本文是考研英语试卷阅读理解Part A的Text 2部分。本文主要讲述了网络隐私问题,就“在线行为广告”引发的争议展开论述,随后追溯了争议的相关解决方案。
An old saying has it that half of all advertising budgets are wasted-the trouble is, no one knows which half.
老话说的好,广告费的一半是浪费了的——问题是,没人知道哪一半浪费掉的。
In the internet age, at least in theory, this fraction can be much reduced.
在互联网时代,至少在理论上,这一浪费的部分能够减少。
By watching what people search for, click on and say online, companies can aim “behavioural” ads at those most likely to buy.
通过观察人们搜索什么,点击什么,在网络上说什么,公司能够瞄准那些更容易购买的客户投放“行为”广告。
26. It is suggested in paragraph 1 that “behavioural” ads help advertisers to:第一段表明,“行为”广告帮助广告商:[A] ease competition among themselves缓和他们之间的竞争[B] lower their operational costs降低运营成本[C] avoid complaints from consumers避免消费者的抱怨[D] provide better online services提供更好的网络服务答案:B。解析:第一句就指出了,广告费花费了有一半被浪费掉了。后面指出互联网时代广告费用大幅减少,因为公司(广告商)能够将“行为”广告投放给最有可能购买的人群。由此可知,“行为广告”能帮助广告商“降低运营成本”这句话最符合题意。
In the past couple of weeks a quarrel has illustrated the value to advertisers of such fine-grained information: Should advertisers assume that people are happy to be tracked and sent behavioural ads? Or should they have explicit permission?
在过去几周,一场争论表明这些精准信息对于广告商的价值:广告商应该假定用户乐于被追踪并且收到这些广告吗?或者应该获得用户明确的准许?
In December Americas Federal Trade Cornmission (FTC) proposed adding a "do not track "(DNT) option to internet browsers ,so that users could tell advertisers that they did not want to be followed .
在12月,美国联邦贸易委员会建议提出一个“禁止追踪”的选项加入到网络浏览器中,以便用户能告诉广告商他们不想被“追踪”。
Microsofts Internet Explorer and Apples Safari both offer DNT ;Googles Chrome is due to do so this year. In February the FTC and Digltal Advertising Alliance (DAA) agreed that the industry would get cracking on responding to DNT requests.
微软的IE浏览器和苹果的Safari浏览器提供了“禁止追踪”选项;谷歌的Chrome浏览器在今年准备提供这样的功能。2月,联邦贸易委员会和数字广告联盟同意该行业尽快对“禁止追踪”这一请求作出回应。
27. “The industry” (Line 6, Para.3) refers to:“该行业”指的是:[A] online advertisers在线广告商[B] e-commerce conductors电子商务运营[C] digital information analysis数字信息分析者[D] internet browser developers网络浏览器开发商答案:D。解析:FTC和DAA一致认为the industry会对DNT要求迅速做出回应。前面又指出FTC提议在浏览器上添加DNT选项,可见这个提议的动作执行者在浏览器开发商。可见FTC和DAA提议的the industry就是浏览器开发商。
On May 31st Microsoft set off the row: It said that Internet Explorer 10, the version due to appear windows 8, would have DNT as a default.
微软在五月31日率先发起讨论,它表明随windows8一起发布的IE 10,将把“禁止追踪”选项设为默认状态。
Advertisers are horrified .
广告商慌神了。
Human nature being what it is,most people stick with default settings.
人性本质上是,大多数人还是坚持默认设置的。
Few switch DNT on now,but if tracking is off it will stay off.
很少人会打开DNT选项,但是如果“追踪”是关闭的那么它就一直关闭了。
Bob Liodice,the chief executive of the Association of National Advertisers,says consumers will be worse off if the industry cannot collect information about their preferences.
国家广告协会会长Bob Liodice 表示,如果这个行业不能收集消费者们的偏好信息,消费者的情况将会更糟。
People will not get fewer ads,he says.“They’ll get less meaningful,less targeted ads.
人们看到的广告不会更少,他们会得到更多的“无意义的”、更不精确的目标广告。
28. Bob Liodice holds that setting DNT as a defaultBob Liodice坚称设置“禁止追踪”为默认选项[A] may cut the number of junk ads可能减少垃圾广告[B] fails to affect the ad industry对这个行业没有影响[C] will not benefit consumers对消费者不利[D] goes against human nature违反人性答案:C。解析:Bob Liodice指出了消费者的情况会更糟糕,收到的广告不会变少,反而会出现更多无意义的广告。所以C正确。
It is not yet clear how advertisers will respond.
还不清楚广告商怎么回应。
Getting a DNT signal does not oblige anyone to stop tracking, although some companies have promised to do so.
收到“DNT”信号并不能迫使企业去停止追踪,尽管一些企业承诺会这么做。
Unable to tell whether someone really objects to behavioural ads or whether they are sticking with Microsoft’s default, some may ignore a DNT signal and press on anyway.
由于不能分辨出用户是拒绝“行为”广告还是他们只是坚持微软的默认选项,一些企业可能忽略“禁止追踪”的信号并且继续追踪。
29. which of the following is true according to Paragraph.6?根据第六段,下面哪一个是正确的?[A] DNT may not serve its intended purpose“禁止追踪”可能不能取得预期目标[B] Advertisers are willing to implement DNT广告商更希望执行“禁止追踪”选项[C] DNT is losing its popularity among consumers“禁止追踪”在消费者之中并不流行[D] Advertisers are obliged to offer behavioural ads广告商有责任提供“行为”广告答案:A。解析:公司收到DNT信号并不意味着一定要求停止追踪,而且由于他们不清楚消费者心理,可能也会对DNT默认信号加以忽略。由此,DNT并不能达到限制公司获取用户在线行为信息的目的。所以A合适。
Also unclear is why Microsoft has gone it alone.
并且也不清楚为什么微软一意孤行的发起行动。
After all, it has an ad business too, which it says will comply with DNT requests, though it is still working out how.
毕竟,它也有商业广告业务。据称这些业务也遵守“禁止追踪”选项设定。不过还在具体怎样实施还在研究当中。
If it is trying to upset Google, which relies almost wholly on advertising,it has chosen an indirect method: there is no guarantee that DNT by default will become the norm.
如果它是想让谷歌不高兴,谷歌的业务几乎全靠广告支持。它选择了一个不太直接的方式,没有保证说能将“‘禁止追踪’设为默认状态”成为行业规范。
DNT does not seem an obviously huge selling point for windows 8-though the firm has compared some of its other products favorably with Googles on that count before.
“禁止追踪”看起来也不能成为Windows 8的巨大卖点,尽管此前这个公司将旗下一些产品与谷歌的进行了有利对比。
Brendon Lynch, Microsofts chief privacy officer, blogged:" we believe consumers should have more control." Could it really be that simple?
Brendon Lynch,微软首席隐私官,在博客中写道:我们相信消费者将有更多的控制权。真的那么简单吗?
30. The authors attitude towards what Brendon Lynch said in his blog is one of:作者对Brendon Lynch在博客中所说的态度是:[A] indulgence纵容[B] understanding理解[C] appreciation欣赏[D] skepticism怀疑答案:D。解析:Brendon Lynch说消费者应该拥有更多控制权,但是作者后面又反问:真的那么简单吗?可见,作者对Brendon Lynch的观点是怀疑的。