2. 外语
  3. Read the article below about the real intentions of customers and the questions on the opposite page. For each question(13-1

Read the article below about the real intentions of customers and the questions on the opposite page. For each question(13-1

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问题     Read the article below about the real intentions of customers and the questions on the opposite page.
    For each question(13-18), mark one letter(A, B, C or D)on your Answer Sheet.
                    Turning Consumers into Customers
    The expression "supply and demand" was first coined as "demand and supply", by James Denham-Steuart in An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, written in 1767. In his Inquiry, Denham-Steuart says of demand, "It must constantly appear reciprocal. If I demand a pair of shoes, the shoemaker either demands money, or something else for his own use," adding, "The nature of demand is to encourage industry." Nine years later, in The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote, "The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence."
    It helps to revisit these elementary lessons because we’ve been ignoring them on the Web—at the cost of billions of dollars in lost opportunities for businesses other than those driven by advertising and " big data" farming.
    To see what I mean, consider this fact: you are not a customer of Facebook or Twitter. Nor of Google’s search, mail, and other free services. The actual customers of those companies are advertisers, not you. In fact, you and I are the products being sold to advertisers. No matter how well those companies serve us with free goodies, the fact remains that these companies’ consumers and customers are different populations, and we are among the former, and not the latter, because we pay them nothing. In Adam Smith’s terms, we do not employ them.
    And, because we are merely consumers of these services, our concerns tend to be dismissed when they are in conflict with the ambitions of those services’ customers, the advertisers. This is why websites, advertisers and third parties take liberties with our personal data, our privacy, and our tolerance for "personalisation" of messages that still fail 99% of the time. This causes two problems. One is abuse of consumers. The other is a lack of what we could bring to the market’s table—besides money—if we were full-fledged customers.
    On the consumer protection front, the Tracking Protection Working Group of the W3C(the leading Web standards organisation)is meeting this week in Washington, as reported in an NPR story titled ’ Do Not Track’ Web Browser Option Gains Steam. Regulators and lawmakers in Washington are also on the case. Last year Sen. Jay Rockefeller introduced the Do-Not-Track Online Act. In February of this year, the White House published a Privacy Bill of Rights.
    An excellent source of ongoing documentation of consumer abuse is The Wall Street Journal’s What They Know, a series of reports begun on July 31, 2010. And, since journalism alone has proven insufficient for reversing the tide of abuse, Julia Angwin and the WTK team are convening Data Transparency Weekend starting this Friday in New York. The purpose is to "build free Web tools that promote data transparency and control". This is a strong move toward giving consumers the powers of customers, whether or not they pay anything.
What can we learn from the publication of the bill and the act mentioned in Para. 5?
选项 A、The government is regulating the online transactions.
B、The government is taking measures to protect consumers’ privacy.
C、The public can avoid being insulted through the act and the bill.
D、The public will benefit a lot from the act and the bill.
答案B
解析 题目意为：“根据原文第五段提到的法案的公布及行为，我们可以得知什么?”原文第五段举例证明政府已经针对网上个人信息的不安全问题采取了相应的措施。其中，Lastyear Sen．Jay Rockefeller introduced the Do-Not-Track Online Act．In February of thisyear，the White House published a Privacy Bill of Rights．即：去年参议员洛克菲勒提出了《不跟踪网络法》。今年二月，白宫出台了《隐私权利法案》。据此可以判断，政府正在积极采取措施去保护公民的网络隐私。因此，B项是正确答案。A项错误，政府不是在规范网上交易；C项，无法判断公民是否能避免伤害，排除；D项“公众能从法案中获利”，原文没有提及，排除。
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