People are being lured (引诱) onto Facebook with the promise of a fun, free service without realizing they’re paying for it by giving up large amounts of personal information. Facebook then attempts to make money by selling their data to advertisers that want to send targeted messages.
Most Facebook users don’t realize this is happening. Even if they know what the company is up to, they still have no idea what they’re paying for Facebook because people don’t really know what their personal data is worth.
The biggest problem, however, is that the company keeps changing the rules. Early on, you keep everything private. That was the great thing about facebook--you could create your own little private network. Last year, the company changed its privacy rules so that many things--your city, your photo, your friends' names--were set, by default (默认) to be shared with everyone on the Internet.
According to Facebook’s vice-president Elliot Schrage, the company is simply making changes to improve its service, and if people don’t share information, they have a “less satisfying experience”.
Some critics think this is more about Facebook looking to make more money. Its original business model, which involved selling ads and putting them at the side of the page, totally failed. Who wants to look at ads when they’re online connecting with their friends?
The privacy issue has already landed Facebook in hot water in Washington. In April, Senator(议员) Charles Schumer called on Facebook to change its privacy policy. He also urged the Federal Trade Commission to set guidelines for social-networking sites. “I think the senator rightly communicated that we had not been clear about what the new products were and how people could choose to use them or not to use them,” Schrage admits.
I suspect that whatever Facebook has done so far to invade our privacy is only the beginning, which is why I’m considering deactivating(撤销) my account. Facebook is a handy site, but I’m upset by the idea that my information is in the hands of people I don’t know. That’s too high a price to pay.What do we learn about Facebook from the first paragraph?
| A．It is a website that sends messages to targeted users. |
| B．It makes money by putting on advertisements. |
| C．It provides loads of information to its users. |
| D．It profits by selling its users’ personal data. |
Why does Facebook make changes to its rules according to Elliot Schrage?
| A．To provide better service to its users. |
| B．To follow the Federal guidelines. |
| C．To improve its users’ connectivity. |
| D．To expand its scope of business. |
What does Senator Charles Schumer advocate(倡导)?
| A．Setting guidelines for advertising on websites. |
| B．Banning the sharing of users’ personal information. |
| C．Removing ads from all social-networking sites. |
| D．Formulating (制订) regulations for social-networking sites.. |
Why does the author plan to cancel his Facebook account?
| A．He is dissatisfied with its present service. |
| B．He doesn’t want his personal data abused. |
| C．He finds many of its users untrustworthy. |
| D．He is upset by its frequent rule changes. |
After killing Osama Bin Laden and dropping his body into the ocean to avoid causing more hatred fro, the Muslims , the American government recently released a video of Osama Bin Laden living in his safe house watching TV , which has been viewed millions of times . The following are comments made by viewers .
A.Yeah , Osama got what he deserved , Iraq got what they deserved , and Afghanistan got what they deserved . Saddam got what he deserved , Hitler got what he deserved . The list goes on & on .
B.I hate saying this but is believe America deserved 9/11 … They have screwed up so many governments ….
C.I’m American and I and my brother suspected the whole story about dropping him into the ocean . We feel if they really killed him they would keep his body for proof .
D.All you Islamic haters are ignorant fools . The terrorists don’t have anything to do with the religion . They say they are part of the Islamic Religion but they are not . Nuking ( kill somebody with nuclear bombs ) Pakistan will do nothing by the way .
E.Please give me the 2 minutes of my life back that I watched your pointless and fake video .
F.Man ? Why is this video fake ? Rather than shouting about how it’s obviously not Osama , why not provide the arguments for it instead of coming off as if you simply want to deny it for the sake of denial .
G.What a load of nonsense , an insult to any intelligent person , Bin Laden dead for ages … watch Benazir Bhutto say so on YouTube a week before she herself was murdered . The Muslims murdered her for being an American spy !
