A. introduction B. company C. accidentally D. against AB. sped AC. apparent AD. between BC. institutional BD. context CD. influenced |
Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the spread of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened __47__. As was discussed before, it was not until the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic medium, following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the __48__ of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution __49__ up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading on through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion pictures into the 20th-century world of the motor car and the airplane. Not everyone sees that process in perspective. It is important to do so. It is generally recognized, however, that the __50__ of the computer in the early 20th century, followed by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process, although its impact on the media was not immediately __51__. As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they became “personal” too, as well as __52__, with display becoming sharper and storage capacity increasing. It was within the computer age that the term “information society” began to be widely used to describe the __53__ within which we now live. The communications revolution has __54__ both work and leisure and how we think and feel both about place and time, but there have been controversial views about its economic, political, social and cultural implications. “Benefits” have been weighed __55__ “harmful” outcomes. And generalizations have proved difficult.