英语阅读二2630.docx

1、英语阅读二2630_Text 26 The Information Age Has Improved Everyday Life (Part 1) Pre-reading Activities 1. Are you familiar with the names “eBay, Napster, yahoo, sina, sohu”? What do they mean to you? 2. Do you surf the Internet a lot? If you do, what do you do with the Internet? If you dont, why not? Text

2、 1.Today，theres scarcely an aspect of our life that isnt being upended by the torrent of information available on the hundreds of millions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability to keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail.今天信息的浪潮席卷了我们生活的各个角落，人们可以从因特网上百万个网站上搜寻

3、信息，更不用说人们通过电子邮件来保持联系。 “If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at the same pace as computer and information technology,” says Microsoft, “a new car would cost about $2 and go 600 miles on a thimbleful of gas. And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of a pizza.”“如果发动机技术和航天技术能够与计算机

4、和信息技术同速发展的话，”微软公司曾经说过，“一辆新车只需要花费2美元，并且只耗费少量汽油就能跑600英里。而一架波音747和比萨的价钱差不多。” 2. Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollars the Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving for the needs of their customers. Nothing like it has been seen since the beginning of the Ind

5、ustrial Revolution, when power-driven machines began producing more in a day than men could turn out in nearly a year.也许最大的收益，就是因特网给企业节省了上亿元来生产商品，服务顾客。自从工业革命（动力驱动的机器一天生产出的商品比人一年生产的还要多）以来，就再也没有比信息革命更强大的变革了。 “We view the growth of the Internet and e-commerce as a global megatrend,” says Merrill Lynch,

6、 “along the lines of the printing press, the telephone, the computer, and electricity.” Merrill Lynch说，“我们认为因特网和电子商务的发展伴随着印刷业、电话、计算机、电力的发展，是全世界的大趋势。” 3. You would be hard pressed to name something that isnt available on the Internet. Consider: books, health care, movie tickets, construction material

7、s, baby clothes, stocks, cattle feed, music, electronics, antiques, tools, real estate, toys, autographs of famous people, wine and airline tickets. 人们很难想到在因特网上找不到的东西。比如，书籍、医疗、电影票、建筑材料、宝宝服、股票、牛饲料、音乐、电子产品、古董、工具、房地产、玩具、名人亲笔签名、酒类、机票等。And even after youve moved on to your final resting place, theres no

8、reason those you love cant keep in touch. A company called Final T offers a place for you to store “afterlife e-mails” you can send to Heaven with the help of a “guardian angel.”即使你到了最后的归宿，也不会和你所喜欢的东西失去联系。一名为“最后的理想”的网站为人们提供了储存“去世后的电子邮件”这项服务，人们可以通过“天使卫士”把邮件送到天堂。 4. Kids today are so computer savvy th

9、at it virtually ensures the United States will remain the unchallenged leader in cyberspace for the foreseeable future. Nearly all children in families with incomes of more than $75,000 a year have home computers, according to a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. 当前青少年对电脑都很精通，因此毫无疑问美国

10、在将来会依然在网络领域占据绝对的领导地位。根据大卫鲁西派克德基金会的调查，对于年收入超过75，000美元的家庭，几乎每家都给孩子买了个人电脑。Youngsters from ages 2 to 17 at all income levels have computers, with 52% of those connected to the Internet. Most kids use computers to play games (some for 30 hours or more a week), and many teenage girls think nothing of rush

11、ing home from school to have e-mail chats with friends they has just left.如果不考虑收入状况，2岁到17岁的未成年人都有电脑，其中的52%能够上网。大多数儿童用电脑打游戏（一周30小时甚至更多）。许多十几岁的女生每天迫不及待地从学校回家，和刚刚才分开的同学上网聊天。 5. whats clear is that, whether we like it or not, the Internet is an ever growing part of our lives and there is no turning back

