2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 36

Unit 36

Sometimes it seems as if Google has never come across an industry it doesn’t want to disrupt. Best known for its hugely popular search engine, the Internet giant has spread its tentacles into an ever-growing array of businesses, including advertising, telecoms and, most recently, digital-navigation software. The company’s habit of selling services cheaply or giving them away for free has endeared it to consumers. But its tactics have enraged competitors, who complain their new rival is out to destroy the economics of entire industries.

Such griping has been loudest in the worlds of publishing and entertainment. Although media companies are hooked on the money they mint via adverts that run on Google and its YouTube video-streaming business, many of them also accuse the search firm of commoditising their content and of undermining their profits by making it easy for marketers to track the effectiveness of online ad spend. “You’re fucking with the magic,” says the boss of one big media company to Google’s founders in a memorable scene recounted at the start of Ken Auletta’s new book.

Mr Auletta, an American journalist and long-time commentator on the media industry, dismisses claims that Google’s programming wizards are to blame for putting a jinx on the media world. Instead, he places the blame squarely, and correctly, on the publishing and movie executives who failed to appreciate the speed with which the Internet would sap their companies’ fortunes. They were also slow to spot that, although Google presented itself as a friend, it had all the hallmarks of a powerful enemy too. Now the frenemy has become a scapegoat for many of the industry’s self-inflicted wounds.

Mr Auletta does a respectable job of reviewing the media companies’ predicaments. He also rehearses some of the well-known elements of Google’s culture that have helped transform it from a start-up launched in a garage 11 years ago to a colossus with ambitions to become the world’s first media company with revenues of $100 billion. Among other things, these include lavish stock options, perks such as free meals and massages, and a rigorous and sometimes quirky recruitment process.

More compelling are the book’s insights into the relationship between the members of the triumvirate that runs Google—Mr Brin, Larry Page, his co-founder, and Eric Schmidt, the chief executive, who arrived at Google several years after its launch. Brought in at the behest of venture capitalists that have backed the firm, Mr Schmidt found himself treading a delicate path between the sensibilities of the brilliant but socially awkward founders and the demands of the impatient financiers. With the help of a veteran Silicon Valley executive who acts as a coach, the three men ultimately developed an effective working relationship.

Which is just as well, for Google now faces some formidable challenges. Fast-growing social networks such as Facebook are after a much bigger chunk of online ad dollars. And Google’s size has begun to attract the attention of anti-trust watchdogs in areas such as digital book scanning, where it has ambitious plans. This hardly amounts to the end of Google’s dominance as we know it. But if the company misplays its hand, it could turn out to be the beginning of the end.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象：第1~5題分別模仿2002年真題Text 4第1、2題，Text 2第2題和Text 3第4、5題。

1. From the passage we can infer that ______.

A) media companies are blind to the benefit brought by Google

B) business response towards Google’s practice is in sharply contrast with that of consumers

C) Google is to be blamed for reducing the profit of most media companies

D) Google tends to disrupt every industry it touches upon

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?

A) Google barely intends to be friends with other media companies.

B) Google is currently generating an annual revenue of $100 billion.

C) Media companies should blame themselves for their decline.

D) Google’s triumvirate management structure poses a disadvantage to the company’s operation.

3. The word “jinx”（Line 2, Paragraph 3）most probably means ______.

A) disadvantage

B) competition

C) dilemma

D) bad luck

4. We can conclude from the text that ______.

A) Ken Auletta shows a professional insight in this book

B) Ken Auletta writes this book from a subjective perspective

C) Ken Auletta demonstrates a pessimistic view on Google’s future

D) Ken Auletta writes this book to defend Google

5. The author’s attitude towards Ken Auletta’s new book seems to be ______.

A) positive

B) negative

C) doubtful

D) uncertain

篇章剖析

本篇文章介紹了美國記者肯·奧萊塔關(guān)于Google公司的一本新書。文章第一、二段描述了其他公司對Google公司的指責(zé)，這是這本書的寫作背景。第三段介紹了肯在書中如何為Google辯護(hù)；第四段簡述了Google取得成功的一些自身因素；第五段介紹了該書最吸引人的部分，即對Google三巨頭的關(guān)系的描述；最后一段指出了Google現(xiàn)在面臨的挑戰(zhàn)。

