VOA慢速英语2009年-THIS IS AMERICA - How We Are Connecting Wi

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program: the world of social media.

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VOICE ONE:

People use social networking sites to share ideas, opinions and interests. Millions post comments, videos, pictures, links and other content, or just follow what other users² post.

People reconnect with old friends and classmates, and make new connections. Social networks are all about connecting friends and friends of friends, just like in the physical world.

Social media is a way to communicate one to many. But sites generally have a way for users to also send private messages and to control access to their pages.

VOICE TWO:
　
Facebook is a popular online social network for people of all ages

Social media is still young and evolving⁴. Take the example of Facebook. It was launched⁵ in two thousand four as a social network just for Harvard students. Then it opened up to all colleges. Then high schools got their own private pages.

Now anyone can join. Facebook said it had over two hundred fifty million active users as of July. And not everyone is happy about that. Karey is a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

KAREY: "I have kept my mom off of Facebook. She wants one, I said 'No, you can't have one.' It started out as a college thing and then high school students got it. The value of it decreases to me with like the wider amount of people. Like the older population that gets it, I'm not OK with that."

VOICE ONE:
　
Ekin Oz

Ekin Oz is a seventeen-year-old exchange student from Turkey. She does not think older people should be on Facebook.

EKIN OZ: "I think it's so silly because like it's something for teenagers."

But a lot of older people would disagree that social networks are just for teenagers. About eighty percent of American adults use the Internet. A recent online survey found that half of them now belong to social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Forrester Research says four out of five online adults use social media at least once a month. That includes almost everyone age eighteen to thirty-four. Now, the fastest growing group of users are people thirty-five and older.

VOICE TWO:

That would include thirty-nine-year-old Evan Falchuk. He says he first heard about social media two or three years ago at a business meeting.

EVAN FALCHUK: "What I was really surprised by when I first joined was how many people were there who I knew.'"
　
Evan Falchuk

Evan Falchuk is a lawyer. But he is president and chief operating officer of Best Doctors, a medical company in Boston, Massachusetts. He likes to use LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals.

EVAN FALCHUK: "I mean, I travel all over the world and have dozens of people that I meet every month and I get business cards from them. And you get back to your office and look at the business card and you say 'Who was that again? And what did we talk about?' I try to write notes, but it's very hard.

Whereas⁷ if you connect with them on LinkedIn, now I've got not only the person's name and contact information, but I know what their prior⁸ jobs were. I know who they are connected to who I might know. You have a much richer way of connecting with this person than you otherwise would."

VOICE ONE:

Evan Falchuk uses Facebook to connect with friends and family members. But not all share his enthusiasm⁹ for social media.

EVAN FALCHUK: "My wife is a little bit less of a social media user¹ than I am. So I like to share things about what's going on. And we like to go out to dinner to different places, for example, and I like to share 'Hey we're at this place and this is what we had and it was good.' And then she is more private and says 'Well, I don't really want everybody to know where we are and what we're doing.'"

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

For couples in long-distance relationships, the main ways to communicate used to be phone calls, letters and visits. Now, they have texting, e-mail, instant messaging and video chat. Patricia is a student at Radford University in Virginia.

PATRICIA: "I was in a long distance relationship for about a year, and Skype really helped because you could actually see the other person when you are talking."

Skype is an Internet video and phone service that was just in the news. Its current owner eBay agreed to sell a sixty-five percent share to a group of investors¹⁰ for two billion dollars.

Ekin Oz uses Facebook and Skype to stay in touch with family and friends back in Turkey.

EKIN OZ: "I'm using Facebook to contact with my friends, I'm using Skype to contact with my family. Because I miss my family so much, I want to see them, their faces. It's much more important than friends."

VOICE ONE:

But even a simple text message can mean a lot. Dan in Virginia is twenty years old. He will be in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend after joining the Marines. He says texting is good because it lets you communicate whenever you have time.

Not everyone in the military, however, is at ease⁶ with social media. The Marine¹¹ Corps¹² has banned the use of sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on its computers. But the ban does not limit access on other computers.

Many service members use social networks to communicate with their families or with the public. The Defense¹³ Department has been writing a policy for all of the military on the use of social networking sites. Defense officials say they are aiming for a balance that will not compromise¹⁴ the security¹⁵ of operations or military networks.