H.I honestly don’t know what to believe , but … why did the terrorists confirm his death if it didn’t happen .. What can we learn from G ?
| A．Benazir Bhutto was murdered because she was working for Bin Laden . |
| B．Benazir Bhutto has been dead for a week since her murder . |
| C．Benazir Bhutto was killed because she collected information for American government . |
| D．Benazir Bhutto was a very intelligent woman working for You Tube . |
. Which of the following is TRUE ?
| A．Osama , Saddam , Hitler all come from the same country and are all dead . |
| B．B thinks America is to blame for so many terrorist attacks in the world . |
| C．C believes Bin Laden’s body is lying deep down in the ocean . |
| D．D thinks the Islamic people should be killed in other ways instead of by nuclear bombs . |
. What does G refer to by “ insult ” ?
| A．encouragement | B．disrespect | C．disadvantage | D．injury |
. It can be concluded from this passage that __________ .
| A．Some people have some problems believing in the American government |
| B．Bin Laden had been dead for quite a long time before his body was found |
| C．F thinks people have the habit of calling things fake because they have found the facts |
| D．Bin Laden’s death is still a mystery because the terrorists have denied it |
In Colombia , there are some unwritten rules that people are used to , These rules are not officially established , but people do respect them . For example , on a bus , a person keeps a distance from another person , and people don’t like to touch each other . Many people come to work late because they prefer to wait for another bus if the first one is too crowded . They don’t want to have to stand too close to another person , or maybe they are afraid of starting a conversation .
A friend of mine in Colombia once said his mom got angry because he came home late , so he asked her , “ Mom , what do you think of most people arriving at their jobs so late ? ” That gave her the answer to her question since everyone knows no one wants to get on a bus that is too crowded . His mother realized at that moment that customs have a big influence on a person’s life .
Sometimes , people don’t like to make any kind of conversation or make eye contact with others . For example , when they are in line at a bank , they prefer to look up or down rather than look at other people .
Moreover , people usually look down when they are in an elevator . Not only on a bus , in line at a bank , and in an elevator do people usually avoid talking to other people , but also in the streets when they are walking , they prefer to look down and to avoid contact with others .. Why do many people get to work late in Colombia ?
| A．They always think the next bus will be better . |
| B．They don’t want to get on crowded buses . |
| C．It’s an official rule in Colombia . |
| D．They get into conversations and miss their buses . |
. From the text we learn that __________ .
| A．customs influence people’s lives | B．a mother always understands her son |
| C．people respect each other in Colombia | D．people like to talk in elevators in Colombia |
. When people in Colombia are in line at banks , they __________ .
| A．make eye contact | B．look at other people |
| C．make conversation | D．look up or down |
. What would be the best title for the text ?
| A．What People Do in Different Situations | B．Avoid Getting on a Crowded Bus |
| C．Special Customs in Colombia | D．Obeying Unwritten Rules |
If you had been in my classes in the early McKee days , you would have seen a skinny young man in his late twenties with messy black hair , eyes that looked with a sign of infection , bad teeth and the hangdog look you see on immigrants in Ellis Island photographs or on pickpockets being arrested .
There were reasons for the hangdog look .
I was born in New York and taken to Ireland before I was four . I had three brothers . My father , an alcoholic , wild man , great patriot , always ready to die for Ireland , abandoned us when I was ten . A baby sister died , twin boys died , two boys were born . My mother begged for food , clothing , and coal to boil water for the tea . Neighbors told her to place us in an orphanage , a place for homeless kids . No , no , never . The shame of it . She hung on . We grew . My brothers and I left school at fourteen , worked , dreamed of America and , one by one , sailed away . my mother followed with the youngest , expecting to live happily ever after . That’s what you are supposed to do in America , but she never had a moment of happy-ever-after .
