The information commissioner gave Facebo

资格题库2022-08-02 82

问题 The information commissioner gave Facebook a rap over the knuckles earlier this month,putting the company on notice of likely fines-the equivalent of a few minutes'revenue-for breaches of privacy.On Wednesday the European commission gave Google a vigorous correction,fining it￠4.3 billion for abusing its market dominance with the AndrOJd operating system which powers the overwhelming majority of the world's mobile phones.Google is appealing.The billions of euros at stake aside,it is easy to see why.Google gives most of Android away,not only to the consumers who use it,but to the companies that build their phones around it.As the company points out,there are more than 24,000 competing Android phones available today,from 1,300 companies.How can that possibly constitute a harmful monopoly?Besides,Google has real competition in the smartphone world from Apple.At the same time,these are exactly the factors that make the commission's decision so interesLing and significant.For Google's business to work,it must become as easy as possible for advertisers to reach users.That is the purpose of all the software that Google gives away,from the Android operating system,through to YouTube,Google search on phones and the Chrome browser.This might look like a cross-subsidy,but on the other hand it is the heart of the company's business.The software that Google gives away is not designed to make a profit on its own.This free version does not include the bits that make a phone useful for anything but making telephone calls,and this was the weak spot in Google's defence.None of the enticements-the mail,the search,the maps and the browser-are included.These can only be used with a proprietary chunk of software that Google controls;and manufacturers who want to use the Play store and 11 crucial Google apps must agree not to build so much as a single phone that does not include them.It is all or nothing.This licensing trick is the way in which Google has undoubtedly limited competition.The commission's decision to punish it probably comes too late to undo the damage it has done.All digital businesses tend towards a monopoly,and this is in part because in some important ways they benefit consumers more the larger they grow.Yet as customers we pay for this in other ways and as citizens even more so,not least because the companies fattened by monopoly profits grow too large to fail and too powerful to challenge.There is a public interest in preventing any company from acquiring almost unlimited power.Regulation defends democracy.The phrase"a rap over the knuckles"（I.ine l.Para.1）is closest in meaning toA.a not-very-severe punishment.B.a nol-very-correci explanaiion.C.a heavy fine.D.a false charge.

选项 A.a not-very-severe punishment.
B.a nol-very-correci explanaiion.
C.a heavy fine.
D.a false charge.

答案 A

解析第一段①②句结构均为“主干十伴随状语”，主干中的关键信息可依靠起补充说明作用的状语推出。①句状语指出；信息专员警告脸书因侵犯隐私可能面临罚款（likely fines）（暗含“罚单实际并未开出”之意）；②句通过具体罚款数额介绍谷歌被严惩（a vigorous correction）的事实。结合两句可推知脸书受到处罚比谷歌轻，且实际并未被开出罚单．A.a not-very-severe punishment最为接近所考词a rap over the knuckles的含义。[解题技巧]B.按字面意思理解②句的correction，并错误推导出①句是“委员作出了不太正确的解释”．②句是“委员会提出了修正”。但两句话涉及的对象并非同一家公司，照此理解不合逻辑。C.源自②句“罚款43亿欧元”，但这是对谷歌而非脸书的处罚。D.同样曲解了correction的含义，臆断出处罚谷歌”正确”，指控脸书“错误”。注：文中correction为熟词辟义，意为“处罚，惩罚”，根据上下文可推知此义。

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The information commissioner gave Facebo

英语一研究生

研究生入学