2020考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 40

Unit 40

Older people in particular are often surprised by the speed with which the Internet’s “next big thing” can cease being that. It even happens to Rupert Murdoch, a seventy-year-old media mogul. Two years ago he bought MySpace, a social-networking site that has become the world’s largest. The other day, however, Mr. Murdoch was heard lamenting that MySpace appears already to be last year’s news, because everybody is now going to Facebook, the second-largest social network on the web, with 31m registered users at the last count.

Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard and not even 20 at the time, along with two of his friends. The site requires users to provide their real names and e-mail addresses for registration, and it then links them up with current and former friends and colleagues with amazing ease. Each Facebook “profile” becomes both a repository of each user’s information and photos, and a social place where friends gossip, exchange messages and “poke” one another.

Facebook is generating so much excitement this summer that bloggers are comparing Mr. Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs, the charismaticboss of Apple, and calling his company “the next Google” on the assumption that a stockmarket listing must be soon. It may be. Mr. Zuckerberg has rejected big offers from new- and old-media giants such as Yahoo! and Viacom. One of his three sisters, who also works for Facebook, has posted a silly video online that makes fun of Yahoo!’s takeover bid and sings about “going for IPO”. And Facebook has advertised for a “stock administration manager” with expertise in share regulations.

And yet Mr. Zuckerberg insists that he is “a little bit surprised about how focused everybody is on the ‘exit’.” The truth is that he is sick of talking about it. The venture capitalists backing Facebook may want to cash out, but Mr. Zuckerberg is only 23 and doesn’t need the money. He also happens to believe—rather as Google’s young founders do—that he can, and should, change the world.

Facebook is distinctive in several ways. First, it is currently considered classier than, say, MySpace. One academic researcher argues that Facebook is for “good kids”, whereas MySpace is for blue-collar kids and “gangstas”. Facebook’s roots are indeed college students. Mr. Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard, after all. From there it spread to other elite universities, and it only opened up to the general population last September.

Mr. Zuckerberg, however, thinks that the bigger difference is that Facebook is now becoming a “platform”. By this he means that it is evolving into a technology on top of which others can build new software tools and businesses. In May Mr. Zuckerberg opened Facebook up for outsiders to do just that, promising that any advertising revenues that third parties collect within Facebook are theirs to keep. Already, thousands of little tools have been created that allow Facebook users to share and discover music, play Sudoku, lend each other money, and so on.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對(duì)象為2004年真題Text 1。

1. What is Rupert Murdoch’s attitude towards the popularity of Facebook?

A) Reserved consent.

B) Enthusiastic support.

C) Strongly alarmed.

D) Slight contempt.

2. Which of the following is NOT a good reason to use Facebook?

A) It is a safe online community because everyone has to register with their real names.

B) It is a platform full of fun with the assistance of diversified software tools.

C) One might be able to find their primary school classmates whom they have lost contact with for years.

D) One can share pictures, songs, etc., with friends as well as starting their own businesses.

3. The expression “Mr. Zuckerberg is only 23 and doesn’t need the money”（Line 3, Paragraph 4） most probably indicates _______.

A) Mr. Zuckerberg does not need money since he is still a young student

B) Mr. Zuckerberg is too young to manage too much money

C) Mr. Zuckerberg does not need money for maintaining Facebook since it is a non-profit website

D) Mr. Zuckerberg is young enough to afford any failure and start again

4. What can we learn from Paragraph 5?

A) MySpace is more welcomed by lower class people because it is less classic than Facebook.

B) Facebook first became popular among those who received higher education since it was only confined to a bunch of universities.

C) Facebook’s popularity in universities is merely due to the fact that its creator is an elite student.

D) Facebook is reluctant but forced to open to the public.

5. What is the author’s attitude towards the development of Facebook?

A) Negative.

B) Supportive.

C) Objective.

D) Apprehensive.

