Unit twenty-five
Electronic Mail

Friends and family disperse like dry leaves, drifting to different cities and countries. “I’ll write,” I promise solemnly. Alas, my good intentions produce only imagined letters never embraced by paper, never kissed by stamps.
Ah, but electronic mail has changed my ways. My Computer has become an epistolary Pinatubo, erupting With letters and missives and memos whizzed around The world at the velocity of light. I share thoughts with Pen pals in New Zealand, query strangers in Bombay, Debate magicians in Manhattan.
Never having tried it, I used to scorn E-mail as Boring high tech, the stuff of business telecommunications. Then a friend insisted I investigate this “invisible world”, as he called it , claiming that it is expanding exponentially. I logged on to CompuServe, a national on-line information Service, and was hooked.
E-mail is a pipeline to thousands of experts on virtually everything; it is a means of meeting people with similar interests or problems. What it’s not is live chat – real-time conversations like those on ham radio or CB. E-mailers compose letters at leisure on their computer, Then send them through the phone line to an on-line service or a computer bulletin board. E-mail addresses – either names or on-line service account numbers – automatically forward mail to the right place.
The vast networks of no-line services and bulletin boards bubble with pools of people-to-people information a key-stroke away. Besides uncounted millions of members of various on-line services, some 11 million people regularly log on to as many 45,000 public bulletin boards in the United States. And they tend to be extraordinarily generous about sharing their thoughts and ideas – perhaps because there is no pressure to respond and no face-to-face confrontation.
Computerized exchanges can create friendships – and may revive the almost lost art of letter writing. A friend invited me to join “Family”, a discussion group that admits correspondents by voting them in , to keep the conversations

from shinning out of control. The chitchat, meandering from small talk to impassioned politics, feels like meeting pals over coffee, with personalities quick to emerge.
E-mailing is far cheaper than long-distance calling. You relay your mail through a mainframe computer, generally by making a local call to the nearest bulletin Board or a nearby on-line service “node”. “Networks are expanding rapidly, making E-mail increasingly global”, says Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch　Magazine.

disperse vi.1.分散,散开 2.消散,消失 vt.1.使分散,赶散 2.使消散,驱散
[联想词]               dispense vt.1.分配,分发 2.配药 3.实施,执行
               dissipate vi.消失,消散 vt.1.使消失,使消散 2.浪费,挥霍
               sprinkle v.撒,洒 n.[单]少数,少量

intent n.意图,意向,目的 a.1.专心的,专注的 2.急切的
intention n.意图,目的

epistolary a.书信的

erupt vi.1.(火山等)喷发
[联想词]               abrupt a.1.突然的,意外的 2.唐突的,鲁莽的

memorize v.记住,熟记
memo n.备忘录

whiz n. (whizzes) 1.飕飕声,呼呼声 2.飕飕的移动vi.(whizzed; whizzing) 1. 飕飕作声 2. 飕飕的移动

velocity n.速度,速率
[联想词]               supersonic a.超音速的,超声的

query n.问题,疑问,询问 vt.1.对…表示疑问

telecommunications n.通信,电信(学)

scorn n.轻蔑,鄙视 vt.1.轻蔑,鄙视 2.拒绝,不屑(做)
[联想词]               contempt n. 轻蔑,轻视
               defy vt. 1.违抗,藐视 2.使成为不可能 3.挑,激
               defiance n. 违抗,藐视

exponent n.1.倡导者,鼓吹者,拥护者 2.代表人物,典型 3.指数,幂
exponentially a.指数地

bulletin n.1.简明新闻,最新消息 2.公告,布告,公报 3.学报,期刊

revive vt.使复苏

meander vi.1.蜿蜒,迂回曲折地前进 2.漫步,漫谈