Unit 4 The Virtual World

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Unit 4 The Virtual World

• Meng Ling

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• Cultural Notes
• 1. the Internet an international computer
  network for the exchange of information. It was
  originally used mainly in the academic and
  military worlds but has since become available to
  the large and increasing number of people with
  personal computers. Other services, e.g. the
  World Wide Web, are available through it.

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• The Internet is changing our lives and a parallel
  universe is rapidly emerging online. Today,
  there's scarcely an aspect of our life that isn't
  being upended by the torrent of information
  available on the hundreds of millions of sites
  crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability
  to keep us in constant touch with each other via
  electronic mail. The Internet is saving companies
  billions of dollars in producing goods and
  serving the needs of their customers. Nothing
  like it has been seen since the beginning of the
  Industrial Revolution, when power-driven machines
  began producing more in a day than men could turn
  out in nearly a year. The Internet and e-commerce
  are viewed as a global mega-trend along the lines
  of the printing press, the telephone, the
  computer and the electricity.

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• You would be hard pressed to name something that
  isn't available on the Internet. Consider books,
  health care, movie tickets, baby clothes, stocks,
  real estate, toys and airline tickets. American
  kids today are so computer savvy that it
  virtually ensures the United States will remain
  the unchallenged leader in cyberspace for the
  foreseeable future. Most kids use computers to
  play games and have email chats with friends.

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• What's clear is that, whether we like it or not,
  the Internet is an ever-growing part of our lives
  and there is no turning back.

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• 2. SOHO -- Small-Office/Home-Office
• What do you guess is the meaning of SOHO in
  information technology?
• In information technology, SOHO is a term
  for the small office or home office environment
  and business culture. A number of organizations,
  businesses, and publications now exist to support
  people who work or have businesses in this
  environment. These people neednt go to the
  office every day. They work at home without
  worrying about their dress and the strict rules
  of the company. The term virtual office is
  sometimes used as a synonym.

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• 2) What kind of people do you think belong to the
  group of SOHO?
• Writers, program designers, ad-agents, etc., all
  belong to the group of SOHO.

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• 3. Virtual College
• Virtual College affords individuals the
  opportunity to advance in their chosen careers
  through on-line education. People can complete
  their education without leaving their home or
  office. However, they will have the college
  campus experience through a virtual classroom
  environment. The virtual classroom will allow
  them to interact with their instructors and other
  students in the class. Through the virtual
  classroom students will share information with
  their classmates from all over the world. The
  virtual classroom is available 24 hours a day,
  allowing people to complete the courses at their
  convenience regardless of their work schedule.

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• Some virtual colleges are APCO Virtual College,
  Virtual College of Elizabeth City State University

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• Do you think virtual college will be popular in
  the future, why or why not?
• What do you think are the advantages and
  disadvantages of virtual college?

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• Story-Telling
• Procedure
• Divide into groups
• Each group member only gets one parts of the
  story. Try to remember your part and everyone has
  to tell others his or her part for the group
• The group members have a discussion in order to
  rearrange the order of happening, get the whole
  picture and add the title
• The first three groups finished this procedure
  win and have the chance to tell the story to the
  class
• The best story-teller win.

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• Totally Broken Hearted
• The first week I got my computer, I met him. I
  thought I had found my soul mate. We like the
  same movies, music, food and we were in a similar
  business.
• Our birthdays were close together, we had the
  same color hair. Almost EVERYTHING about us
  matched perfectly!

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• He lived in the North and I lived in the South so
  meeting each other would be tough.
• We talked on the internet day and night and soon
  began talking on the phone several times a day. I
  fell madly in love with him. I was married and
  was heading for a divorce but I still had to
  sneak around making sure his phone number was
  erased off my caller ID every day.

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• At his urging, I was actually planning on moving
  myself and my child to be with him. This went on
  for months and finally he bought an airline
  ticket to come down and see me. I was overweight
  at the time so I planned on losing the weight
  before we met. I started exercising and dieting
  and I lost 30 pounds! I bought some new clothes,
  had my hair done and was so excited to meet him.

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• One week before he was to come to town, he
  stopped calling and stopped e-mailing me. I began
  to get frantic. I e-mailed him and went days
  without a response back from him. I knew
  something was up. Little things that he said when
  we did talk, led me to suspect he had met someone
  else. Of course he denied it, but women always
  KNOW. He had turned off his answering machine at
  home, so when I called, I couldnt leave a
  message. HELLO!!!! I figured that he had a woman
  there and didnt want her to hear my message. Put
  all the pieces together and I confronted him.

