstfull-scaleInternet“crawl”waslaunchedfromthelibrary’sWestYorkshirecomputercentershortlyafterthelawtookeffect。Covering4.8millionU.K.sites,ittookthreemonthstocomplete，withanothertwomonthsrequiredtoprocessthe1billioncapturedwebpages。Theexpectationisthatthelibrarywillcollectinasingleyearaboutthesameamountofmaterialasitsnewspaperandperiodicalsarchivehasamassedoverthecourseofthreecenturies（acostlyprogramtodigitizesome40millionofits750millionprintedpagesisnowunderway）.ChiefExecutiveRolvKeatingpointsoutthatwhentheinitialcrawlbegan,theprojectrepresentedareassertionofwhatitmeanstobealibraryinthe21stcentury.Tenyearsago,therewasaveryrealdangerofablackholeopeningupandswallowingourdigitalheritage."Keatingsays?！盡illionsofwebpages,e—publicationsandothernonprintitemswerefallingthroughthecracksofasystemdevisedprimarilytocaptureinkandpaper?！疨rofessorNielsBrugger，theheadoftheCenterforInternetStudiesatDenmark’sAarhusUniversity，supportstheBritishLibrary'sarchivingproject.“Moreandmoreofoursocietal,culturalandpoliticalactivesnowtakeplaceeitherontheweborarecloselyrelatedtoit"hesays.“Sincethemid—1990s，yousimplycouldn'tbeauniversity，acompanyorapoliticalpartywithouthavingawebsite.Ifwanttodocumentourpresentorstudyourpastontheweb,getitintoanarchivebeforeitdisappears.”“WheneverI'maskedwhywebarchivingmatters,”hecontinues,“IthinkoftheBobDylanlinefromTheTimesTheyAreChanging—'Thepresentnowwilllaterbepast?！甅aterialisdisappearingbeforeoureyesatanunprecedentedrate，andwithitgoesprecioussourcematerialforthefuturehistorianwhowillbetryingtoshedlightonthepresent.Capturingthepastforposteritythroughwebarchivingmattersjustasmuchaspreservingotheraspectsofourculturalheritage,whetherit’skitchenutensils,buildings，warshipsorcollectionsofnewspapers.Studiessuggestthat40percentofwhat’sonitatanygivenmomentisdeletedayearlater，whileanother40percenthasbeenaltered,leavingjust20percentoftheoriginalcontent?！盇lmosteverymajornationallibraryinEuropenowundertakeswebarching。Thoughthescaleandcostofsuchoperationsvarywidelyaccordingtotheirindividualremit。TheBritishLibrary'sprojectcostsome＄5milliontosetup,themoneycomingentirelyfromitsgrantfromtheDepartmentofCulture，MediaandSport?，F(xiàn)在，大英圖書館與蘇格蘭和威爾士國(guó)家圖書館、牛津大學(xué)的博德利圖書館、劍橋大學(xué)圖書館和都柏林三一學(xué)院圖書館一起，有權(quán)接收英國(guó)所有電子出版物的副本。在數(shù)字時(shí)代,這是一個(gè)合乎邏輯的延伸，因?yàn)樗鼡碛薪邮蘸蛢?chǔ)存所有書籍、報(bào)紙、雜志和其他印刷品的古老權(quán)利,但這仍然是一項(xiàng)具有挑戰(zhàn)性的任務(wù).該法律生效后不久，圖書館西約克郡計(jì)算機(jī)中心啟動(dòng)了第一個(gè)全面的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)“爬行”.它覆蓋了480萬個(gè)英國(guó)網(wǎng)站，花了3個(gè)月的時(shí)間才完成，另外兩個(gè)月需要處理10億個(gè)被捕獲的網(wǎng)頁。人們預(yù)計(jì),該圖書館在一年內(nèi)收集的資料量，將與它的報(bào)紙和期刊檔案館在過去三個(gè)世紀(jì)積累的資料量相當(dāng)(一項(xiàng)耗資巨大的計(jì)劃正在進(jìn)行,將其7.5億頁印刷資料中的4000萬頁數(shù)字化)。