12、. “The Internet is just 20% invented,” says cyber pioneer Jake Winebaum. “The last 80% is happening now.” 毋庸置疑，不管人们喜欢与否，因特网是我们生活中越来越重要的一部分，而且这一趋势不可逆转。“因特网作用才刚刚发挥出20%，”网络先驱Jake Winebaum说，“其余的80%正在发生中。” 6. IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr. calls the thousands of Internet startups that disappeared soon aft

13、er their initial capital infusions ran out “fire flies before the storm.” Their names are legion, and more have been rushing to join without letup. IBM公司的首席执行官路易斯哥斯特纳号召成千上万的因特网网络的启动，它们在最初的资本输注之后很快就消失了，这是“暴风雨来临前的火焰。”他们的名字很多，还有更多不断地涌现。G (gardening supplies), L (home furnishings), T (educational playth

14、ings), E (beauty products), Homewarehouse. Com (household products), Cyberhomes (where prospective home buyers could access listings of properties for sale), Red G (online billing), C (arts and crafts store), and B (discount baby products) are all illustrative of what Gerstner dubs “dot-toast.” 哥斯特纳

15、列举了很多被他称为“do-toast”的网站：G (园艺供应)、 L (家居装饰)、T (益智游戏)、 E (美容产品)、 Homewarehouse. Com (家居产品)、Cyberhomes (潜在购房者可以得到待售房屋的信息)、Red G (在线付款)、 C (工艺品商店)、B (打折婴儿商品)。 7. Dot-coms have been failing at the same time as the number of online customers has been exploding. Its believed the Internet was born in 1969 wh

16、en two computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, were connected by a 15 foot cable, with bits of meaningless data flowing between them.这些网站在网上顾客不断增加的时候却慢慢减少了。人们认为因特网诞生于1969年，加利福尼亚大学和洛杉矶大学的两台计算机由15英尺的光缆连接，传递了毫无意义的数据。 Since then the Net has taken off, with some 137 million U.S. computers

17、 online plus another 152 million outside the United States, according to the U.S. Internet Council in Washington, D.C. and while the number of Internet-linked computers is surging , the volume of traffic they are carrying is increasing even faster. Some projections have it doubling every 100 days.自从

18、那时起网络开始腾飞不。根据位于华盛顿特区的美国因特网协会的统计，在美国15，200万计算机联网，在美国以外还有13，700万计算机联网。尽管联网的计算机数量在猛增，但网速却更快。有人推测每100天翻两倍。 8. This is not surprising since a hallmark of the Cyber Age is connectivity and sharing of information. The assertion that “information is meant to be free” is an increasing reality since it can be

19、 moved from those who have it to those who need it in the blink of an eye- and at virtually no cost, unlike for other media. This computer driven contribution to the vitality of the U.S. economy is immeasurable. 这也不足为奇，因为网络时代的特点就是沟通和信息共享。“信息是免费的”这一论断正在成为现实。信息可以从拥有者手中转移到需要者手中，这一切只是眨眼的功夫，而且不需要任何费用，这一点

20、与其他媒体是不同的。计算机推动了美国经济的繁荣，这一作用是不可估量的。 9. Auction sites have been spring up all over the Internet, but the undisputed leader is eBay. Operating out of its sparkling headquarters in San Jose, California, eBay claims close to 13 million registered users on any given day. They place 1,000 bids a minute on

21、 some 4 million items put up for sale, from antiques to sports memorabilia. 因特网上有了拍卖网站的崛起，而其领军者是易倍网。总部设在加利福尼亚州的圣泽斯，易倍网宣布每天有接近1300万的注册用户。在约400万件待售商品中每分钟拍卖1000件，拍卖品从古董到运动大事记。 10. You simply go to eBays Web site, register, post a description of what you have to sell, along with photos and a minimum pri

22、ce, if you like. Bids from interested buyers appear on your computer screen, which is instantly updated as better on your computer screen, which is instantly updated as better bids of come in. 你只需登陆易倍网站，注册，把待售商品的介绍，图片和最低价格上传到网上。对这件商品感兴趣的买者就会出价，并显示在你的计算机屏幕上，一会儿不断有更好的价格出现。once the auction ends, the hi

