One reads classics such as Confucius' Analects or Shakespeare not to pass examinations or provide grist for the water-cooler mill, but to absorb nutrients from the wealth shared by humanity and to make ourselves better people.
读孔子的《论语》或者莎士比亚的著作不是为了通过考试或者任何实际用途，而是为了从人文财富中吸收营养，使自己变得更好。
However, it would be unfair to compare the current generation with their ancestors. In antiquity, the ability to read effectively divided people into haves and have-nots. It became a channel through which a few from the disenfranchised classes moved up the social ladder. As a whole, the vast majority remained illiterate. As the benefits of basic education envelop the entire Chinese population, the stumbling block for this most basic level of reading has been removed. Now, it's up to each individual to decide what kind of information or knowledge he or she is willing to pursue. A school or a teacher can demand that you read what is mandatory, but unless you design a comprehensive curriculum that incorporates the wealth-enriching and the soul-enriching, you'll probably push those "useless" books down to the bottom of your priority list.
然而，把现代人与先人对比是不公平的。在古代，读书的能力把人们分成了贫富两个阶级。被剥削者中的少数人通过读书爬上更高的社会阶级。总体上，大多数人还是目不识丁。随着整个中华民族都可以享受到基础教育，读书认字最基本的绊脚石已经不存在了。而现在取决于每个人愿意获得什么信息或者知识。学校或者老师可以要求你阅读必须读的材料，但是除非课程结合了物质财富和精神财富两方面，否则你很有可能会忽视那些“没用”的书。
The computer age, with its unlimited data-crunching capability, has unleashed a treasure trove of information. For someone long shielded from data and information, the rawness and liveliness can be spellbinding. But it takes tons of information to be distilled into knowledge.
计算机时代拥有无穷无尽的数据和宝贵的信息。对于长期信息封闭的人来说，计算机时代的新鲜感和活力充满诱惑。但是要无数的信息才能提炼成知识。
In our society there is an undercurrent of skepticism and aversion toward knowledge, which in the old days was spoon-fed with little room left for questioning. People, therefore, want to be closer to the source and conduct their own little investigation or analysis, which sometimes leads to new revelations. As a result, the pendulum has swung from the end of blind acceptance of everything printed to the other end of DIY scrutiny of every piece of data. I have to say this correction was needed and will eventually balance out the weight of both information and knowledge, which tend to be embodied in digital and print respectively.
如今的社会充斥着一种对知识的厌恶和怀疑论，然而在过去，人们毫不犹豫地汲取知识。大家都想跟接近知识的源头，再加上自己一些小调查或者分析，有时能有新的启示。因此，社会出现两种极化现象，一种是尽信书，一种是亲自核查每一个数据。我想说，我们需要纠正，并最终在无论是数据化还是纸质的信息与知识间平衡。
The road from knowledge to wisdom has equally been subverted by the digital revolution. The epiphanies derived from reading Hamlet or Li Bai's poems have been displaced by 12-step programs and morsels of wisdom that zap through cyberspace. On a positive note, they can be seen as CliffsNotes to the real thing; but this quasi-sagacity serves to lull its readership into a false sense of enlightenment. Wisdom cannot be drummed into you through rote learning, nor can it always be boiled down to 140 characters. It has to come from learning through personal experiences or through books, which are essentially those aspects of others' experiences that can be imparted and shared.
知识转化到智慧的道路同样被数字化革命颠覆了。阅读哈姆雷特或者李白诗集的顿悟被充斥网络的12步获得智慧课程代替。好的一面是，它们可以作为货真价实书籍的导读，但这种类智慧误导读者进入一种错误的启发感。智慧是不可以通过机械阅读来灌输的，也不总是可以归结成140个字。它必须通过个人经历或者书籍获得，也就是他人那些“可以借鉴和分享的经历”。
Serious reading, on whatever platform or in whatever form, has its place in the advance of human civilization. All technological breakthroughs, such as the audio-visual revolution of the previous generation and now the digital revolution, all serve to complement it. Words as the all-powerful embodiment of human knowledge are never overrated and will never be totally replaced. More Chinese will realize their importance as the nation grows into middle-class comfort. The younger generations can afford to read books that are not utilitarian, at least the segment not addicted to Korean soap operas and their face-lifted idols. As Francis Bacon famously said, studies can be "for delight, for ornament, and for ability", and "delight" should rightly include the joy of elevating oneself to a level with a higher vista, which, unlike a high-rise apartment, money alone cannot buy.
深入阅读，无论是通过哪种平台或者形式，都在人类文明发展史上扮演着不可或缺的地位。所有的技术突破，例如上一代的视听革命和当代的数字革命，都是为了起到补充的作用。作为人类知识一个全能的体现——文字的作用永远不会被夸大，也永远不会被完全代替。随着中国发展到中产阶级阶段，越来越多的中国人会意识到文字的重要性，年轻一代也会读那些非功利性的书籍，至少那部分没有沉迷韩剧和整容偶像的人会读。正如弗兰西斯·培根的名言，读书“足以怡情，足以博采，足以长才”，“怡情”应该包含提升自我至一个更高视野的喜悦，而这是仅用金钱就可以买到的高层公寓远远不及的。
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