圖書館首席執(zhí)行官羅爾夫·基廷(RolvKeating）指出，最初的爬行開始時(shí)，這個(gè)項(xiàng)目代表著對(duì)圖書館在21世紀(jì)意義的重申。十年前，我們面臨著一個(gè)非?，F(xiàn)實(shí)的危險(xiǎn)：一個(gè)黑洞正在打開，吞噬我們的數(shù)字遺產(chǎn)?；⒄f.“數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的網(wǎng)頁、電子出版物和其他非印刷品從一個(gè)主要用于捕捉墨水和紙張的系統(tǒng)的縫隙中滑落?！钡湂W爾胡斯大學(xué)（AarhusUniversity）互聯(lián)網(wǎng)研究中心(CenterforInternetStudies)主任尼爾斯·布魯格（NielsBrugger）教授支持大英圖書館的存檔項(xiàng)目。他表示：“我們?cè)絹碓蕉嗟纳鐣?huì)、文化和政治活動(dòng)要么發(fā)生在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上，要么與之密切相關(guān).”“自上世紀(jì)90年代中期以來，如果沒有網(wǎng)站,你就不可能成為一所大學(xué)、一家公司或一個(gè)政黨。"如果你想在網(wǎng)上記錄我們的現(xiàn)在或者研究我們的過去，在它消失之前把它歸檔?！懊慨?dāng)有人問我為什么網(wǎng)絡(luò)檔案很重要時(shí)，”他繼續(xù)說，“我就會(huì)想起鮑勃?迪倫(BobDylan）在他們正在改變的時(shí)代說過的話——‘現(xiàn)在的現(xiàn)在以后會(huì)成為過去?！薄安牧险郧八从械乃俣认г谖覀兊难矍?，對(duì)于未來的歷史學(xué)家來說，這些珍貴的原始材料也將隨之消失，而未來的歷史學(xué)家將試圖揭示當(dāng)下的真相?！蓖ㄟ^網(wǎng)絡(luò)檔案為我們的子孫后代捕捉過去，就像保護(hù)我們文化遺產(chǎn)的其他方面一樣重要，無論是廚房用具、建筑、軍艦還是報(bào)紙收藏。研究表明，在任何一個(gè)特定的時(shí)刻，40％的內(nèi)容會(huì)在一年后被刪除，而另外40％的內(nèi)容會(huì)被修改，只剩下20％的原始內(nèi)容?，F(xiàn)在歐洲幾乎每一個(gè)主要的國(guó)家圖書館都承擔(dān)著網(wǎng)絡(luò)拱架的工作。盡管這些行動(dòng)的規(guī)模和費(fèi)用因其各自的職責(zé)而有很大差別。大英圖書館的這個(gè)項(xiàng)目耗資約500萬美元，資金全部來自文化、媒體和體育部的撥款。Ifyou'reonFacebook,there'saroughly0。04percentchancethesocialmediagiantusedyouforapsychology—experimentinearly2012,thoughyou’dhavehadnowayofknowingatthetimeandindeedwouldonlybefindingoutabouttheexperimentthisweek。That’swhathappenedwhenresearchersusednearly700，000Facebookusersasguineapigsforastudyon“emotionalcontagion.”Inbrief，thestudyseparateditsusersintotwogroups.Onewassubjectedtoanewsfeedofprimarilypositiveposts;theotherwasfloodedwithemotionallynegativeitems。Theresults”suggestthattheemotionsexpressedbyfriends，viaonlinesocialnetworks，influenceourownmoods,constituting，toourknowledge，thefirstexperimentalevidenceformassive—scaleemotionalcontagionviasocialnetworks,’1theresearcherswriteinapapernowpublishedintheProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofScience。Inotherwords,thestudyconfirmedwhatheavyFacebookusershavelongknowntobetrue：whatyourfriendspostonFacebookcanhaveatangibleimpactonyourownemotionalstate。Facebookhasn’tbeenabletomanipulatethereactionsofuserswhohavelearnedaboutthestudy'sexistence:peoplearevexed.Overtheweekend,observersblastedtheexperimentasscandalousanddisturbing,andaccordingtoTheGuardian，oneBritishMPhasgonesofarastocallforaparliamentaryinvestigationintohowitwascarriedout.AdamKramer，F(xiàn)acebook’sdatascientistandacoauthorofthestudy,tooktohisownFacebookpagetoofferadefense.“ThegoalofallofourresearchatFacebookistolearnhowtoprovideabetterservice，"Kramerwrites?！