Text 3
The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing-Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $l3.5bn,but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn‘t have any physical product at all。 What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives。
Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through。 Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be。 What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Therea May‘s enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops it owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what。
Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power。 But it is clumsy。 For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of Change within the digital economy。 By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power。 But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too。 Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don‘t pay for them。 The users of their Services are not their customers。 That would be the people who buy advertising from them-and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies。
The product they‘re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to date for the benefit of the digital giants。 Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew the produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield。 Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spamme out of our inboxes。 It doesn’t feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit。
31. According to Paragraph 1, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its 。
[A] digital products
[B] user information
[C] physical assets
[D] quality service
32. Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may 。
[A] worsen political disputes
[B] mess up customer records
[C] pose a risk to Facebook users
[D] mislead the European commission
33. According to the author, competition law 。
[A] should sever the new market powers
[B] may worsen the economic imbalance
[C] should not provide just one legal solution
[D] cannot keep pace with the changing market
34. Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook users because 。
[A] they are not defined as customers
[B] they are not financially reliable
[C] the services are generally digital
[D] the services are paid for by advertisers
35. The ants analogy is used to illustrate 。
[A] a win-win business model between digital giants
[B] a typical competition pattern among digital giants
[C] the benefits provided for digital giants ’customers
[D] the relationship between digital giants and their users
31、[答案][B] user information
[解析]细节题。题干问:根据第一段,脸谱收购WhatsApp 应用的目的是为了什么,由此定位于文章第一段,本段第一句末说脸谱出巨资购买的应用是一种messaging service,就是信息服务,而紧接着本段最后一句话说明WhatsApp 应用提供的这种信息服务实际上是一种intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives,复杂的和极其详细的用户朋友圈和社交生活的方面的信息。答案B正是这句话的同义改写。
32、[答案][C] pose a risk to Facebook users
[解析]细节题。根据题干中的关键词Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities定位于文章第二段。本段中的第二句话指出“即使不知道具体的信息内容是什么,知道了信息是谁发的和信息发给谁也有可能透露客户隐私”。也就是说,绑定电话号码和脸谱身份的做法极有可能泄露客户隐私,增加客户的个人信息风险。答案C正是这句话的概括。
33、[答案][D] cannot keep pace with the changing market
[解析]细节题。根据题干回文定位到文章第三段,第三句话“it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy。”意为:对比数码经济中变化的速度,它是很缓慢的,cannot keep pace with 是选项中slow的同义替换,因此正确答案为选项D。
34、[答案][D]the services are paid for by advertisers
[解析]因果细节题。根据题干回文定位到第三段第六句话,其中it is not obvious是题干can hardly protect的同义替换。后文中指出when the users of these services don’t pay for it, 表明这种情况发生的原因是这些服务的用户没有付款,而真正付款的是advertisers,因此正确答案为D。
35、[答案][D] the relationship between digital giants and their users
[解析]观点例证题。根据题干中的关键词ants analogy回文定位到最后一段第二句话。而该例子论证的观点是上一句话,即最后一段的首句,该句指出“他们(Google和Facebook)所销售的商品是数据,而为了这些数据巨头(像Google和Facebook这样的数据信息企业)的利益,作为用户的我们将生活转向数据”,这句话揭示了用户和数据巨头之间的关系,通过数据联系在一起。数据巨头销售数据,用户生活中使用数据。因此正确答案为[D]选项,该例子论证了数据巨头和用户之间的关系。
相关推荐:
2018年考研答案 ※ 2018年考研真题 ※ 考研万题库估分
· | 2022考研复试联系导师有哪些注意事 | 04-28 |
· | 2022考研复试面试常见问题 | 04-28 |
· | 2022年考研复试面试回答提问方法有 | 04-28 |
· | 2022考研复试怎么缓解缓解焦虑心态 | 04-27 |
· | 2022年考研复试的诀窍介绍 | 04-27 |
· | 2022年考研复试英语如何准备 | 04-26 |
· | 2022年考研复试英语口语常见句式 | 04-26 |
· | 2022年考研复试的四个细节 | 04-26 |
· | 2022考研复试准备:与导师及时交流 | 04-26 |
· | 2022考研复试面试的综合技巧 | 04-26 |