未来的报纸

Future of Newspapers
      Have you ever lay in the sun, enjoying the entertainment of reading a newspaper? Have you ever sat in an underground railway, killing your boring time by turning a newspaper? If you have made it, there is no doubt that you may not deny the importance of newspapers as a popular medium.
     The first reason underlying my judgment is that newspapers provide us with great convenience. Though the advent of electric media like televisions and computers offer us another way to obtaining information, their generation by electricity circumscribes their uses indoors. On the other hand, newspapers may be carried wherever we intend to. In addition, their small size and light weight will surely spare our effort to take them.
     Another incomparable advantage of newspapers lies in their non-pollution. It may be said without fear of exaggeration that almost all those electronic media do harm to people＇s health.Take televisions for example：exposures to radiations, a kind of pollution, from them in the long run will undermine people＇s health, and especially for pregnant women. The radiation may even affect the baby to some extent.  The same case can also be found in computers without any difficulty. Newspapers, by contrast, are made of natural materials. Therefore no pollution will be given off nor are people subjected to the risk of illness when they read a newspaper.
     It is true that electronic media also have some merits superior to newspapers. They can give us more direct information, not only by words but by sounds and pictures as well. But regarding newspapers as a medium of past is an apparent understanding,far from the truth.
     According to what has been analyzed above, newspapers have some exclusive advantages compared with other media,which affirm their popularity and will keep it on and on.

简  评
    报纸牢牢占据着人们的生活，但随着电子媒体的普及，有人认为报纸已经过时，最终会被电视、互联网等电子媒体替代，但作者并不同意，认为报纸仍然是极其重要的大众传媒。为什么?
    作者从便利性及健康性两方面进行说明，电子媒体固然方便，但使用范围局限于室内，而重量轻、尺寸小的报纸则可以带到任何地方；作者还认为报纸由自然材料制成，不会产生污染，而电子媒体对人体特别是对孕妇有害。他虽然也承认电子媒体在有些方面优于报纸，如提供声音、图像等，但还是认为报纸具有独特的优势，其流行性将长久不衰。作者有些表述不够完全，如随着技术的进步，电子媒体会克服自身缺陷，增加便携性，减少对身体的危害。而报纸也有一些缺点，如自然资源的大量消耗，新闻时效的滞后等。事实上，电子媒体一直在蚕食报纸的地盘，因此作者的观点并不是特别有说服力。