癏avingwrittenanddesignedthisexperimentmyself,Icantellyouthatourgoalwasnevertoupsetanyone.”Still，hegoesontoconcedethatthoseaimsweren'tmadeparticularlyclearandthattheresearchconclusions“maynothavejustifiedallofthisanxiety?！盩hat’sprobablyanunderstatement。Mostdisturbing，though，isthefactthatthissortofdatamanipulationisalmostcertainlywithintheboundsofFacebook’sTermsofUse。AsTheVergepointsout，everyFacebookuserconsentstotheirinformationbeingusedfor“internaloperations,includingtroubleshooting,dataanalysis，testing，researchandserviceimprovement?！盉utFacebookdoesn’tneedtoroundupanotherhalfmillionstudyparticipantstoconfirmthatvirtuallynooneactuallyreadstheTermsofUse.如果你在Facebook上，這家社交媒體巨頭在2012年初利用你做心理實(shí)驗(yàn)的幾率約為0.04％,盡管當(dāng)時(shí)你根本無從得知，實(shí)際上只是在本周才會(huì)知道這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn).當(dāng)研究人員用將近70萬Facebook用戶作為“情緒感染”研究的小白鼠時(shí)，就發(fā)生了這種情況。簡(jiǎn)而言之，這項(xiàng)研究將使用者分為兩組.其中一篇文章主要是正面的;另一組則充滿了負(fù)面情緒。研究人員在一篇發(fā)表在《美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院院刊》(ProceedingsofTheNationalAcademyofScience)上的論文中寫道，研究結(jié)果“表明，朋友通過在線社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)表達(dá)的情緒會(huì)影響我們自己的情緒,據(jù)我們所知,這是社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)大規(guī)模情緒感染的首個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)證據(jù)."換句話說，這項(xiàng)研究證實(shí)了Facebook重度用戶早就知道的事實(shí)：你的朋友在Facebook上發(fā)布的內(nèi)容可以對(duì)你自己的情緒狀態(tài)產(chǎn)生切實(shí)的影響.Facebook一直無法控制了解到這項(xiàng)研究存在的用戶的反應(yīng):人們很惱火。上周末，觀察家們抨擊這一實(shí)驗(yàn)是可恥和令人不安的。據(jù)《衛(wèi)報(bào)》報(bào)道，一名英國(guó)議員甚至要求議會(huì)調(diào)查這一實(shí)驗(yàn)是如何進(jìn)行的。Facebook的數(shù)據(jù)科學(xué)家、這項(xiàng)研究的合著者亞當(dāng)？克萊默(AdamKramer）在自己的Facebook頁面上為自己辯護(hù).克雷默寫道:“我們?cè)贔acebook進(jìn)行的所有研究的目標(biāo)都是學(xué)習(xí)如何提供更好的服務(wù)?！薄拔易约壕帉懖⒃O(shè)計(jì)了這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)，我可以告訴你，我們的目標(biāo)是永遠(yuǎn)不讓任何人失望.”不過，他也承認(rèn)，這些目標(biāo)并沒有特別明確，研究結(jié)論“可能無法證明所有這些焦慮都是合理的”。這可能是一個(gè)保守的說法.然而，最令人不安的是，這種數(shù)據(jù)操縱幾乎肯定在Facebook的使用條款范圍內(nèi)。正如TheVerge所指出的，每個(gè)Facebook用戶都同意他們的信息被用于“內(nèi)部操作,包括故障排除、數(shù)據(jù)分析、測(cè)試、研究和服務(wù)改進(jìn)”.但Facebook不需要召集另外50萬名研究參與者來確認(rèn)實(shí)際上沒有人真正閱讀使用條款.Ifyoudoubtthatknowledgeispower，considerthesocietiesthathavedeniededucationtoselectedpartsofthepopulation.TheTalibanmAfghanistankeepswomenfromhavinganypowerbyoutlawingtheireducation，muchasAmericansocietybeforetheCivilWarkeptslavesfrompossessingpowerbydenyingtheirschooling.Institutionsofhigherlearningcontinuetobeamongthebestplacesforcultivatingsocialchange。Besides，acollegeeducationisalegacyforyourchildren。Theideaofhavingchildrenmaybeasremoteastheinternationalspacestation，buttrustus，yourcollegeeducationwillbenefityourchildren—andnotjustsoyoucanimpressthemwithhowwellyouplay“WhoWantstoBeaMillionaire?！