主体句式：Its Global Compact Office has embraced a technology.

结构分析：该长句结构比较复杂。首先，which引导的定语从句用来补充说明Global Compact Office，两个破折号中间的内容则是具体说明前面提到的这项技术，而后面的that引导的从句则是对于hope的说明。

句子译文：旨在增进组织机构责任的全球微缩办公室，利用了一种曾经是边缘化的技术——维客——以帮助分布在80个国家的员工分享信息，减少达成决议前的各种讨论并加快速度。

② Wiki software——easy-to-use programs that let anyone with Internet access create, remove and edit content on a Web page——first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia, the user-generated encyclopedia that has come to be praised as one of the Web's greatest resources.

主体句式：Wiki software first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia.

结构分析：这个句子结构比较简单，但是由于附加了很多内容使得句子结构看上去有一些复杂。两个破折号中间的内容是对wiki software的定义，而第二个逗号后面的内容是对什么是Wikipedia的说明。

句子译文：维客软件——让任何能够上网的人可以轻松地创造、删除和编辑一个网页上的内容——由于维基百科的广泛使用而变得流行，而维基百科由于让网民来编写百科全书的内容而被誉为网上最伟大的资源。





题目分析


1. B 主旨题。纵观全篇文章，主要是在介绍wiki这项技术及其发展趋势。A选项的错误原因在于联合国采用维客技术只是一个引出文章的例子。C选项的错误原因在于文章的主旨并不是评论维客技术的优缺点。D选项的错误原因在于维客技术尚不成熟这一点同样不是文章的主题。

2. D 细节题。从全文来看，现在联合国和其他一些大的公司和组织机构都已经开始采用维客技术，文章第二段第二句话也说明了维客技术现在不仅仅属于那些bizarre tech people，而是变得越来越普遍，说明其应用前景是令人看好的。

3. C 细节题。文章第三段中提到“As Wikipedia has demonstrated, Web sites that are open to the public are vulnerable to deliberate injury, bias, inconsistency and other problems”，而这个问题尚未得到解决，因此C为正确答案。

4. A 细节题。该题的B、C、D选项都可以在文章第二段中找到答案，但是全文没有任何关于维客技术安全性的明确表述。文章第三段指出了对外使用维客技术存在的弱点和问题，而内部由于责任明确而相对比较安全。

5. C 细节题。C选项的原文对应信息为“a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki software”。A选项中，关于联合国这项新措施的结果我们尚未得知。B选项表述错误。D选项的表述并没有在文章中出现。





参考译文


联合国一向以冗长拖沓的审议而闻名，现在该机构正在尝试使用一种新的技术手段来迅速改善这种状况。旨在增进组织机构责任的全球微缩办公室，利用了一种曾经是边缘化的技术——维客——以帮助分布在80个国家的员工分享信息，减少达成决议前的各种讨论并加快速度。全球微缩办公室通过使公众参与到对2000余家公司的进展报告进行审查来实现这一点——这一努力的目的在于每一家公司都充分遵守已建立起来的社会和环境方针纲要。鼓励公众的参与是否能够增进效率还有待证实，但是联合国的这一行动是一种迅速发展的趋势的最新例证。

维客软件——让任何能够上网的人可以轻松地创造、删除和编辑一个网页上的内容——由于维基百科的广泛使用而变得流行，而维基百科由于让网民来编写百科全书的内容而被誉为网上最伟大的资源。现在这种技术正在大规模地传播，并已冲破那些技术怪人的世界而进入了主流世界，应用于工作场所、公司甚至是政府。在所谓的“维客工作场”中，越来越多的组织已经通过使用维客软件开始从传统的等级架构转变为一种自我组织和合作的网络——维客软件是一组技术组合，包括维客、博客以及其他工具——从而进行跨组织和跨地域的创新。管理人员们称这些新工具使得团队之间更容易合作和分享信息，并使得各个项目高效地进行。IBM 的信息和合作软件部门副总裁肯·比斯康蒂称“合作软件在公司如何创造和创新的过程中起到了非常重要的作用”。

联合国采用维客这一事件证明了一些组织正在开始克服维客技术会给操作带来混乱的恐惧。正如维基百科证明的那样，对于公众开放的网站非常容易引来各种伤害、偏见、矛盾和其他问题。但是大多数企业维客都是不对公众开放的，只允许在公司的防火墙内部的员工访问。技术专家称这些准封闭系统通过记录每一个改动以及改动者来使人们做到负责任。

IBM从2005年开始使用内部维客，并在考虑将这种概念卖给客户。其中的第一个用途就是雇员们通过维客来合作撰写一个博客宣言：一组如何在办公室内外合理使用博客的政策。成千上万的员工参与了宣言的撰写和修订，该宣言最后得到了公司的批准，成为了公司的官方政策。