In New York I worked at laboring jobs till I was put into the United States Army . After two years in Germany I went to college on the GI Bill program to become a teacher . In college there were courses on literature and composition . There were courses on how to teach by professors who did not know how to teach . After college I went to McKee , where I put what I had learnt to trial and embarrassed myself when the students considered me a fool .. What is a hangdog look ?
| A．happy | B．disappointed | C．discouraged | D．angry |
. It can be inferred from this passage that __________ .
| A．before the author went to Ireland , he lived in New York . |
| B．the mother is living a joyful life in America with her little son |
| C．there are four sons in this Irish family living in America |
| D．the author is now a young teacher in his twenties teaching in a high school |
. Which of the following statements is TRUE ?
| A．Someone recommended the mother give the children away to kind people . |
| B．The author’s father sacrificed himself for his beloved homeland . |
| C．The author got into college because he was hard-working . |
| D．The author didn’t know much about how to teach when he first started . |
. In what way is the passage mainly developed ?
| A．Presenting effects and analyzing the causes . |
| B．Giving typical examples . |
| C．Describing things in space order . |
| D．Presenting an idea and arguing in favor of it . |
Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant. A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other? These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years — but unless we meet the truant officer （学监）, we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes （构成） “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.. By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that .
| A．work time is equal to rest time |
| B．many people have a day off on Monday |
| C．it is hard for people to decide when to rest |
| D．the line between work time and rest time is unclear |
The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people ________ .
| A．fail to make full use of their time | B．enjoy working overtime for extra pay |
| C．are unaware of the law of time | D．welcome flexible working hours |
According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they ______.
| A．need to acquire knowledge | B．have to obey their parents |
C．need to find companions | D．have to observe the law |
The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph probably refers to ___
_____ .
| A．influence |
| B．overtime |
| C．a law of time |
| D．being late to work |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Our life is governed by the law of time. | |
| B．How to organize time is not worth debating. |
C．New ways of using time change our society. |
| D．Our time schedule is decided by social customs. |
Movies in the theater get their recognition at awards ceremonies, such as the Oscars. But how about movies for phones? They are getting their turn at MoFilm—the first mobile film festival.
The first MoFilm competition received 250 entries from more than 100 countries. Entries were restricted to films that were five minutes or less in length—ideal for viewing and sharing on mobile phones. An independent jury then selected a shortlist of five film-makers. The winner was chosen from the shortlist by an audience voting using their phones.
New Platforms
The awards highlight the increasing impact that mobile phones are making in the entertainment industry. Many grassroots filmmakers start out with short films. They are thwarted by the lack of opportunities to screen their work. Therefore, mobile phones are increasingly being seen as a new platform for these short works.
It is a good place for anyone who wants to express themselves and find a way to have that expression be seen by a wide audience. Just think about how many people have mobile phones in the w
orld!
New Technology Advances
MoFilm is pioneering content for mobile and online services that is a world away from Hollywood. The majority of films made for mobiles are now short in length, taking into account the screen size. However this could be overcome as technology advances.
In the near future, longer films will likely be seen on the mobile phone. And there are mobile companies creating phones where users can watch movies at higher quality.
Wherever you see movies, one thing is certain: the quality of work, the simple ability at story telling, and the thing that inspires someone to tell a story can really come from anywhere At the first MoFilm, .
| A．movies in the theater got their recognition |
| B．more than 100 countries took part in the competition |
| C．ideal films were five minutes or less in length |
| D．the winner was chosen by experts' voting |
They are thwarted by the lack of opportunities to screen their work. The underlined word means “ ”.
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．frightened | D．encouraged |
Nowadays the majority of films made for mobiles are short in length because of .
| A．online services | B．the mobile phone | C．technology advances | D．the screen size |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Putting Movies on Mobiles |
| B．Introduction of Latest Mobile Phones |
| C．Mobile Phones’ Ceremonies |
| D．Film Awards Broadcast on Mobile Phones |
Which statement is NOT true?
| A．MoFilm is not a part of Hollywood. |
| B．Mobile phones are considered to be a new platform for short films. |
| C．MoFilm get their recognition through Oscars. |
| D．Films made for mobiles will likely be cleaner. |