When I was growing up, I was only occasionally exposed to the criminal classe

游客2025-01-11 10

问题 When I was growing up, I was only occasionally exposed to the criminal classes. And even then it was mostly in a harmless, almost charming fashion. The Internet has changed that. Now I have round-the-clock dealings with crooks, charlatans, con men and women of easy virtue. Every morning, I wake up to find an avalanche of solicitations from unscrupulous brokerage houses, shady pharmaceutical firms, mysterious surgeons and crooked lawyers. The Highway to Hell seems to run directly through my PC.
Emails from illiterate scoundrels hoping to get my personal financial information are forever pouring into my inbox. Sorry, guys, but "credit kard" is a dead giveaway that you’re not really from Bank of America. People pretending to be my sister-in-law in rural England try to get me to open attachments that will spread ruinous viruses throughout my computer and ultimately throughout all of society. They also commandeer friends’ address books and send me baleful emails begging for money—fast—because they have been mugged by depraved street urchins and are now penniless in Mexico City, Mozambique or Delhi. And then, of course, there are those tearful missives from deposed Nigerian potentates, imploring me to help them recover their stolen fortunes by parting with mine.
I am not saying that my childhood was a Garden of Eden. My Uncle Johnny, who fell in with a rough crowd—the U. S. Navy—when he was 16, was always in trouble with the law. He would get sprung from the slammer every couple of years and stop by the house long enough to drag my dad out on a few ill-advised benders. Then he would do something society frowned upon and get shipped right back to the Big House. But Uncle Johnny never once tried to enlist me in knocking over liquor stores or fencing stolen goods or pickpocketing hapless tourists, as I was only a wee tot. Besides, there were no tourists back then.
I did know a few hoodlums and low-level drug dealers in high school and college, but I did not have direct contact with them on a daily basis. At the factory jobs I worked in college, there was always someone who handled football pools, but he was just a guy who knew other guys who might actually know wiseguys. He was not a wiseguy himself. Sure, there were always a few shady characters who asked me to look the other way while they "boosted" merchandise from the warehouse. But they didn’t ask me to steal it myself: the most they asked was for me to drive the getaway car. Of course I didn’t. I didn’t have a license. Thus I could go long periods having no direct social congress with felons, so long as I stayed out of certain neighborhoods, certain tap rooms and certain friends’ houses.
The thing I most hate today is that I never see the faces of the people who are trying to rip me off. In college, I knew who the drug dealers were: they always had names like Shelby or Vega the Trip. But I didn’t have to engage with them unless I wanted to. They didn’t do much in the way of outreach. These days, I can’t avoid daily contact with crooks lurking in the technological shadows. Perfectly legitimate Web searches redirect me to sites operated by Moloch and his sidekick Baal. Last month, I foolishly clicked the "Exit this page" button on a pop-up ad offering me a free phone and was redirected to a shockingly graphic porn site. I didn’t get the phone, either.
All of which makes me long for the good old days when Uncle Johnny used to stop by the house. At least he was a crook with a human face. [br] Why does the author give the example of his Uncle Johnny? What does the author imply when he says that he was longing for "the good old days when Uncle Johnny used to stop by the house"(para. 6)?

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答案 to give an example of the traditional criminals he knew when young / to show & serve as the sharp contrast between.../ Uncle Johnny committed crimes a number of times("in trouble with the law" / "do sth. society frowned upon")/ and sent to prison several times("get sprung from the slammer" "get shipped back to the Big House")/ almost did no harm to the author although as close relative(relationship of uncle and cousin)/ almost without(much)negative consequences / "the good old days":another ironic & humorous & satirical term /

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When I was growing up, I was only occasionally exposed to the criminal classe

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