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 charismatic boss 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）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2004年真题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


本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍一个流行的网络交友社区Facebook。第一段引出了话题；第二段主要介绍什么是Facebook；第三、四段说明了关于该网站发展的一些近况；第五、六段则介绍了Facebook的一些特点。





词汇注释


mogul /ˈməʊgl/ n. 显要人物；有权势的人

lament /ləˈment/ vt. 悲叹，悔恨，痛惜

registration /redʒɪsˈtreɪʃən/ n. 注册

repository /rɪˈpɒzɪtəri/ n. 贮藏室，仓库

poke /pəʊk/ vt. 戳，刺，捅；〈美俚〉激励

charismatic /ˌkærɪzˈmætɪk/ adj. 超凡魅力的

takeover /ˈteɪkˌəʊvə/ n. 接收；接管

gangsta /ˈgæŋstə/ n. 暴徒，黑社会成员

elite /eɪˈliːt/ n. 中坚分子，精英

revenue /ˈrevɪnjuː/ n. 收入





难句突破


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.

主体句式：Facebook is generating so much excitement that…

结构分析：该句是一个长句，其复杂的结构主要在that引导的从句中。从句分为并列的两个部分，以and 连接，其中后半部分中又嵌套了一个由that引导的同位语从句。

句子译文：今年夏天Facebook变得更加炙手可热，博客写手们将扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的苹果公司总裁史蒂夫·乔布斯相提并论，并把前者的公司称作“下一个谷歌”——如果公司股票很快就能上市的话。





题目分析


1. C 情感态度题。文章第一段中可以看出默多克先生称Facebook已经快超过了MySpace，因此不由哀叹，可见他对Facebook的崛起感到了警觉。A和B选项分别因为content 和support两个词就可以将该选项排除，D选项错误是因为默多克先生并没有表现出任何蔑视的态度。

2. A 细节题。文章第二段指出，Facebook用户必须要用自己的真实姓名和电子邮件地址进行注册，但是这并不意味着网站就因此而更加安全，至少文章中没有提到这一点，因此该选项不正确。

3. D 语义题。文章第四段说一些投资者想要抽回他们的资金，但是“扎克伯格先生只有23岁，他并不需要钱”。根据上下文的意思，扎克伯格现在并不需要用那么多钱来做任何事情，而且他非常年轻，即使现在经历任何的失败，都随时有可能东山再起、卷土重来，因此可以推断D选项总结了该句子的意思。

4. B 推理题。从文章第五段中可以看出，Facebook的创始人来自于哈佛大学，因此Facebook一开始是在精英大学的校园里传播的，早期并没有向公众开放。而且有研究者认为Facebook的使用者都是一些“好孩子”。需要注意的是该选项中用了was一词，表明Facebook是以前仅限于精英大学。A选项中将因果关系倒置了，因此是错误的。C错误的原因在于Facebook流行的原因并不仅仅因为其创立者是一个大学生，主要还是因为它的经营模式和理念。D选项的表述显然是错误的。

5. C 情感态度题。纵观全文，作者在阐述Facebook的发展历程时，态度是非常客观的，并没有直接加入任何个人的感情色彩。





参考译文


老人们经常惊讶于网络更新速度之快，今天还是“网络之最”的一个东西也许很快就不再占据第一的位置。同样的事情也发生在70岁的传媒巨头罗伯特·默多克身上。两年前他收购了社交网站MySpace，现在已经成为了全球最大的网上交友社区。但是不久前我们却听说默多克先生在哀叹MySpace已经变成了明日黄花，因为现在所有的人都在用Facebook，全球第二大交友网站，最新统计数据表明已有3100万人注册使用。

Facebook始于2004年，由当时未满20岁的哈佛大学学生马克·扎克伯格和他的两个朋友创立。该网站要求用户使用他们的真实姓名和电子邮件地址进行注册，此后用户就能极其轻松地找到他们现在和以前的朋友及同事。每一个Facebook账号都是个人信息和照片的陈列室，在这里朋友之间可以尽情八卦、交换信息、甚至是“捅一下”对方。

今年夏天Facebook变得更加炙手可热，博客写手们将扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的苹果公司总裁史蒂夫·乔布斯相提并论，并把前者的公司称作“下一个谷歌”——如果公司股票很快就能上市的话。这是有可能的。扎克伯格先生已经拒绝了一些新老媒体巨头慷慨的收购计划，其中包括雅虎和Viacom。他三个姐姐中的一个也在Facebook工作，不久前她在网上放了一个视频嘲笑雅虎的收购申请，并且大力支持公司的“首次公开募股”。现在Facebook正在打广告招募一个熟知股票发行规则的“股票管理经理”。