盧esearchshowsthatchildrenofcollege-educatedparentsarehealthier，performbetteracademically，andaremorelikelytoattendcollegethemselvesthanchildrenofthosewithlowereducationattainment。Youreducationbuildsafoundationforyourchildren一forournation’schildren，andforthechildrenofourglobalcommunity.Educationisthecornerstoneofpublicprogress.EducationistheessenceofthedemocraticidealsthatelevatedtheUnitedStatesfromabackwardlandofrebelliouscoloniststothegreatest,mostspirited,powerfulandsuccessfulnationintheworld.Americaleadstheworldineducationalattainment.SpeakingatasymposiumonAmericanvalues，AnneL。Healdsaidthereis“anextraordinaryconsensusthatthepreparationofyoungpeopleforworkisoneofthesingularmostimportantthingsasocietycandotoimproveitsabilitytoprosperinanewinternationaleconomy.”Similarly,FederalReserveBoardChairmanAlanGreenspansaid，“WemustensurethatourwholepopulationreceivesaneducationthatwillallowfullandcontinuingparticipationinthisdynamicperiodofAmericaneconomichistory."WhatGreenspanissayingisthat，withoutcollege,youmaybeleftout。Andtherelationshipbetweenacollegeeducationandsuccesswillbecomemoreandmoresignificantinourinformation—drivenglobaleconomy。Highereducationwillbeincreasinglyimportantforlandinghigh-payingjobs。Technologyandtheinformationagearenottheonlyreasonstobewelleducated;thetrendistowardmultiplejobsandevenmultiplecareers，andhighereducationpreparesyoutomakethetransitionstonewfields.如果你懷疑知識(shí)就是力量，想想那些拒絕部分人接受教育的社會(huì)。阿富汗塔利班通過禁止婦女受教育來阻止她們擁有任何權(quán)力,就像美國(guó)社會(huì)在內(nèi)戰(zhàn)前通過拒絕奴隸受教育來阻止她們擁有權(quán)力一樣。高等院校繼續(xù)是培育社會(huì)變革的最佳場(chǎng)所之一。此外,大學(xué)教育是你孩子的遺產(chǎn)。要孩子的想法可能與國(guó)際空間站一樣遙遠(yuǎn)，但相信我們，你的大學(xué)教育將使你的孩子受益——而不僅僅是為了讓他們知道你在《誰想成為百萬富翁》中表現(xiàn)得多么出色。研究表明，父母受過大學(xué)教育的孩子比教育程度較低的孩子更健康，學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)更好,更有可能自己上大學(xué)。你的教育構(gòu)建的基礎(chǔ)為我們國(guó)家的孩子,你的孩子一為孩子們和我們的全球社區(qū).教育是社會(huì)進(jìn)步的基石。教育是民主理想的精髓,正是這種民主理想把美國(guó)從一個(gè)充滿反叛殖民者的落后國(guó)家提升為世界上最偉大、最勇敢、最強(qiáng)大和最成功的國(guó)家。美國(guó)在教育成就方面領(lǐng)先世界.希爾德(AnneL.Heald)在一個(gè)有關(guān)美國(guó)價(jià)值觀的研討會(huì)上發(fā)表講話時(shí)說,“人們達(dá)成了一種不同尋常的共識(shí)，那就是，為年輕人就業(yè)做準(zhǔn)備，是一個(gè)社會(huì)在新的國(guó)際經(jīng)濟(jì)中提高自身繁榮能力所能做的最重要的一件事情之一?！蓖瑯?，美聯(lián)儲(chǔ)（FederalReserve）主席艾倫？格林斯潘的意思是，沒有大學(xué)，你可能會(huì)被排除在外。在信息驅(qū)動(dòng)的全球經(jīng)濟(jì)中,大學(xué)教育與成功之間的關(guān)系將變得越來越重要。高等教育對(duì)于找到高薪工作將變得越來越重要。技術(shù)和信息時(shí)代不是受良好教育的唯一原因;現(xiàn)在的趨勢(shì)是多份工作,甚至是多份職業(yè)，而高等教育為你進(jìn)入新領(lǐng)域做好了準(zhǔn)備。