第一篇 Passage 1

Love Affairs Bloom on the Internet

Internet is playing more and more important role in the life of the youth, and it is even becoming a part of our life. As a matter of fact, it also is a convenient and effective way for the old people to communicate with each other. In America, the Senior-Citizens-Net enables old people to exchange their gardening tips, debate current issues and form new friendships, and get married. Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other. Although they are scattered across the country, the senior citizens can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect them. It’s like a big family.

The Senior-Net is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more than 6,000 members and 53 learning centers across the United States.

Joann Oakes, who just lost her husband after a 35-year marriage, and Mayer Solemn, after 50 years, fell for each other. At the beginning, Joann had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solemn flirted from one group of friends to another, greeting all the women as “Honey”.

Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed and both loved Mexican food and ballroom dancing. They talked on and on, never noticing that everyone else had left the party. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed.

From then on, they talked nearly every day via their computers. After a couple of years, Mr. Solemn visited Mrs. Oakes in Washington. Two months later, the 64-year-old Mrs. Oakes drove to Nevada to see Mr. Solemn, 76, and she had not been back to Washington since.

Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target---a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now older adults plugged into interactive networks such as Senior Net where they can exchange their life experience, or try to recall the lines of old-time popular songs.

Women find computers especially liberating. Jessie Askew, a 55-year-old active volunteer from Virginia, who had relied on her husband to keep all of her volunteer groups’ records on computer, had to learn how to use a computer herself after her husband died. But she thought that it made her feel confident. She joined several networks. One night, she noticed a newcomer named Chuck Ramsey during a cocktail party. She called up his biography, which described his computer along with his hobbies. She read his bio and told him she was in love with his computer. A few seconds later, the man wrote that he just read her bio, and was in love with her. “Will you marry me?” He asked. Mrs. askew typed, “Yes”. A few nights later, they through phone heard each other’s voice. Within a few months, Mr. Ramsey was waiting for her on her father’s front porch, and by the time they got to house, it was arm in arm.

The marriage between seniors and computers is in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in an age when they wrote letters every week and diary every day, and computers are able to do the same in an easier way. They have other advantages, too. Without ever leaving home, a person can carry on a three-way conversation with net users on the other side of the country or even in another country altogether. They can meet many different people, and even log on a cocktail party. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite, and all they need to do is hit the control button and they are gone.

相关词语 Words and Expressions from the Text

senior citizen 荣誉公民；老人；退休的人

Senior-Citizen-Net 夕阳网

console each other 互相安慰

a painless way to socialize 一种舒适的社交方式

playing Cupid 扮演丘比特的角色