不过扎克伯格坚持说他自己对于“所有的人的‘出路’都如此关注感到惊讶”。事实上他现在对讨论这个问题已经感到厌烦。一些资助Facebook的投机资本家想要抽出资金，但是扎克伯格先生只有23岁，他并不需要钱。他碰巧也信奉——就像年轻的谷歌创始人一样——他能够，也应该改变这个世界。

Facebook有以下一些特点。首先，目前人们认为它比MySpace等交友社区档次更高。一个学者称Facebook是给“好孩子”用的，而MySpace的用户群都是蓝领工人的孩子和黑社会成员。Facebook的根基在于广大大学生。毕竟，扎克伯格先生是在哈佛创立的Facebook，并从那里散播到了其他的精英大学。该网站仅在去年9月才向公众开放。

但是，扎克伯格先生认为最大的不同点在于Facebook正在变成一个“平台”。他的意思是Facebook正在转变为一项新技术，在此之上可以建立新的软件工具和业务。五月的时候扎克伯格先生对外开放了这一功能，承诺任何第三方可以全部保留他们在Facebook上取得的广告收入。现在已经有成千上万的小工具被创造出来，使得Facebook用户能够分享和发现音乐、玩益智游戏，还可以相互借钱以及使用其他各种功能。





Unit 41


As he lays out his vision for the future of open-source software, Mark Shuttleworth is enthusiastic, but he looks tired. He has been up late negotiating yet another deal as part of his mission to bring open source to a wider audience. A successful South African entrepreneur during the dotcom era, he wants open-source advocates to lose their religion and concentrate on ease-of-use instead. And he is putting his money where his mouth is. Since 2004, he has been using his fortune to fund the Ubuntu project, which makes a user-friendly version of Linux, the open-source operating system. Ubuntu is a Zulu and Xhosa term that roughly means “universal bond of sharing between humans”. Ubuntu's slogan is “Linux for human beings”, and it is aimed at mainstream computer users. For although Linux is popular on servers, it is not, so far, used on many desktops.

In part that is because open-source software tends to polarise opinion. It has many critics who suspect that software written by idealistic guys, and made available free to anyone who wants to download it, must be some kind of communist plot. Zealous believers, meanwhile, long for open source to triumph over the evil empires of commercial software. This clash is often depicted as an epic struggle between Linux and Microsoft's proprietary Windows operating system. But the truth is that most computer users do not know or care about the politics of open-source software. Mr Shuttleworth says most people simply want to read their e-mail, browse the web and so on.

“It's very easy to declare victory,”says Mr Shuttleworth, describing the conceited attitude of some open-source supporters. “There are big chunks of the software world that depend on free software.”But Ubuntu's aim is not to conquer the software establishment and replace its products. Rather than seeing open-source software as one of two competing ideologies and focusing on the struggle, Ubuntu thinks about the user. Ubuntu is a complete bundle of software, from operating system to applications and programming tools, that is updated every six months and, says Mr Shuttleworth, will always be free. Taking the debate out of open source is intended to move adoption beyond politically motivated enthusiasts and encourage mass adoption of the software on its merits.

It is a bold scheme, but Mr Shuttleworth is not a man to think small. He was raised in a suburb of Cape Town, an unlikely place from which to join the internet revolution. Yet that was his goal from the day he first used a web browser. When he saw that the internet was switching from a text-based to a graphical medium, “I sensed that everything was going to change,”he says. He spent a couple of years looking for the right way to get involved, given his situation. “I had to find something to do that was cutting-edge, without requiring much bandwidth or venture capital,”he says. He succeeded handsomely by setting up a company, Thawte, that made digital certificates and security software to support internet commerce. He sold the firm for over $500m to VeriSign in 1999, near the peak of the dotcom boom.

注（1）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2004年真题Text 3。

1. By the word “religion”（Line 4, Paragraph 1), the author means_______.

A) Christianity

B) religious advocation

C) mysterious thoughts

D) crazy belief

2. How does the author feel about the Ubuntu project?

A) Objective.

B) Optimistic.

C) Discouraged.

D) Confused.

3. When mentioning “Mr Shuttleworth is not a man to think small”（Line 1, Paragraph 4) the author means_______.

A) Mr Shuttleworth does not look small

B) Mr Shuttleworth is very ambitious

C) Mr Shuttleworth does not like to think about small projects

D) Mr Shuttleworth only cares about important and great things

4. What is the difference between Mr Shuttleworth and some zealous open-source advocates?

A) Mr Shuttleworth focuses on the popularity and mass applicability of the open-source software.

B) Mr Shuttleworth intends to arouse the public awareness of the political controversy on open-source.