Goodgradesandhightestscoresstillmatteralottomanycollegesastheyawardfinancialaid.Butwithlow-incomestudentsprojectedtomakeupanever-largershareofthecollege—boundpopulationinthecomingyears，someschoolsarere—examiningwhetherthataid,typicallyknownas“meritaid"，isthemosteffectiveuseofpreciousinstitutionaldollars.HamiltonCollegeinClinton,N。Y。,saysitwillphaseoutmeritscholarshipsaltogether。Nocurrentmerit-aidrecipientswilllosetheirscholarships,butneed—basedaidalonewillbeawardedbeginningwithstudentsenteringinthecomingfall。Forsmallregionalcollegesthatstrugglejusttofillseats，meritaidcanbeanimportantrevenue—builderbecausemanyrecipientsstillpayenoughtuitiondollarsoverandabovethescholarshipamounttokeeptheinstitutionrunning。Forranking-consciousschools，merit-aidhasservedprimarilyasatooltorecruittopstudentsandtoimprovetheiracademicprofits.Studiesshowmeritaidalsotendstobenefitdisproportionatelystudentswhocouldaffordtoenrollwithoutit。“Aswelooktothefuture,weseeamorepressingneedtoinvestinneed-basedaid，"saysMonicaInzer,deanofadmissionandfinancialaidatHamilton,whichhasofferedmeritscholarshipsfor10years.Duringthattime，itroseinU.S.News&WorldReport’srankingofthebestliberalartscolleges,from25to17.Meritaid，whichbenefitedabout75studentsayear，orabout4％ofitsstudentbody,atacostofabout$1millionayear，“serveduswell,”Inzersays,but“tobediscountingthepriceforfamiliesthatdon’tneedfinancialaiddoesn’tfeelrightanymore.”Need—basedaidremainsbyfarthegreatestshareofallstudentaid，whichincludesstate,federalandinstitutionalgrants。Butmeritaid,offeredprimarilybyschoolsandstates，isgrowingfaster,bothoverallandattheinstitutionallevel。However，inrecentyearsagrowingchorusofcriticshasbegunpressuringschoolstodropthepractice.RecentdecisionsbyHamiltonandothersmaybe“asignthatpeoplearestartingtorealizethatthere’sthisdestructivecompetitiongoingon,”saysBaum,acoauthorofarecentCollegeReportthatraisesconcernsabouttheroleofinstitutionalaidnotbasedonneed。DavidLaird,presidentoftheMinnesotaPrivateCollegeCouncil,saysmanyofhisschoolswouldliketoreducetheirmeritaidbutfearthatindoingso,theywouldlosetopstudentstotheircompetitors.對(duì)許多大學(xué)來說，良好的成績(jī)和高考試成績(jī)?nèi)匀缓苤匾?，因?yàn)樗鼈儠?huì)提供經(jīng)濟(jì)資助。但由于低收入學(xué)生預(yù)計(jì)將占大學(xué)生總數(shù)的比例越來越大,未來幾年,一些學(xué)校正在重新審視是否援助,通常被稱為“獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金",是最有效的利用大學(xué)寶貴的資金。紐約州克林頓的漢密爾頓學(xué)院(HamiltonCollege)該機(jī)構(gòu)表示，將逐步取消獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金.目前的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金受助人不會(huì)失去獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，但從明年秋季學(xué)生入學(xué)開始，將只發(fā)放基于需求的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。對(duì)于那些努力填補(bǔ)空缺的小型地區(qū)性大學(xué)來說，獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金可能是一個(gè)重要的創(chuàng)收來源,因?yàn)樵S多受助人支付的學(xué)費(fèi)仍高于獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金金額,足以維持學(xué)校的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。