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1、Unit18MultimediaPassageAWhatIsMultimedia?PassageBCharacteristicsPassageCMultimediaPassageAWhatIsMultimedia?Interestinmultimediaiscurrentlypervasive—entertainmentandeducationalgroupsareexploringnewapplications,andthecomputer,telecommunications,andconsumerelectron
2、icsindustriesareactivelydevelopingunderlyingtechnology.Asaterm,“multimedia”frequentlyusedbutrarelydefined.Amonghardwareandsoftwareengineers,attemptstoprovideameaningrangefromthewhimsical“multimediadefinition”(multimediaiswhenyouhavetoomanycables)tothoseemphasizi
3、ngcommunicationorinteraction(GrimesandPotel,1991).Itisdifficulttopindowntheessenceofmultimediasincethetermappearsinnumerouscontexts,eachwithitsownnuances.Computerusershavemultimediapresentation,multimediaworkstations,andmultimediadatabases,butthepeopleinvolvedth
4、epresentationauthors,workstationsdesigners,anddatabaseresearchersviewmultimediafromdifferentperspectives.Onepointwheretheyagree,however,isontheessentialroleplayedbymultimediadata.[1]Forinstance,multimediapresentations,astheirnamesuggests,involvethepresentationof
5、multimediadata,multimediaworkstationsdealwiththeprocessingofmultimediadata,andmultimediadatabaseswithitsstorageandretrieval.Perhaps,then,thenotionofmultimediadataisaunifyingthreadtodigitalmultimedia.Sowhatismultimediadata?Let’sfirstlookattherelatednotionofmediad
6、ata.McLuhan,inUnderstandingMedia,considersmediaas“extensionstoman”,astechnologiesandproductsgivingoursensesaccesstofurtherformsofinformation.[2]Thisverybroaddefinitionencompassestwomorespecificviews.Thefirstrelatesthetermmediatohowinformationisconveyedanddistrib
7、uted;forinstance,wehaveprintandbroadcastmedia.Second,wealsousethetermmediawhendescribingthematerialsandformsofartisticexpression.Thisoccurswhenwespeakofdigitalmedia,notinthesenseofdigitalstoragemedia,butinthesenseofdigitalcounterpartstonaturalmedia.Thedistinctio
8、nbetweennaturalanddigitalmediamaynotalwaysbeclearcut,buttheideaisthatnaturalmediarelyonphysicalelements—paper,stone,inksandpaints,musicalinstruments,andthestagewhiled