詞匯注釋

tentacle /?tent?kl/ n. 觸須，觸角

array /??rei/ n. （排列整齊的）一批，一系列，大量

navigation /?n?v??ge???n/ n. 導(dǎo)引，導(dǎo)航

tactic /?t?kt?k/ n. 策略，手段

enrage /?n?re?d?/ v. 激怒，使憤怒

squarely /?skw??li/ adv. 正當(dāng)?shù)?，誠實(shí)地，干脆地

sap /s?p/ v. 削弱，逐漸消耗

scapegoat /?ske?pg?ut/ n. 替人頂罪者，替罪羊

predicament /?pr??d?k?m?nt/ n. 尷尬的處境，困境，危境

colossus /k??l?s?s/ n. 巨人，巨大的東西

perk /p??k/ n. 津貼，額外補(bǔ)貼

triumvirate /tra???mv?r?t/ n. 三人執(zhí)政，三頭政治

behest /b??hest/ n. 命令，指示；邀請

tread /tred/ v. 踩，踏，在…上面走

難句突破

Although media companies are hooked on the money they mint via adverts that run on Google and its YouTube video-streaming business, many of them also accuse the search firm of commoditising their content and of undermining their profits by making it easy for marketers to track the effectiveness of online ad spend.

主體句式：...many of them also accuse the search firm of...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句開頭是一個由although引導(dǎo)的讓步狀語從句，從句中包含了一個省略引導(dǎo)詞that的定語從句they mint via adverts，修飾money，而之后的that run on Google and its YouTube video-streaming business又是修飾adverts的定語從句。后半個句子為主句，主語為many of them，謂語動詞為accuse，基本結(jié)構(gòu)是sb. accuse sb. of sth.。

句子譯文：雖然媒體公司貪戀通過在Google及其擁有的YouTube流媒體業(yè)務(wù)上投放廣告獲得的收益，其中許多公司還是指責(zé)Google使其內(nèi)容變得商品化，同時也減少了他們的利潤，因?yàn)镚oogle使得市場營銷人員能輕易了解網(wǎng)絡(luò)廣告投入的成效。

題目分析

1. B 推理題。文章第一段中說“該公司一貫以提供低價甚至免費(fèi)的服務(wù)而深受用戶歡迎。但其經(jīng)營戰(zhàn)略卻激怒了它的競爭者，他們抱怨這個新來的對手就是存心要把整個行業(yè)搞垮?！笨芍?，商界和消費(fèi)者對于Google的態(tài)度是截然不同的，因此B選項(xiàng)正確。A選項(xiàng)中“be blind to”意為“對…視而不見，無視”，但文中說媒體公司貪戀Google帶來的收益，因此選項(xiàng)與文章表述不符。第三段中明確表示，書籍作者認(rèn)為Google只是“替罪羊”，因此C項(xiàng)不正確。D選項(xiàng)意為“Google會破壞它所涉及的每一個行業(yè)”，由原文可知，這個觀點(diǎn)已被作者批駁。

2. C 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第三段提到“Google以盟友形象出現(xiàn)”，因此A不正確。1000億美金的年收入是Google的目標(biāo)，而不是目前的實(shí)際情況，因此B也不正確。文章第五段最后一句話指出三位Google的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者最終找到了一種有效的合作關(guān)系，說明他們的合作并沒有影響到公司的運(yùn)營，所以D也不正確。第三段作者認(rèn)為出版和電影業(yè)主管們應(yīng)該為自己造成的錯誤負(fù)責(zé)，可見C是最符合原文的選項(xiàng)。

3. D 語義題。文章第二段提到“其中大多數(shù)還是指責(zé)Google使其內(nèi)容變得商品化，同時也減少了他們的利潤”。也就是說很多媒體公司都認(rèn)為是Google導(dǎo)致了他們現(xiàn)在的困境。文中并沒有出現(xiàn)表示優(yōu)劣勢對比（disadvantage）、競爭（competition）或兩難境地（dilemma）的內(nèi)容，因此從四個選項(xiàng)中看來只有D最符合文章的意思?！癹inx”這個詞的意思是“不祥物”。

4. A 推理題。文章第三段指出奧萊塔是一位媒體行業(yè)的資深評論人，又說他在書中“公正且正確地指出…”，可見他在書中的分析是客觀而專業(yè)的，并沒有偏袒Google，因此B和D都不正確，A是正確選項(xiàng)。此外，雖然文章最后一句話說“但如果Google一著出錯，就有可能成為終結(jié)的導(dǎo)火索?！钡@只是一個假設(shè)，該書作者并沒有體現(xiàn)出對Google未來的悲觀情緒，因此C選項(xiàng)也不正確。