對(duì)于注重排名的學(xué)校來說，“物有所值援助”主要是作為一種工具來招收優(yōu)秀學(xué)生，并提高他們的學(xué)術(shù)利潤(rùn)。研究表明，對(duì)于那些沒有獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金也能負(fù)擔(dān)得起的學(xué)生來說，獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金往往會(huì)給他們帶來不成比例的好處。漢密爾頓大學(xué)(Hamilton)招生與經(jīng)濟(jì)援助系主任莫妮卡?因澤(MonicaInzer）表示：“展望未來,我們看到,在基于需求的援助方面投資的需求更為迫切。"漢密爾頓大學(xué)提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金已有10年。在此期間,它在《美國(guó)新聞與世界報(bào)道》（U。S.News＆WorldReport)的最佳文科院校排名中從25所上升到17所。獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金每年惠及75名學(xué)生，約占學(xué)生總數(shù)的4%，每年的成本約為100萬美元。Inzer說，“它對(duì)我們很有幫助，但對(duì)那些不需要經(jīng)濟(jì)資助的家庭打折不再合適了?！币孕枰獮榛A(chǔ)的援助仍然是所有學(xué)生援助中最大的份額，包括州、聯(lián)邦和機(jī)構(gòu)的資助。但是，主要由學(xué)校和各州提供的績(jī)效援助,在總體和機(jī)構(gòu)層面上都在以更快的速度增長(zhǎng).然而,近年來，越來越多的批評(píng)者開始向?qū)W校施壓，要求它們放棄這種做法。漢密爾頓和其他人最近的決定可能是Baum說：”有跡象表明人們開始意識(shí)到這種破壞性的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)正在進(jìn)行.明尼蘇達(dá)州私立大學(xué)理事會(huì)(MinnesotaPrivateCollegeCouncil)主席戴維?萊爾德（DavidLaird）表示，他的許多學(xué)校希望減少獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，但擔(dān)心這樣做會(huì)讓優(yōu)秀學(xué)生輸給競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。Futuristshaveidentifiedtwochangesthatseemtobecentraltocontemporarysociallife。First，theUnitedStatesisbeingrestructuredfromanindustrialtoaninformationsociety。Second，modernsocietiesareincreasinglyshiftingfromanationaltoaglobaleconomy.Futuristshaveappliedagoodmanymetaphorstothesechanges,includingDanielBell’s“postindustrialsociety"，AlvinToffler's“thethirdwave”andJohnNaisbitt’s“megatrends’CommontothesemetaphorsisthenotionthatAmericansocietyisshiftingfromtheproductionofgoodstotheproductionofservicesandfromsocietybasedonthecoordinationofpeopleandmachinestoasocietyorganizedaroundknowledge。Thesechanges，itiscontended,willaffordamyriadofchoices。Theworldwillincreasinglybeoneofmanyflavors，notjustvanilla（香草）orchocolate.ManyobserversofcontemporaryAmericanlifebelievethatwearewitnessingahistoricalchangeandthefirstmajorimpactoftheshiftfromanenergyeconomytoaninformationeconomy.For300yearstechnologyhasbeencastinamechanicalmodel,onebasedonthecombustionprocessesthatgooninsideastarlikethesun。Thesteamengineopenedthemechanicalage，anditreacheditspeakwiththediscoveryofnuclearfissionandnuclearfusion,whichreplicatedtheenergyproducingprocessesofastar.Wenowseemtobemovingtowardabiologicalmodelbasedoninformationandinvolvetheintensiveuseofmaterials.Althoughbiologicalprocessesneedphysicalenergyandmaterials，theytendtosubstituteinformationforboth。