篇章剖析

本文是一篇說(shuō)明文，主要介紹一個(gè)流行的網(wǎng)絡(luò)交友社區(qū)Facebook。第一段引出了話題；第二段主要介紹什么是Facebook；第三、四段說(shuō)明了關(guān)于該網(wǎng)站發(fā)展的一些近況；第五、六段則介紹了Facebook的一些特點(diǎn)。

詞匯注釋

mogul /?m??gl/ n. 顯要人物；有權(quán)勢(shì)的人

lament /l??ment/ vt. 悲嘆，悔恨，痛惜

registration /red??s?tre???n/ n. 注冊(cè)

repository /r??p?z?t?ri/ n. 貯藏室，倉(cāng)庫(kù)

poke /p??k/ vt. 戳，刺，捅；〈美俚〉激勵(lì)

charismatic /?k?r?z?m?t?k/ adj. 超凡魅力的

takeover /?te?k???v?/ n. 接收；接管

gangsta /?g??st?/ n. 暴徒，黑社會(huì)成員

elite /e??li?t/ n. 中堅(jiān)分子，精英

revenue /?rev?nju?/ n. 收入

難句突破

Facebook is generating so much excitement this summer that bloggers are comparing Mr. Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs, the charismatic boss of Apple, and calling his company “the next Google” on the assumption that a stockmarket listing must be soon.

主體句式：Facebook is generating so much excitement that...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：該句是一個(gè)長(zhǎng)句，其復(fù)雜的結(jié)構(gòu)主要在that引導(dǎo)的從句中。從句分為并列的兩個(gè)部分，以and連接，其中后半部分中又嵌套了一個(gè)由that引導(dǎo)的同位語(yǔ)從句。

句子譯文：今年夏天Facebook變得更加炙手可熱，博客寫(xiě)手們將扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的蘋(píng)果公司總裁史蒂夫·喬布斯相提并論，并把前者的公司稱作“下一個(gè)谷歌”——如果公司股票很快就能上市的話。

題目分析

1. C 情感態(tài)度題。文章第一段中可以看出默多克先生稱Facebook已經(jīng)快超過(guò)了MySpace，因此不由哀嘆，可見(jiàn)他對(duì)Facebook的崛起感到了警覺(jué)。A和B選項(xiàng)分別因?yàn)閏ontent和support兩個(gè)詞就可以將該選項(xiàng)排除，D選項(xiàng)錯(cuò)誤是因?yàn)槟嗫讼壬](méi)有表現(xiàn)出任何蔑視的態(tài)度。

2. A 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段指出，F(xiàn)acebook用戶必須要用自己的真實(shí)姓名和電子郵件地址進(jìn)行注冊(cè)，但是這并不意味著網(wǎng)站就因此而更加安全，至少文章中沒(méi)有提到這一點(diǎn)，因此該選項(xiàng)不正確。

3. D 語(yǔ)義題。文章第四段說(shuō)一些投資者想要抽回他們的資金，但是“扎克伯格先生只有23歲，他并不需要錢(qián)”。根據(jù)上下文的意思，扎克伯格現(xiàn)在并不需要用那么多錢(qián)來(lái)做任何事情，而且他非常年輕，即使現(xiàn)在經(jīng)歷任何的失敗，都隨時(shí)有可能東山再起、卷土重來(lái)，因此可以推斷D選項(xiàng)總結(jié)了該句子的意思。

4. B 推理題。從文章第五段中可以看出，F(xiàn)acebook的創(chuàng)始人來(lái)自于哈佛大學(xué)，因此Facebook一開(kāi)始是在精英大學(xué)的校園里傳播的，早期并沒(méi)有向公眾開(kāi)放。而且有研究者認(rèn)為Facebook的使用者都是一些“好孩子”。需要注意的是該選項(xiàng)中用了was一詞，表明Facebook是以前僅限于精英大學(xué)。A選項(xiàng)中將因果關(guān)系倒置了，因此是錯(cuò)誤的。C錯(cuò)誤的原因在于Facebook流行的原因并不僅僅因?yàn)槠鋭?chuàng)立者是一個(gè)大學(xué)生，主要還是因?yàn)樗慕?jīng)營(yíng)模式和理念。D選項(xiàng)的表述顯然是錯(cuò)誤的。