5. A 情感態(tài)度題。從文章的選詞和觀點(diǎn)看來，作者對這本新書是持欣賞態(tài)度的。如第三段中的“squarely”，第四段中的“respectable”，以及第五段中的“compelling”等。第三段還指出“他駁斥了Google的編程奇才是給媒體業(yè)帶來災(zāi)難的元兇的說法。事實(shí)上他公正且正確地指出，真正應(yīng)該負(fù)責(zé)的是出版和電影業(yè)的主管們…”，很顯然是贊同支持奧萊塔的觀點(diǎn)。因此A是正確選項(xiàng)。

參考譯文

Google有時看起來像是從未遇到過它不想涉足的行業(yè)。這家網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭最為人所知的是其廣受歡迎的搜索引擎，它還把觸角伸向了越來越多的領(lǐng)域，包括廣告、電信以及最近涉足的數(shù)字導(dǎo)航軟件。該公司一貫以提供低價甚至免費(fèi)的服務(wù)而深受用戶歡迎。但其經(jīng)營戰(zhàn)略卻激怒了它的競爭者，他們抱怨這個新來的對手就是存心要把整個行業(yè)搞垮。

這種怨言在出版業(yè)和娛樂業(yè)尤甚。雖然媒體公司貪戀通過在Google及其擁有的YouTube流媒體業(yè)務(wù)上投放廣告獲得的收益，其中許多公司還是指責(zé)Google使其內(nèi)容變得商品化，同時也減少了他們的利潤，因?yàn)镚oogle使得市場營銷人員能輕易了解網(wǎng)絡(luò)廣告投入的成效。一家大媒體公司的老板對Google的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人說：“你在糟蹋這種魔力?！边@一幕令人印象深刻的場景被肯·奧萊塔記錄在了新書的開頭。

奧萊塔是美國記者，同時也是媒體行業(yè)的資深評論員，他駁斥了Google的編程奇才是給媒體業(yè)帶來災(zāi)難的元兇的說法。事實(shí)上他公正且正確地指出，真正應(yīng)該負(fù)責(zé)的是出版和電影業(yè)的主管們，他們沒能正確意識到互聯(lián)網(wǎng)將以怎樣的速度消耗他們公司的未來。他們也太晚才發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管Google以盟友形象出現(xiàn)，它卻具有一個強(qiáng)敵的所有標(biāo)志?，F(xiàn)在這位友敵成為了替罪羊，媒體業(yè)將許多自己造成的錯誤歸咎于它。

奧萊塔先生做了一項(xiàng)可敬的工作：回顧了媒體公司的困境。他還推演了Google文化中一些廣為人知的要素，這些要素幫助Google從11年前在小車庫中創(chuàng)辦的小公司發(fā)展成為現(xiàn)在的大型企業(yè)，志在成為年收入1000億美金的全球頭號媒體公司。除其他方面以外，這些要素包括豐厚的認(rèn)股權(quán)、免費(fèi)餐和按摩等福利，以及嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)而有時怪異的招聘程序。

更吸引讀者的是本書探究了Google三巨頭之間的關(guān)系——布林、聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人拉里·佩奇，以及Google成立幾年之后才加入的首席執(zhí)行官埃里克·施密特。施密特進(jìn)入Google是應(yīng)支持該公司的風(fēng)險投資者邀請，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己要小心地維護(hù)兩位才華洋溢卻不善交際的創(chuàng)始人與急迫的投資人之間的敏感關(guān)系。在一位資深硅谷主管的指導(dǎo)幫助下，三人最終形成了一種有效的合作關(guān)系。

這是件好事，因?yàn)镚oogle現(xiàn)在面臨一些艱巨的挑戰(zhàn)。快速發(fā)展的社交網(wǎng)如Facebook正在尋求更大數(shù)額的在線廣告資金。而且Google的規(guī)模在一些領(lǐng)域已經(jīng)開始引起了反壟斷監(jiān)督部門的注意，例如它希望一展宏圖的電子書掃描領(lǐng)域。據(jù)我們所知，這幾乎不能等同于Google統(tǒng)治地位的終結(jié)。但如果Google一著出錯，就有可能成為終結(jié)的導(dǎo)火索。