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Picture-taking is a technique both for reflecting the objective world and for expressing the singular self. Photographs depict objective realities that already exist, though only the camera can disclose them. And they depict an individual photographer"s temperament, discovering itself through the camera"s cropping of reality. That is, photography has two directly opposite ideals, in the first, photography is about the world and the photographer is a mere observer who counts for little; but in the second, photography is the instrument of fearlessness, questing subjectivity and the photographer is all. These conflicting ideals arise from uneasiness on the part of both photographers and viewers of photographs toward the aggressive component in "taking" a picture. Accordingly, the ideal of a photographer as observer is attracting because it implicitly denies that picturetaking is an aggressive act. The issue, of course, is not so clear-cut. What photographers do cannot be characterized as simply predatory or as simply, and essentially, benevolent. As a consequence, one ideal of picture-taking or the other is always being rediscovered and championed. An important result of the coexistence of these two ideals is a recurrent ambivalence toward photography"s means. Whatever are the claims that photography might make to be a form of personal expression just like painting, its originality is closely linked to the power of a machine. The steady growth of these powers has made possible the extraordinary informativeness and imaginative formal beauty of many photographs, like Harold Edgerton"s high-speed photographs of a bullet hitting its target or of the swirls and eddies of a tennis stroke. But as cameras become more sophisticated, more automated, some photographers are tempted to disarm themselves or to suggest that they are not really armed, preferring to submit themselves to the limit imposed by pre-modern camera technology because a cruder, less high-powered machine is thought to give more interesting or emotive results, to leave more room for creative accident. For example, it has been virtually a point of honor for many photographers, including Walker Evans and Cartier Bresson, to refuse to use modern equipment. These photographers have come to doubt the value of the camera as an instrument of "fast seeing". Cartier Bresson, in fact, claims that the modern camera may see too fast. This ambivalence toward photographic means determines trends in taste. The cult of the future (of faster and faster seeing) alternates over time with the wish to return to a purer past when images had a handmade quality. This longing for some primitive state of the photographic enterprise is currently widespread and underlies the present-day enthusiasm for daguerreotypes and the work of forgotten nineteenth-century provincial photographers. Photographers and viewers of photographs, it seems, need periodically to resist their own knowingness.Notes:crop vt. 播种,修剪(树木)收割count for little 无关紧要predatory 掠夺成性的champion n. 冠军；vt.支持benevolent 好心肠的ambivalence 矛盾心理make (+不定式) 似乎要: He makes to begin.(他似乎要开始了)swirls and eddies 漩涡cult 狂热崇拜daguerreotypes (初期的)银板照相法 The author mentions the work of Harold Edgerton in order to provide an example of
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Shopping has always been something of an impulse activity, in which objects that catch our fancy while strolling are immediately bought on a whim. Advertisers and sellers have taken advantage of this fact, carefully positioning inexpensive but attractive items on paths that we are most likely to cross, hoping that our human nature will lead to a greater profit for them. With the dawn of the Internet and its exploding use across the world, the same tactics apply. Advertisers now place "banners", links to commercial web sites decorated with attractive pictures designed to catch our eyes while browsing the webs, on key web sites with heavy traffic. They pay top dollar for the right, thus creating profits for the hosting web sites as well. These actions are performed in the hopes that during the course of our casual and leisurely web surfing, we"ll click on that banner that sparks our interest and thus, in theory, buy the products advertised. Initial results have been positive. Web sites report a huge inflow of cash, both from the advertisers who tempt customers in with the banners and the hosting web sites, which are paid for allowing the banners to be put in place. As trust and confidence in Internet buying increases and information security is heightened with new technology, the volume of buying is increasing, leading to even greater profits. The current situation, however, is not quite as optimistic. Just as magazine readers tend to unconsciously ignore advertisements in their favorite periodicals, web browsers are beginning to allow banners to slip their notice as well. Internet users respond to the flood of banners by viewing them as annoyances, a negative image that is hurting sales, since users are now less reluctant to click on those banners, preferring not to support the system that puts them in place. If Internet advertising is to continue to be a viable and profitable business practice, new methods will need to be considered to reinvigorate the industry. With the recent depression in the technology sector and slowing economy, even new practices may not do the trick. As consumers are saving more and frequenting traditional real estate businesses over their Internet counterparts, the fate of Internet business is called into question. The coming years will be the only reliable indication of whether shopping on the World Wide Web is the wave of the future or simply an impulse activity whose whim has passed.Notes:on a whim 心血来潮surf v. 冲浪in theory 在理论上，顺理成章hosting 访问率高的call... into question质疑，对...... 提出疑问 The author"s attitude toward online advertising can be summarized as one of
Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, represents a generation of American kids (1)_____ in the 1980s on the philosophy that any achievement, however slight, (2)_____ a ribbon. (3)_____ replaced punishment; criticism became a dirty word. In Texas, teachers were advised to (4)_____ using red ink, the colour of (5)_____. In California, a task force was set up to (6)_____ the concept of self worth into the education system. Swathing youngsters in a (7)_____ shield of self-esteem, went the philosophy, would protect them from the nasty things in life, such as bad school grades, underage sex, drug abuse, dead-end jobs and criminality. (8)_____ that the ninth-place ribbons are in danger of strangling the (9)_____ children they were Supposed to help. America"s (10)_____ with self-esteem—like all developments in psychology, it gradually (11)_____ its way to Britain—has turned children who were (12)_____ with (13)_____ into adults who (14)_____ at even the mildest brickbats. Many believe that the feel-good culture has risen at the (15)_____ of traditional education, an opinion espoused in a new book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can"t Read, Write, or Add, by the conservative commentator Charles Sykes. Not only that, but the foundations (16)_____ which the self-esteem industry is built are being (17)_____ as decidedly shaky. Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University and once a self-esteem enthusiast, is now (18)_____ a revision of the populist orthodoxy. "After all these years, I"m sorry to say, my recommendation is this: forget about self-esteem and (19)_____ more on self-control and self-discipline," he wrote recently. "Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society—and might even be able to (20)_____ some of those promises that self-esteem once made but could not keep."
Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, represents a generation of American kids (1)_____ in the 1980s on the philosophy that any achievement, however slight, (2)_____ a ribbon. (3)_____ replaced punishment; criticism became a dirty word. In Texas, teachers were advised to (4)_____ using red ink, the colour of (5)_____. In California, a task force was set up to (6)_____ the concept of self worth into the education system. Swathing youngsters in a (7)_____ shield of self-esteem, went the philosophy, would protect them from the nasty things in life, such as bad school grades, underage sex, drug abuse, dead-end jobs and criminality. (8)_____ that the ninth-place ribbons are in danger of strangling the (9)_____ children they were Supposed to help. America"s (10)_____ with self-esteem—like all developments in psychology, it gradually (11)_____ its way to Britain—has turned children who were (12)_____ with (13)_____ into adults who (14)_____ at even the mildest brickbats. Many believe that the feel-good culture has risen at the (15)_____ of traditional education, an opinion espoused in a new book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can"t Read, Write, or Add, by the conservative commentator Charles Sykes. Not only that, but the foundations (16)_____ which the self-esteem industry is built are being (17)_____ as decidedly shaky. Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University and once a self-esteem enthusiast, is now (18)_____ a revision of the populist orthodoxy. "After all these years, I"m sorry to say, my recommendation is this: forget about self-esteem and (19)_____ more on self-control and self-discipline," he wrote recently. "Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society—and might even be able to (20)_____ some of those promises that self-esteem once made but could not keep."
The domestic economy in the United States expanded in a remarkably vigorous and steady fashion. The revival in consumer confidence was reflected in the higher proportion of incomes spent for goods and services and the marked increase in consumer willingness to take on installment debt. A parallel strengthening in business psychology was manifested in a stepped-up rate of plant and equipment spending and a gradual pickup in expenses for inventory. Confidence in the economy was also reflected in the strength of the stock market and in the stability of the bond market. For the year as a whole, consumer and business sentiment benefited from the ease in East-West tensions. The bases of the business expansion were to be found mainly in the stimulative monetary and fiscal policies that had been pursued. Moreover, the restoration of sounder liquidity positions and tighter management control of production efficiency had also helped lay the groundwork for a strong expansion. In addition, the economic policy moves made by the President had served to renew optimism on the business outlook while boosting hopes that inflation would be brought under more effective control. Finally, of course, the economy was able to grow as vigorously as it did because sufficient leeway existed in terms of idle men and machines. The United States balance of payments deficit declined sharply. Nevertheless, by any other test, the deficit remained very large, and there was actually a substantial deterioration in our trade account to a sizable deficit, almost two thirds of which was with Japan. While the overall trade performance proved disappointing, there are still good reasons for expecting the delayed impact of devaluation to produce in time a significant strengthening in our trade picture. Given the size of the Japanese component of our trade deficit, however, the outcome will depend importantly on the extent of the corrective measures undertaken by Japan. Also important will be our own efforts in the United States to fashion internal policies consistent with an improvement in our external balance. The underlying task of public policy for the year ahead—and indeed for the longer run—remained a familiar one: to strike the right balance between encouraging healthy economic growth and avoiding inflationary pressures. With the economy showing sustained and vigorous growth, and with the currency crisis highlighting the need to improve our competitive posture internationally, the emphasis seemed to be shifting to the problem of inflation. The Phase Three program of wage and price restraint can contribute to reducing inflation. Unless productivity growth is unexpectedly large, however, the expansion of real output must eventually begin to slow down to the economy"s larger run growth potential if generalized demand pressures on prices are to be avoided.Notes:inventory 存贷East-West tensions 东西方紧张局势fiscal (怀国库的钱有关的)财务的(常指税收)liquidity 周转率，清偿力leeway 余地given 鉴于，由于the Phase Three program 第三阶段计划 Part of the public policy task, as outlined in the text, is to
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