Biologicalprocesses“miniaturize“size,energy,andmaterialsby“exploding”information.Thehumanbrainissometentimesthesizeandweightofthebrainofalemur（狐猴)，butithandlesabilliontimesmoreinformation。Asaresult，hightechindustriesareinformationintensiveratherthanenergyormaterialintensive.Sociologistshaveplayedandwillcontinuetoplayanimportantroleinassessingandinterpretingthesedevelopmentsandotheraspectsofchange.未來學(xué)家們已經(jīng)確認(rèn)了兩個(gè)對(duì)當(dāng)代社會(huì)生活至關(guān)重要的變化。首先，美國(guó)正在從工業(yè)社會(huì)向信息社會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)型.第二，現(xiàn)代社會(huì)正日益從國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)向全球經(jīng)濟(jì)。未來學(xué)家有很多隱喻應(yīng)用于這些變化,包括丹尼爾?貝爾的“后工業(yè)社會(huì)”，阿爾文?托夫勒的“第三次浪潮”和約翰·奈斯比特的“大趨勢(shì)”這些隱喻普遍認(rèn)為美國(guó)社會(huì)正在從生產(chǎn)商品的生產(chǎn)服務(wù)和社會(huì)協(xié)調(diào)的基礎(chǔ)上人們社會(huì)圍繞知識(shí)和機(jī)器.有人認(rèn)為，這些變化將提供無數(shù)的選擇.世界將越來越成為許多種之一，不僅香草（香草)或巧克力.許多當(dāng)代美國(guó)生活的觀察家認(rèn)為,我們正在目睹一個(gè)歷史性的變化，以及從能源經(jīng)濟(jì)向信息經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)變的第一個(gè)重大影響。300年來,技術(shù)一直被鑄造在一個(gè)機(jī)械模型中，一個(gè)基于恒星內(nèi)部燃燒過程的模型,比如太陽。蒸汽機(jī)開啟了機(jī)械時(shí)代,隨著核裂變和核聚變的發(fā)現(xiàn)，蒸汽機(jī)達(dá)到了它的巔峰，這兩項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)復(fù)制了恒星產(chǎn)生能量的過程.我們現(xiàn)在似乎正在走向一種基于信息的生物模型，并涉及到材料的密集使用.雖然生物過程需要物理能量和物質(zhì),但它們往往會(huì)用信息來代替這兩者。生物過程通過“爆炸"信息“縮小"尺寸、能量和材料。人類的大腦是大腦的大小和重量的10倍的狐猴（狐猴），但它處理更多信息十億倍。因此，高科技產(chǎn)業(yè)是信息密集型產(chǎn)業(yè)，而不是能源或材料密集型產(chǎn)業(yè)。社會(huì)學(xué)家已經(jīng)并將繼續(xù)在評(píng)估和解釋這些發(fā)展和變化的其他方面發(fā)揮重要作用。Huntingforajoblatelastyear，lawyerGantRedmonstumbledacrossCareerBuilder,ajobdatabaseontheInternet。Hesearcheditwithnosuccessbutwasattractedbythesite’s“personalsearchagent”。It’saninteractivefeature.Thatletsvisitorskeyinjobcriteriasuchaslocation，title，andsalary,thenemailsthemwhenamatchingpositionispostedinthedatabase。Redmonchosethekeywordslegal,intellectualproperty,andWashington，D。C。Threeweekslater,hegothisfirstnotificationofanopening.“Istruckgold,“saysRedmon,whoemailedhisresumetotheemployerandwonapositionasin—housecounselforacompany.Withthousandsofcareer-relatedsitesontheInternet,findingpromisingopeningscanbetimeconsumingandinefficient。Searchagentsreducetheneedforrepeatedvisitstothedatabases。ButalthoughasearchagentworkedforRedmon，careerexpertsseedrawbacks.Narrowingyourcriteria，forexample，mayworkagainstyou。Everytimeyouansweraquestionyoueliminateapossibility，“saysoneexpert。Foranyjobsearch，youshouldstartwithanarrowconcept—whatyouthinkyouwanttodo—thenbroadenit.“Noneoftheseprogramsdothat，”saysanotherexpert。“There’snocareercounselingimplicitinallofthis."Instead，thebeststrategyistousetheagentasakindoftipservicetokeepabreastofjobsinaparticulardatabase;whenyouge