Chapter Nine

Internet Reading

General Introduction-why to read the Internet

Wealth of information If I was to name one thing that would have the greatest impact on the fut

ure of this planet, I would point to the World Wide Web. The possibility of searching 800 million pages of information [Nature, June 1999] in seconds or minutes, provides those with access to the Internet with experience that was not known to humans in the whole 40,000 years of human communication prior to WWW! With intelligent queries, you can get answers to questions ranging from cold remedies, GDP figures, impact of coffee on health to specialist articles, news, train schedules, stock picks, auctions, etc.

It seems that soon the access to information is to stop being a limiting factor in your quest for more and better knowledge. Just the opposite, you are likely to be served with more valuable information than you will ever be able to process. To make a true use of the blessing of the web you need tools to prioritize, and process knowledge. Secondly, you will need tools to make sure that whatever you process does not volatilize as a result of your failing memory. It is quite likely that soon, for a significant proportion of Internet users, reading on paper will no longer be a viable option as compared with reading the net.

How to read-select your sources The first relatively easy step to s

oaking net knowledge is to find the sources of information. Probably you have already located your favorite sites with information that is currently in the focus of your attention. If not, you might start from www.cnn.com or www.google.com or www.wikipedia.org and soon your Favorites section will be populated with lots of valuable links to information rich sites.

How to read-collect the articles

You can use Open in New Window in your browser to open many articles in a short surfing session. Before you save your articles for detailed reading, it is very important that you quickly go through what you have collected. Articles that are not worth reading are handled quickly by closing their copy of the browser. Articles of less importance can be reviewed quickly without saving. More important articles should be carefully annotated and prioritized. Very often it makes sense to save only a single paragraph of a larger article or several paragraphs of which each would be assigned a different priority.

Read and highlight

Once you choose your top priority article, you can proceed with reading.

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knowledge management

Improve the wording of highlights Review the material Further reading Summary Knowledge is power Reading is critical for building knowled

ge

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Unit Nine

Of Friendship

Introduction to the author Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was one

of the leading figures in natural philosophy and in the field of scientific methodology in the period of transition from the Renaissance to the early modern era. As a lawyer, member of Parliament, and Queen's Counsel, Bacon wrote on questions of law, state and religion, as well as on contemporary politics; but he also published texts in which he speculated on possible conceptions of society, and he pondered questions of ethics (Essays) even in his works on natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning).

After his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gray's Inn, London, Bacon did not take up a post at a university, but instead tried to start a political career. Although his efforts were not crowned with success during the era of Queen Elizabeth, under James I he rose to the highest political office, Lord Chancellor. Bacon's international fame and influence spread during his last years, when he was able to focus his energies exclusively on his philosophical work, and even more so after his death, when English scientists of the Boyle circle (Invisible College) took up his idea of a cooperative research institution in their plans and preparations for establishing the Royal Society.

To the present day Bacon is well known for his treatises on empiricist natural philosophy (The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum Scientiarum) and for his doctrine of the idols, which he put forward in his early writings, as well as for the idea of a modern research institute, which he described in Nova Atlantis.

Warm-up Activity

Read the famous saying about friendship. How important do you think friendship is in one’s life and what is true friendship?

A man should keep his friendship in constant repair. ---Samuel johnaon,

British writer 人应该经常维修友谊。

A true friend is for ever a friend. ---Grorge Macdonald, British novelist

真正的朋友是永远的朋友。

Betraying a trust is a very quick and painful way to terminate a friendship.-

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, American thinker

背信弃义会迅速而痛苦地断送友谊。

Don‘t try to win a friend by presenting gifts. You should instead contribute

your sincere love and learn how to win others’heart through appropriate

ways.

---Socrates, Ancient Greek philosopher

不要用馈赠去获得朋友，你必须奉献你诚挚的爱，学会怎样用适当的方法来赢得别人的心。

He that will not allow his friend to share the prize must not expect him to share the danger.

---Aesop, Ancient Greek fable writer

不肯让朋友共享果实的人，不要指望朋友与他共患难。

While-reading Activity

Read the text and summarize the main idea.

Main Idea: Friendship is important and indispensible in one’s life and may bring people many fruits.

The Structure of the Text1. The most solitude is to be destitude of true frie

ndship-friendship is important. (Para. 1)

2. A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and dischate of eh fulness and swellings of the heart. (Para.2-5)

3. The second fruit of friendship

is healthful and sovereign for

the understanding. (Para. 6-7)

Finish the questions in Exercises I & II.

Post-reading Activity

Ask students to write a composition on the topic of “friendship”.