5. C 情感態(tài)度題?？v觀全文，作者在闡述Facebook的發(fā)展歷程時(shí)，態(tài)度是非?？陀^的，并沒(méi)有直接加入任何個(gè)人的感情色彩。

參考譯文

老人們經(jīng)常驚訝于網(wǎng)絡(luò)更新速度之快，今天還是“網(wǎng)絡(luò)之最”的一個(gè)東西也許很快就不再占據(jù)第一的位置。同樣的事情也發(fā)生在70歲的傳媒巨頭羅伯特·默多克身上。兩年前他收購(gòu)了社交網(wǎng)站MySpace，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為了全球最大的網(wǎng)上交友社區(qū)。但是不久前我們卻聽(tīng)說(shuō)默多克先生在哀嘆MySpace已經(jīng)變成了明日黃花，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在所有的人都在用Facebook，全球第二大交友網(wǎng)站，最新統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)表明已有3100萬(wàn)人注冊(cè)使用。

Facebook始于2004年，由當(dāng)時(shí)未滿20歲的哈佛大學(xué)學(xué)生馬克·扎克伯格和他的兩個(gè)朋友創(chuàng)立。該網(wǎng)站要求用戶使用他們的真實(shí)姓名和電子郵件地址進(jìn)行注冊(cè)，此后用戶就能極其輕松地找到他們現(xiàn)在和以前的朋友及同事。每一個(gè)Facebook賬號(hào)都是個(gè)人信息和照片的陳列室，在這里朋友之間可以盡情八卦、交換信息、甚至是“捅一下”對(duì)方。

今年夏天Facebook變得更加炙手可熱，博客寫(xiě)手們將扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的蘋(píng)果公司總裁史蒂夫·喬布斯相提并論，并把前者的公司稱作“下一個(gè)谷歌”——如果公司股票很快就能上市的話。這是有可能的。扎克伯格先生已經(jīng)拒絕了一些新老媒體巨頭慷慨的收購(gòu)計(jì)劃，其中包括雅虎和Viacom。他三個(gè)姐姐中的一個(gè)也在Facebook工作，不久前她在網(wǎng)上放了一個(gè)視頻嘲笑雅虎的收購(gòu)申請(qǐng)，并且大力支持公司的“首次公開(kāi)募股”?，F(xiàn)在Facebook正在打廣告招募一個(gè)熟知股票發(fā)行規(guī)則的“股票管理經(jīng)理”。

不過(guò)扎克伯格堅(jiān)持說(shuō)他自己對(duì)于“所有的人的‘出路’都如此關(guān)注感到驚訝”。事實(shí)上他現(xiàn)在對(duì)討論這個(gè)問(wèn)題已經(jīng)感到厭煩。一些資助Facebook的投機(jī)資本家想要抽出資金，但是扎克伯格先生只有23歲，他并不需要錢(qián)。他碰巧也信奉——就像年輕的谷歌創(chuàng)始人一樣——他能夠，也應(yīng)該改變這個(gè)世界。

Facebook有以下一些特點(diǎn)。首先，目前人們認(rèn)為它比MySpace等交友社區(qū)檔次更高。一個(gè)學(xué)者稱Facebook是給“好孩子”用的，而MySpace的用戶群都是藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人的孩子和黑社會(huì)成員。Facebook的根基在于廣大大學(xué)生。畢竟，扎克伯格先生是在哈佛創(chuàng)立的Facebook，并從那里散播到了其他的精英大學(xué)。該網(wǎng)站僅在去年9月才向公眾開(kāi)放。

但是，扎克伯格先生認(rèn)為最大的不同點(diǎn)在于Facebook正在變成一個(gè)“平臺(tái)”。他的意思是Facebook正在轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橐豁?xiàng)新技術(shù)，在此之上可以建立新的軟件工具和業(yè)務(wù)。五月的時(shí)候扎克伯格先生對(duì)外開(kāi)放了這一功能，承諾任何第三方可以全部保留他們?cè)贔acebook上取得的廣告收入?，F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有成千上萬(wàn)的小工具被創(chuàng)造出來(lái)，使得Facebook用戶能夠分享和發(fā)現(xiàn)音樂(lè)、玩益智游戲，還可以相互借錢(qián)以及使用其他各種功能。