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）：本文選自Economist, 07/21/2007

   注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2004年真題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 the good reason to use Facebook?

    [A] One can use false name to register.

    [B] One can find high school classmates easily.

    [C] One can have interesting communication with friends.

    [D] One can share pictures and other materials.

   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 like money

    [B] Mr Zuckerberg is too young to have too much money.

    [C] Mr Zuckerberg does not need money for maintaining Facebook.

    [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 college students.

    [B] Facebook is popular among those of higher education.

    [C] Both MySpace and Facebook are gaining popularity in universities.

    [D] Both MySpaced and Facebook are always 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

    本文是一篇說明文，主要介紹一個流行的網(wǎng)絡交友社區(qū)Facebook。第一段引出了話題；第二段主要介紹什么是Facebook；第三、四段說明了關于該網(wǎng)站發(fā)展的一些近況；第五、六段則介紹了Facebook的一些特點。

   詞匯注釋

   Mogul [mEu`gQl] n. 顯要人物；有權勢的人  charismatic [9kAriz`mAtik] adj. 超凡魅力的

   lament [lE`ment] vi. 悔恨, 悲嘆            takeover n. 接收；接管

   registration [9redVis`treiFEn] n. 注冊         gangstas [`gANstE] n. 暴徒，黑社會成員

   repository [ri`pCzitEri] n. 貯藏室, 倉庫      elite [ei`li:t] n. 中堅分子, 精英

   poke [pEuk] vi. 戳, 刺, 捅                 revenue [`revinju:] n. 收入

   難句突破

   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.

   主體句式  Facebook is generating so much excitement that…

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  該句子是一個長句，其復雜的結(jié)構(gòu)主要在that引導的從句中。從句分為并列的兩個部分，以and 連接，其中后半個部分中又套了一個以that引導的同位語從句。

   句子譯文  今年夏天Facebook變得更加炙手可熱，博客寫手們將扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的蘋果公司總裁史蒂夫·喬布斯相提并論，并把前者的公司稱作“下一個Google”—如果公司股票很快就能上市的話。

   題目分析

   1．C. 態(tài)度題。文章第一段中可以看出默多克先生稱Facebook已經(jīng)快趕上了MySpace，因此不由哀嘆，可見他對Facebook的崛起感到了警覺。

   2．A. 細節(jié)題。從文章第二段的描述中可以看出，F(xiàn)acebook用戶必須要用自己的真實姓名和電子郵件地址進行注冊，因此選項不符合。

   3．D.語義題。文章第四段中說道一些投資者想要抽回他們的資金，但是“扎克伯格先生只有23歲，他并不需要錢”，根據(jù)上下文的意思，扎克伯格現(xiàn)在并不需要用那么多錢來做任何事情，而且他非常年輕，即使現(xiàn)在經(jīng)歷任何的失敗，都隨時有可能東山再起、卷土重來，因此可以推斷該句子的意思為D選項。

   4．B. 細節(jié)題。從文章第五段中可以看出，F(xiàn)acebook的創(chuàng)始人來自于哈佛大學，因此Facebook一開始是在精英大學的校園里傳播的，早期并沒有向公眾開放。而且有研究者認為Facebook的使用者都是一些“好孩子”。由此可見Faceook在接受過較高等教育的人群中更加流行。

   5．C. 態(tài)度題�？v觀全文，作者在闡述Facebook的發(fā)展歷程時，態(tài)度是非常客觀的，并沒有直接加入任何其個人的感情色彩。

  參考譯文

    老人們經(jīng)常驚訝于網(wǎng)絡更新速度之快，今天還是“網(wǎng)絡之比較”的一個東西也許很快就不再是占據(jù)第一的位置。同樣的事情也發(fā)生在70歲的傳媒巨頭羅伯特··默多克身上。兩年前他收購了社交網(wǎng)站MySpace，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為了全球比較大的網(wǎng)上交友社區(qū)。但是不久前我們卻聽說默多克先生在哀嘆MySpace已經(jīng)變成了明日黃花，因為現(xiàn)在所有的人都在用Facebook，全球第二大交友網(wǎng)站，比較新統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)表明已有3100萬人注冊使用。

    Facebook始于2004年，由當時未滿20歲的哈佛大學學生馬克·扎克伯格和他的兩個朋友創(chuàng)立。該網(wǎng)站要求用戶提供他們的真實姓名和電子郵件地址進行注冊，此后用戶就能極其輕松地找到他們現(xiàn)在和以前的朋友及同事。每一個Facebook賬號都是個人信息和照片的陳列室，在這里朋友之間可以盡情八卦、交換信息、甚至是“撓”對方。

    今年夏天Facebook變得更加炙手可熱，博客寫手們將扎克伯格先生和富有魅力的蘋果公司總裁史蒂夫·喬布斯相提并論，并把前者的公司稱作“下一個Google”—如果公司股票很快就能上市的話。這是有可能的。扎克伯格先生已經(jīng)拒絕了一些新老媒體巨頭慷慨的收購計劃，其中包括雅虎和Viacom。他三個姐姐中的一個也在Facebook工作，不久前她在網(wǎng)上放了一個視頻嘲笑雅虎的收購申請，并且大力支持公司的“首次公開募股”�，F(xiàn)在Facebook正在打廣告招募一個熟知股票發(fā)行規(guī)則的“股票管理經(jīng)理”。

    扎克伯格堅持說他自己對于“所有的人對‘出局’都如此關注感到驚訝”。事實上他現(xiàn)在對討論這個問題已經(jīng)感到厭煩。一些資助Facebook的投機資本家想要抽出資金，但是扎克伯格先生只有23歲，他并不需要錢。他碰巧也信奉—就像年輕的Google創(chuàng)始人一樣—他能夠，也應該改變這個世界。

    Facebook有以下一些特點。首先，目前人們認為它比MySpace等交友社區(qū)更加經(jīng)典。一個學者稱Facebook是給“好孩子”用的，而MySpace的用戶群都是藍領工人的孩子和黑社會成員。Facebook的根基在于廣大大學生。畢竟，扎克伯格先生是在哈佛創(chuàng)立的Facebook，并從那里散播到了其他的精英大學。該網(wǎng)站僅在去年9月才向公眾開放。

    但是，扎克伯格先生認為比較大的不同點在于Facebook正在變成一個“平臺”。他的意思是現(xiàn)在引入了一項新的技術，從而在Facebook這個平臺上可以建立新的軟件工具和業(yè)務。五月的時候扎克伯格先生對外開放了這一功能，承諾任何第三方可以全部保留他們在Facebook上取得的廣告收入�，F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有成千上萬的小工具被創(chuàng)造出來，使得Facebook用戶能夠分享和發(fā)現(xiàn)音樂、表演、益智游戲等，還可以相互借錢以及其他各種功能。