Directions:Read the following passages
and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage.
Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer
in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Questions 1~3 Friending
wasn’t used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as
Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene. Suddenly, our friends
were something even better—an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the
void, posting updates on a social network felt more like an intimate
conversation among friends at a pub. Inevitably, as our list of
friends grew to encompass acquaintances, friends of friends and the girl who sat
behind us in seventh-grade homeroom, online friendships became devalued.
Suddenly, we knew as much about the lives of our distant acquaintances as we did
about the lives of our intimates—what they’d had for dinner, how they felt about
Tiger Woods and so on. Enter Twitter with a solution: no
friends, just followers. These one-way relationships were easier to manage—no
more annoying decisions about whether to give your ex boyfriend access to your
photos, no more fussing over who could see your employment and contact
information. Twitter’s updates were also easily searchable on the Web, forcing
users to be somewhat thoughtful about their posts. The intimate conversation
became a talent show, a challenge to prove your intellectual prowess in 140
characters or less. This fall, Twitter turned its popularity
into dollars, inking lucrative deals to allow its users’ tweets to be broadcast
via search algorithms on Google and Bing. Soon, Facebook followed suit with
deals to distribute certain real-time data to Google and Bing. (Recall that
despite being the fifth most popular Web site in the world, Facebook is barely
profitable. ) Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says no money changed hands in
the deals but says there was "probably an exchange of value. " Just one catch:
Facebook had just "exchanged" to Google and Microsoft something that didn’t
exist. The vast majority of Facebook users restrict updates to
their friends, and do not expect those updates to appear in public search
results. (In fact, many people restrict their Facebook profile from appearing at
all in search results). So Facebook had little content to provide to Google’s
and Bing’s real-time search results. When Google’s real-time search launched
earlier this month, its results were primarily filled with Twitter updates.
Coincidentally, Facebook presented its 350 million members with
a new default privacy setting last week. For most people, the new suggested
settings would open their Facebook updates and information to the
entire world. Mr. Schnitt says the new privacy suggestions are an
acknowledgement of "the way we think the world is going." Facebook Chief
Executive Mark Zuckerberg led by example, opening up his previously closed
profile, including goofy photos of himself curled up with a teddy bear. Facebook
also made public formerly private info such as profile pictures, gender, current
city and the friends list. (Mr. Schnitt suggests that users are free to lie
about their hometown or take down their profile picture to protect their
privacy; in response to users’ complaints, the friends’ list can now be
restricted to be viewed only by friends). Of course, many
people will reject the default settings on Facebook and keep on chatting with
only their Facebook friends. (Mr. Schnitt said more than 50% of its users had
rejected the defaults at last tally). But those who want a private experience on
Facebook will have to work harder at it: if you inadvertently post a comment on
a friend’s profile page that has been opened to the public, your comment will be
public too. Just as Facebook turned friends into a commodity, it has likewise
gathered our personal data—our updates, our baby photos, our endless chirping
birthday notes—and readied it to be bundled and sold. So I give
up. Rather than fighting to keep my Facebook profile private, I plan to open it
up to the public—removing the fiction of intimacy and friendship. But I will
also remove the vestiges of my private life from Facebook and make sure I never
post anything that I wouldn’t want my parents, employer, next-door neighbor or
future employer to see. You’d be smart to do the same. We’ll
need to treat this increasingly public version of Facebook with the same
hard-headedness that we treat Twitter: as a place to broadcast, but not a place
for vulnerability. A place to carefully calibrate, sanitize and bowdlerize our
words for every possible audience, now and forever. Not a place for intimacy
with friends.
What is the author’s attitude towards the
increasingly public version of Facebook
【参考答案】
We’ll need to treat this increasingly public version of Face......