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• He finally admitted 3 days before he was to come
  here that he DID meet someone else and decided
  not to come after all. I cried for weeks. He kept
  sending me messages on the computer telling me he
  loved me, then he loved her and so on. He seemed
  a little confused so I told him I would help make
  his mind up for him. I told him NEVER to contact
  me again. I told him I hope they would be very
  happy together.

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• The good things that came from this are I was
  motivated to lose weight Im just glad I learned
  how inconsiderate he was NOW, rather than once I
  got up there with him Since we are in the same
  type of business, I learned a lot from him which
  I appreciate. Life is full of ups and downs. I
  went into this relationship knowing this kind
  of internet thing isnt always what it seems.
  Even though I was deeply hurt, I got through it
  and I am a wiser person now.

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• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the
  virtual world.

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Advantages
Computer Internet ---Advantages VS
Disadvantages
? not worrying about hair, and clothes and face ?
not being face to face ? dont have to bear the
intolerable ringing laughter, and the noise of
conversation in a restaurant

• ? submit articles and
• edit them via email
• ? communicate with
• colleagues on Internet
• mailing lists
• ? order food, manage
• my money, love, and
• work without going outside
• ?avoid traffic jam

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Disadvantages

• Computer Internet ---Advantages VS
  Disadvantages
• ?easily shocked after being
• on the Net for too long
• ? felt difficult to
• understand spoken words
• ? persons clipped tone
• seems rejecting
• ? time becomes not stable
• ? weekends become
• ordinary days
• ? long hours at home

? unreal life ? feel one become a machine ?
disgusted with outside forms of socializing ? a
form of escape, a lack of discipline ? shyer,
more cautious, more anxious ? overexcited, speak
too much
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? misinterpret peoples intentions ? annoying
sound of the connection uttered by modem

• ? worry about the dress
• ? jarred by commercials
• ? sucked in soap operas
• ? needing to keep up
• with the latest news
• ? attacking everyone
• in sight
• ? misunderstand everyone
• on ones mailing list

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• New computer-and-Internet-related vocabulary in
  English are cyber-, virtual, Net- (net-), Web-
  (web-), and E- (e-).
• New English vocabulary items derived from them
  usually appear in the following forms

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• 1. combining forms/prefixes noun this is the
  most common type, e.g. virtual life (????),
• virtual world (????) , virtual community
  (????) , virtual office (?????) , virtual
• pet (????) , virtual reality (????) ,
  cyber-interaction (????) , cyberculture (????),
  cybernut (??), cyberpet (????), cyberspace
  (????), netwriter (????????), nethead (??),
  Webmaster (?????), Web page (??), website (??),
  Web
• TV (?????) , E-book (????), E-shopper
  (?????), e-card (????),
• e(-)mail (????) , e-journal (????),
  e-business (????) , e-cash (????) , e-
• commerce (????) .

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• 2. combining forms/prefixes verb e.g.
  cybersurf (????), netsurf (????), websurf (????),
  email (????)

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• 3. words like cyber, net, etc. suffix e.g.
  cyberian (cyber ian, ????), cyberphobia (cyber
• phobia, ?????), cybernaut (cyber naut
  ????), netter (net er??), Webify
• (web fy?????), cyberize (cyber ize,
  ???).

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• 4. clipped word cyberdoc (cyber doctor,
  ????), Netcast (Net broadcast,????),
• Netiquette (Net etiquette, ??, )Netizen
  (Net citizen,??), Netpreneur (Net
• entrepreneur, ?????), Webcam. (Web
  camera,?????), Webcasting (Web
• broadcasting,????), Webliography (Web
  bibliogrpahy, ????), Webnomics (Web
• economics,????), Webzine (Web
  magazine,????), e-tailing (electronic
• retailing, ????), e-zine (electronic
  magazine,????).

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• Remember to - -Review Unit 4 and preview and
  study Text A of Unit 5, Integrated Course 2
  Finish reading Unit 4, Reading Course 2Finish
  fast reading Unit 4, Fast Reading Course 2Finish
  listening to Unit 7-8, Listening Speaking
  Course 2Discuss topics with your group members
  to practice oral English