1999年考研英语真题阅读详解

说，本玩具“无法让用户飞行”。

虽然警示语常常是合理而必要的，如对药物副作用而产生的危险的警示语，并且很多是州或联邦法规所要求的，但是当消费者受伤，这些警示语能否真正保护制造商和销售商使之免于责任，这还很难说。被受伤的消费者告上法庭的公司中，大约一半的情况是公司败诉。

现在看来这种趋势正在转变。尽管个人伤害的指控一如既往地继续着，但有些法庭已开始站到被告一方，特别是在处理那些有警示语也无法避免伤害的案件时。五月份，伊利诺斯州的Shutt体育公司总裁朱利·尼蒙斯就成功地打赢了这样一场官司。一名橄榄球队员戴着该公司的头盔在一场比赛中受伤瘫痪，遂将该公司告上法庭。公司总裁朱利·尼蒙斯说：“他成了瘫痪，我们非常难过，但头盔的设计不是为了预防这类伤害的。”陪审团也认为造成该运动员受伤的是这项运动本身的危险性，而不是头盔。与此同时，美国法学会——该学会由一群举足轻重的法官、律师、学者所组成——签署了新的民事侵害法纲要，宣布公司不必警示顾客那些显而易见的危险，或者给顾客列出一份冗长的可能造成的危险的清单。康奈尔大学法学院一位参与起草新纲要的教授说，“重要的信息会淹没在细枝末节的汪洋之中”。如果该法律团体的这一适中的目的能够实现，产品上提供的警示信息实际上是用来保护消费者利益的，而不是为了避免公司承担法律责任的。

1999 Text 2

In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because business people typically know what product they're looking for.

大约在网上交易的第一年当中，大部分业务活动都是围绕着努力开发消费者市场来进行的。最近，随着证明网络不仅是一种时尚而已，公司间便开始（在网上）交易产品和服务。这类公司之间的销售是很有道理的，因为商人通常都知道他们需要什么产品。

Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. \supplier,\analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company's private intranet.

不过，由于怀疑网络的可靠性许多公司仍对网络的使用犹豫不决。Forrester研究所的资深分析家布兰·欧文说，“商家需要认识到他们可以信赖销售商和供应商之间的这种途径。”有些公司为了限制这种冒险，只与那些已经熟识的贸易伙伴进行在线贸易，给予这些伙伴进入本公司局域网的权利。

Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to \customers into sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to \information directly out to consumers, transmitting marketing messages directly to targeted customers. Most notably, the PointCast Network uses a screen saver to deliver a continually updated stream of news and advertisements to subscribers' computer monitors. Subscribers can customize the information they want to receive and proceed directly to a company's Web site. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That's a prospect that horrifies Net purists.

网络商业模式的另一个重大变化体现在营销策略上。前些年，互联网上的营销活动还集中在如何将用户“拉进”网站的策略问题上。然而，在去年，软件公司开发出新的技术，这些技术使得公司可以将信息直接“推出”给消费者，直接把营销信息传送给特定的用户。最突出的例子是Pointcast网络，该网络使用一种屏幕保护系统，将大量最新的信息和广告不断地传送到用户的计算机显示器上。用户可以定制自己想要接受的信息，然后直接进入某个公司的网址。像Virtual Vineyards这样的公司业已开始采用类似的技术将有关特价商品、产品推销或其他活动的信息“推”向用户。但这种“推”销技术遭到许多网上用户的鄙视。网上文化推崇这样一个概念，即流动到屏幕上的信息应是在专门的请求之后才出现的。一旦商业促销不请自来地充斥电脑屏幕，那么网络和电视就没多大差别了。这种前景让网络净化者感到不安。

But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyardsa. Amazon.com, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon . People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.

网上公司并不是非得依靠“推销”策略方能挣钱。像Virtual Vineyards和Amazon.com及其他开拓者的例子说明：一个销售适类商品的网站，如果将交互性、热情服务、安全性合理结合，肯定会吸引网上用户的。计算能力的成本持续自由下降，这对任何建立了网上销售的企业来说都是个好的征兆。回顾过去的5到10年的历史，人们很可能会感到奇怪：尝试网上销售的公司为何如此之少呢？

55. We learn from the beginning of the passage that Web business ________.

[A] has been striving to expand its market

[B] intended to follow a fanciful fashion

[C] tried but in vain to control the market

[D] has been booming for one year or so

56. Speaking of the online technology available for marketing, the author implies that ________.

[A] the technology is popular with many Web users

[B] businesses have faith in the reliability of online transactions

[C] there is a radical change in strategy

[D] it is accessible limitedly to established partners

57. In the view of Net purists, ________.

[A] there should be no marketing messages in online culture

[B] money making should be given priority to on the Web

[C] the Web should be able to function as the television set

[D] there should be no online commercial information without requests

58. We learn from the last paragraph that ________.

[A] pushing information on the Web is essential to Internet commerce

[B] interactivity, hospitality and security are important to online customers

[C] leading companies began to take the online plunge decades ago

[D] setting up shops in silicon is independent of the cost of computing power

核心词汇

1. or so 左右，

2. web=website 网络

3. revolve around 围绕

4. tap 轻打；开发；水龙头

5. more than 不仅仅是；不只是

6. make sense 有道理；有意义

7. nonetheless 尽管如此

8. reliability 可靠性

9. pathway 小径，通路，路径

10. supplier 供应商

11. limit 限制

12. conduct 进行，做

13. online transaction 在线交易

14. established 确定的；已有的

15. access to 进入；有权利做

16. intranet 局域网；internet 互联网

17. shift 转变，变化

18. model 模式，方式

19. concern 与…有关

20. available 可以用来；可以得到的

21. focus on 关注；集中

22. strategy 策略；方法

23. transmit 传递；发送

24. targeted 目标的；有针对性的