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  3. The technology revolution may be coming to poor countries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich one

The technology revolution may be coming to poor countries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich one

admin2022-08-04  87
问题     The technology revolution may be coming to poor countries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich ones. And just as the Internet encouraged an entrepreneurial philosophy, and with it the creation of a few too many dotcom firms, Africa’s surge in mobile-phone use may unleash the same sort of business energy, but tailored to local needs.
    One such initiative is about to begin. TradeNet, a software company based in Accra, Ghana, will unveil a simple sort of eBay for agricultural products across a dozen countries in West Africa. It lets buyers and sellers indicate what they are after and their contact information, which is sent to all relevant subscribers as an SMS text message in one of four languages. Interested parties can then reach others directly to do a deal. Listing offers is free, as is receiving the texts. TradeNet plans to earn revenue by putting advertisements in the messages, though it hopes the service will become so useful that recipients will eventually want to pay. For the moment, though, the company is busy signing up users and swallowing the cost of sending the messages.
    Mobile-phone use in sub-Saharan Africa is soaring. Whereas only 10％ of the population had network coverage in 1999, today more than 60％ have it, a figure expected to exceed 85％ in the coming year, according to the GSM Association, an industry trade group. This provides the infrastructure for businesses like TradeNet to function.
    TradeNet is the brainchild of Mark Davies, a British dotcom tycoon who gave up the rat race and went to Africa in 2000. In 2005, he started the prototype for TradeNet using around $600,000 of his own money and about $200,000 from aid agencies. An early set of trials last year generated a surplus of trades, such as a sale of organic fertilizer between a person in Yemen and another in Nigeria.
    A number of other mobile-phone market-places taking shape also started as aid projects. For example, Trade at Hand, a project funded by the UN’s International Trade Centre in Geneva, provides daily price information for fruit and vegetable exports in Burkina Faso and Mali, with plans to add more countries. And Manobi, a telecoms firm based in Senegal, providing real-time agricultural and fish prices to fee-paying subscribers, is also backed by aid money. But TradeNet’s approach is unique so far because it collects valuable economic data—names, locations, business interests and telephone numbers—and then sells them to advertisers. The price of economic development may be junk mail by mobile phone.
It can be learned that TradeNet ________.
选项 A、is to agricultural products what eBay is to manufactured products
B、sets its ultimate goal as "let its users pay for the services"
C、obtains its revenue through users’ payment for its services
D、is able to run its business due to high network coverage and cell-phone availability
答案D
解析 题干中的TradeNet从文章的第二段开始每段均有提及，这类题目要根据各选项的内容来进行定位。第三段首句先介绍了手机用户激增，末句则说“这为像贸易网这样的企业的发展提供了基础”(provides the infrastructure for…)，因此可推知D项正确。第二段第二句说到，TradeNet建立一个类似eBay网的农产品网上交易平台，并不是说TradeNet，对农产品的意义就相当于eBay网对于工业品的意义，A项曲解文意。虽然第二段倒数第二句提到TradeNet，希望用户们最终会愿意付钱，但并不代表这是它设定的最终目标，故B项错误。TradeNet现在是计划通过广告获取收益(第二段第六句)，C项与文意不符。
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