Text 4 Alphabet Inc.'s most successful p

考试题库2022-08-02  27

问题 Text 4 Alphabet Inc.'s most successful product-the Google search engine-may now be its most problematic.On Tuesday,the European Commission's top antitrust regulator levied a$2.7-billion fine against Alphabet and Google for the way the search engine handles requests for information about products.Specifically,Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google twisted its results to bury links to rival companies'comparison shopping sites while prominently featuring its own service,Google Shopping.Google responded that it's simply trying to give users what they want and denied"favoring ourselves,or any particular site or seller."It has a lot at stake:Google has integrated many different offerings into its search engine,including its mapping and travel services.The principle advanced by Vestager,however,is a good one:Giant online companies shoulcl not be able to take advantage of their dominance in one field to hurt competitors in another.Google's argument is:It integrated Google Shopping,which offers links to products at sites that advertise on Google.into its search engine because that gave users quicker access to the information they were seeking.And in the United States,the key question in antitrust!aw is whether a company's behavior hurts users,not whether it hurts the company's competitors.European regulators focus more on competitors,but they really are two sides of the same coin.If competitors are unfairly closed out,the public can miss out on the very real benefits that vigorous competition provides.At the same time,it's undeniable that the public has welcomed virtual monopolies in search,social media and other services in the Internet era.A large part of the appeal of sites like Facebook and Twitter is that so many people use them.There's a network effect for social media apps in particular-the more people who use the service,the more valuable it becomes to them.Meanwhile,start-ups come out of nowhere to create whole new categories of must-have apps and proclucts online.That means dominant companies have to innovate too,or else they can easily change from today's thing to yesterday's.And often,that innovation involves finding a better way to do something that a competitor is doing.The challenge for regulators is to provide the big companies space to try new things without grossly disrupting the market,closing out other companies and reducing consumer choice,which will ultimately lead to less innovation.A good place to start is by focusing on cases where there is evidence of intentional undermining of competitors-where a dominant company alters the platform it provides not just to feature its own services,but to make it harder to find or use its rivals'.The author argues that regulators should_____A.leave room for dominant companies to innovateB.help small companies enhance competitivenessC.encourage companies to increase product varietyD.prohibit featuring services on company platforms

选项 A.leave room for dominant companies to innovate
B.help small companies enhance competitiveness
C.encourage companies to increase product variety
D.prohibit featuring services on company platforms

答案 A

解析 [信息锁定]第六段①句指出,监管机构的挑战在于“既给大公司留下尝试新事物的空间(provide the big companies space to try new things).又不能扰乱市场”,即:监管机构在反对垄断、保护竞争的同时,应给大公司留以创新空间.A.正确。[解题技巧]B.由①句“(公司在给为大公司提供创新空间时)不可导致其他公司/小型公司歇业(without c[osing out other companies)”过度推断出监管机构应“帮助小公司提升竞争力”。C.由①句“(监管机构)不可减少消费者的选择(without reducing consumer choice)”过度推断出监管机构应该“鼓励公司增加产品多样性”。D.源于末句feature its own services,但要禁止的并非是“推广自己的服务”,而是“推广自己服务的同时隐藏对手的服务”。
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