第一段
①The 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$13.5bn,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.②What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.
单词&词组
digital economy 数字经济
grocery chain 连锁杂货店
upmarket a. 高级的,高端的
physical product 实体产品
intricate a. 错综复杂的
detailed a. 详尽的;精细的;细致的
本段翻译
数字经济巨头的势力及野心十分惊人——亚马逊公司刚刚宣布以135亿美元的价格收购高端连锁食品店WholeFoods, 而在两年前, Facebook甚至出资更高收购了压根儿没有任何实体产品的What sApp(即时) 通讯服务。What sApp为Facebook提供的,是一套复杂而精确详尽的用户朋友圈及其社交生活网。
第二段
①Facebook 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.②Even without knowing what was in the messages,the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be.③What political journalist,what party whip,would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting?④It 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.
单词&词组
go through 被认可,成交;通过
enormously ad. 极其,非常
revealing a. 揭示内情的,泄密的
party whip 党鞭,党组织秘书
makeup n. (小组或团队的)组成,构成
plot v. 密谋,策划
not so much..., but... 与其说,毋宁说
本段翻译
Facebook当时向欧委会承诺不会把电话号码与Facebook身份信息相关联, 但协议刚获准通过,它就背弃了这一承诺。即使不了解信息的具体内容,但其发送者以及接收者的(身份)信息在极大程度上也会透漏内情,且这种情况仍会继续。特蕾莎·梅的政敌正在其中进行密谋的那些What sApp(聊天)群,哪个政治记者,哪个党鞭会不想知道其成员构成?也许, WholeFoods对于亚马逊的价值与其说是在于它旗下的460间店铺,倒不如说在于其顾客的购买记录。
第三段
①Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power.②But it is clumsy.③For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy.④By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power.⑤But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too.⑥Competition 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.⑦The users of their services are not their customers.⑧That 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.
单词&词组
address v. (着手)解决,处理(问题)
clumsy a. 笨拙、不灵活的;使用不便的
remedy v. 纠正,改正;治疗,救治
conceptual a. 观念上的,概念上的
to sb's disadvantage 对……不利
本段翻译
竞争法似乎是解决这些权力失衡问题的唯一办法。但它却笨拙不堪。一方面,相较于数字经济中革新的步伐,它太慢了。某个问题待其得到解决和补救时,这个问题可能已经在市场中蒸发不见了,取而代之的是新的权力滥用。但是还存在一个更深层的概念性问题。当前所阐释的竞争法应对的是消费者的经济损失问题,而当这些服务的用户并不是它们的支付者时,法规就不明确了。其(数字巨头)服务的用户不是它们的顾客。它们的顾客是那些花钱购买广告的人一而Facebook和Google这两大实质上的巨头,它们掌控了数字广告,这不利于所有其他的媒体和娱乐公司。
第四段
①The product they’re selling is data,and we,the users,convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants.②Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield.③Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes.④It doesn’t feel like a human or democratic relationship,even if both sides benefit.
单词&词组
convert v. 使转变,转化;改装,改造
for sb's benefit 为了某人的利益,为了帮助某人
farm v. 养殖;耕种;承包出去
bug n. 昆虫,小虫子;缺陷
aphid n. 蚜虫
predatory a. 捕食性的,食肉的
spammer n. 垃圾邮件发送者
even if 即使,就算
本段翻译
它们售卖的产品是数据,而我们这些用户,将我们的生活转化为数据,为数字巨头盈利之用。就好像有些蚂蚁会养殖一种名为蚜虫的昆虫,以获取它们进食时分泌出的蜜露,同样地, Google养殖我们是为了获取我们数字生活所产生的数据。蚂蚁防范食肉昆虫靠近其蚜虫进食之处;Gmail防范垃圾邮件发送者入侵我们的收件箱。这可不像一种人类的,或者说民主的关系,尽管双方均能够获益。
五道题
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 serve 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
参考答案
BCDAD
答案解析
31、首段①句破折号后指出Facebook高价收购没有任何实体产品的What sApp, ②句暗示原因:What sApp能为其提供一张精细的用户朋友关系和社交生活网, 也即“用户信息”, [B] 正确。
32、第二段②③句指出Facebook背弃承诺, 将电话号码与Facebook ID挂钩。其危害是:即使不了解信息的具体内容, 但消息接收者与发送者的信息也会极大程度上泄露内情(enormously revealing) , 如此一来用户自然会面临隐私威胁, [C] 正确。
33、由题干关键词competion law定位至第三段, ②句直接指出, 竞争法笨拙不堪(clumsy) , ③句引出原因之一:它跟不上数字经济变化的速度, [D] 符合文意。
34、5句引出竞争法的第二个问题:概念性问题,⑥⑦句进而解释,当前所阐释的法律是“保护消费者不受经济损失(...to consumers) ”, 但问题在于用户(users) 没有为服务付钱, 不能算作消费者, 因而他们难以受到法律保护的原因在于“身份定位问题”,即没被定义为消费者(即顾客),[A]正确。
35、末段②③句把动物界现象(蚂蚁养殖、保护蚜虫以获取蜜露) 与我们的世界(Google养殖/保护我们以获取我们的数据) 相类比;末句对这种关系加以讽刺, 可见该类比意在揭示以Google、Facebook为代表的科技巨头VS用户之间的不平等关系, [D] 符合文义。
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