23、ghest bidder is obliged to pay for the item, usually with a money order or cashiers check, before the item is delivered. While most auction sites follow eBays lead by starting off with the lowest bid, others such as B and OutletZ start prices high and drop them little by little until the item is sol

24、d.一旦拍卖结束，出价最高的投标者必须要买这件商品。通常用现金订购或支票购买，然后再送货。紧跟易倍网的大多数拍卖网站都采用最低价起步的竞拍方式，而B和OutletZ则是以高价起步，然后逐步降低，直到商品售出。 11. Todays near runaway fascination with sex, reflected in the more than 40,000 lurid sites competing for business on the Internet, has thrown a spotlight on something that until recently was con

25、fined to the shadows. In the early to mid-1990s, up to 80%of all Internet traffic was adult related. 今天对性的近乎狂热使超过4万的网站在因特网上争夺生意，这是很引人注目的，只是到了近几年才被人限制在暗处。从最初到二十世纪九十年代中期，近80%的网络内容与成人有关。Even today, the adult-entertainment industry still drives the Internet, with profit margins of 30% or more, even thou

26、gh they have no off-line revenue stream generated by magazines, books, videocassettes, etc. But in the past couple of years, cybersex has moved uptown: There are four-star sex sites, which offer toys, books, videos, supplies, comics, magazines, and objects designed for “your erotic enjoyment.”即使今天，成

27、人娱乐产业依然推动着因特网的发展。尽管在脱机时不可能从杂志，书籍，录像带中获得收入，但即使如此，其利润率达到30%甚至更多。在过去十几年，网络色情在不断增加：四星级的色情网站提供玩具、书籍、录像带、供应品、漫画、杂志以及其他与“色情娱乐”有关的物品。 12. One of the Internets truly great features is that anybody can be a player who has an idea for a Web site and a few dollars to get it up and running. Possibly the most not

28、orious site of all is the one dreamed up by an 18-year-old dropout from Northeastern University in Boston, Shawn Fanning, nicknamed the “Napster” for his unruly red hair. 因特网最大的特点之一就是任何人都可以成为玩家，只要他对网络有了解，又有钱能够上网。也许名声最差的网站就是由18岁的Shawn Fanning创建的，他从波士顿东北大学退学，红色蓬乱的头发使他有“纳普斯特”这一绰号。He created the worlds

29、biggest online free-music community, which allows 38 million popular music lovers to swap hundreds of recordings, using the Napster system as a search engine to find exactly what they want.他创建了世界上最大的免费音乐社区在线，有3千8百万流行音乐爱好者在线上交流唱片，通过纳普斯特搜索引擎找到他们想要的音乐。 13. Napster has outraged everyone connected with t

30、he record business, from artists whose creative work was being hijacked to the Recording Industry Association of America, which brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction aimed at ending Napsters brief, if notorious life. It now appears, incredibly, that this deadlock may actually be resolved to almost

31、 everyones satisfaction.纳普斯特使唱片业的每个人感到震惊，从搞创作的艺术家到美国唱片业协会，并起诉纳普斯特，禁止其做法。不可思议的是，现在这一僵局真正得到了解决并且使每个人都满意。Napster users may pay a modest monthly fee, which will be divided up among those creating, producing, and delivering the music. Napster is receiving financial backing from the German media giant Ber

32、telsmann, which is getting a piece of Napster in return. 纳普斯特的使用者每月支付一定费用，这笔钱由音乐的创作者、录制者和传播者分配。纳普斯特也从德国媒体巨头贝塔斯曼那里得到了资金支持，作为回报，贝塔斯曼获得了纳普斯特的一部分。There is a sticking point, however, since its now unclear how to put a user name and price on every digital music file being downloaded. Its also unclear if Napster users will pay even a few bucks a month for the service.但是依然存在着难题，比如