2006年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-No Web 'Red Light' District

Madeleine Brand: Back now with Day To Day. There will be no formal "red light" district on the Internet. The group that oversees¹ how Internet addresses are assigned has rejected giving porn websites a .xxx suffix². An unlikely coalition³ of some adult websites and religious groups rejected the idea. Bob Moon joins us from the Marketplace news bureau in New York. And Bob, this is indeed an unlikely coalition, why did these groups oppose the idea?

Bob Moon: Well, er, for, for very different reasons, as you might suspect, Madeleine. The company that first proposed this idea wanted to promote it as a way to shield kids from on-line pornography. It claimed that having this adult content in a designated area would make it easier to filter it out for those that didn't want it. That's the reason many of the adult websites were opposed to this idea. They claimed that it came down to a free speech issue that they shouldn't be shunned⁴ off to an area that could end up being cut off from their perspective customers. Conservatives and Christian⁵ groups, on the other hand, they weren't happy about the legitimacy⁶ that they said this formal designation would give to pornography, and because there would be no requirement for the adult websites to migrate over to this new area on the web, this new domain⁷, if you will, the anti-pornography group said this would just have ended up adding to more of what's already out there. And it would have just handed these sites an easy promotional boost.

Madeleine Brand: And, and did the managers of the Internet domains⁸ agree with, with those ideas?

Bob Moon: Well, this oversight⁹ group is called ICANN, that's short for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, their final vote on this was 9 against and 5 in favor. The group issued a statement, saying that it's gonna be giving more details on their decision later this week. There's already some controversy¹⁰, though, over whether this decision was influenced by the US government, particularly the Commerce Department, and whether the US is wielding¹¹ too much influence over managing the Internet, of course the Internet was created in this country. But now it's estimated that there is, there is more than 2 trillion dollars in global commerce on the Internet, and there has been growing discontent outside this country that America has too much control beyond the technical operation of the web. Back to Wall Street Journal reported there was an internal memo¹² prepared by the Commerce Department that said this proposal for the adult content area wouldn't happen if the US, and I quote here, "does not wish for that to happen, no matter what the international community, ah, might decide".

Madeleine Brand: And any chance this proposal could make it comeback?

Bob Moon: Well, Internet experts say this idea does appear to be dead right now, although the porn industry has suggested that there is a better way of keeping children away from these sites. They say, create a kids-friendly zone, so parents could filter out the content that way. And today in the Marketplace newsroom we are looking further into reports the government is collecting the phone records of millions of Americans.

Madeleine Brand: Thank you, Bob. Bob Moon of public radio's daily business show, Marketplace.

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Words in NPR
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shun: to deliberately avoid someone or something; 避开, 避免
in favor: support, approval, or agreement for something such as a plan, idea, or system; 赞同

1 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

2 suffix   

n.后缀；vt.添后缀

参考例句：

• We add the suffix "ly" to make the adjective "quick" into the adverb " quickly ".我们在形容词“ quick”后加“ly” 构成副词“quickly”。
• It described the meaning of suffix array and also how to built it.它描述的含义，后缀数组以及如何建立它。

3 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

4 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

7 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

8 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

9 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

10 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

11 wielding   

手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的现在分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响）

参考例句：

• The rebels were wielding sticks of dynamite. 叛乱分子舞动着棒状炸药。
• He is wielding a knife. 他在挥舞着一把刀。

12 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？