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第四部分?????????阅读理解 Passage 4 A funny thing happened on the way to the communication revolution: we stopped talking to each other. ?????? I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his mobile phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and – poof! – I was cut off as if I had become absent from the conversation. The park was filled with people talking on their cell phones. They were passing people without looking at them, saying hello, noticing their babies or stopping to pat their dogs. It seems that the limitless electronic voice is preferred to human contact. ?????? The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people feel absent. Recently I was in a car with three friends. The driver hushed the rest of us because he could not hear the person on the other end of his cell phone. There we were, four friends driving down the highway, unable to talk to each other because of the small thing designed to make communication easier. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a setback (退步) to the closeness of human interaction. With e-mail and instant message over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can make entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine. As almost every contact between human beings gets automatic, the emotional distance index goes up. Pumping gas at the station? Why say good-morning to the assistant when you can swipe you credit card at the pump and save yourself the bother of human contact? Making a deposit at the bank? Why talk to the clerk who lives in the neighborhood when you can put your card into the ATM? More and more, I find myself hiding behind e-mail to do a job meant for conversation or being relieved that voice mail picked up because I didn’t really