VOICE TWO:
　
President Barack Obama talks to students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia

Public officials recognize that social media has changed the way people communicate. The White House, for example, held a live discussion¹⁶ last Tuesday on its Facebook page. People watched and commented on a speech by President Obama that was broadcast to students nationwide from a Virginia high school.

Before the speech, a student at the school asked for advice about how to get the president's job.

BARACK OBAMA: "First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life. And when you're young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff¹⁷. And I've been hearing a lot about young people who -- you know, they're posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job and somebody has done a search and, so, that's some practical political advice for you right there."

VOICE ONE:

Experts say a good rule to remember is not to post anything you would not want your mother to see. But what if your mother -- or father -- is one of your "friends," as in a friend you accepted on Facebook?

Some parents use social media to communicate with their kids and to monitor their activities. This, in turn, has led to myparentsjoinedfacebook.com. This is a site for sharing and laughing at things that parents have posted.

VOICE TWO:

Ekin Oz, the exchange student from Turkey, has a different concern about privacy¹⁸. She worries about cybercrime and the information that could be gathered about a person from different Web sites.

EKIN OZ: "I'm scared of copying my personal information to use, like my photos they can use for things which is not good for me, and I'm concerned about that. If someone write my name on Google they can find one picture from Facebook or something, but is it safe?"

VOICE ONE:

By now most parents know about the dangers of sex offenders¹⁹ using social networks. But the computer security company F-Secure points out the risk even in posting information like vacation plans. Someone who wants to break into the house will then know when people are away.

VOICE TWO:

And then there is the time issue. Jenn is a student at Appalachian State in North Carolina.

JENN: "I'm probably on Facebook a lot more that I should be. I'll go on sometimes to check it and then get right back off. And then maybe ten minutes later I'll be like 'Oh, well, I need to talk to so-and-so,' and so then I'll go back on it, every thirty minutes or something."

And how often does her classmate Karey check her page?

KAREY: "If it's like during school when things are busy, once maybe for like twenty minutes max. But then if it's like during the summer and I'm really bored, I don't have anything else to do, then it might be a little longer."

And Ekin?

EKIN: "I check my account at least one time a day. If I talk with my family, it's like an hour. But if I don't talk to them, just ten or twelve minutes at most."

VOICE ONE:

And what about Evan Falchuk -- a frequent commentator²⁰ on social media. How often does he check for updates?

EVAN FALCHUK: "It kind of happens in the background, because I have an iPhone which I love. And the iPhone has applications on it for each of the social media that we've been talking. And so I'm frequently looking at it or typing stuff or posting something. It feels like it's something I do continuously."

VOICE TWO:

Some people like to write long entries in their blogs. On Twitter, each message, or tweet, is limited to one hundred forty characters.

Market researchers at Pear Analytics say they are big fans of Twitter. But in a recent study they declared that forty percent of the tweets captured²¹ over a two-week period were "pointless babble²²."

Evan Falchuk would agree that some people write things like "I am now sitting in the doctor's waiting room."

EVAN FALCHUK: "But most of the people on Twitter that I see are actually trying to have a substantive²³ discussion -- a real conversation about topics that are interesting to them. So for me personally, I'm in the health care business and in America we're having this very important debate about health care. And I'm connected with hundreds -- actually I think maybe thousands -- of health care professionals or people with an opinion on health care or doctors or others who are constantly posting things to do with what's going on in health care."

VOICE ONE:

Some people find answers through social media. Others find love.

A woman named Georgina says she used a social dating site because she was looking "for a higher quality of a mate³." She was still looking when we talked to her. But she thinks the new technologies are a great way to communicate -- as long as people still show traditional respect for each other.

GEORGINA: "Back in the nineteen eighties when I was dating without computers, cell phones, text messaging, instant messaging, people had to be more organized. They had to be home, and they had to stick to their plans, because you had no way of communicating with someone once you left for your destination.

Nowadays, with the extremely fast mode²⁴ of communication, people have the ability to be lazy and spontaneous²⁵ and not organized, because they can text you at the last minute or call you wherever you are and say 'I'm not coming, change of plans.'"

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Marisel Salazar, and produced by Caty Weaver²⁶. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. You can share comments and find transcripts²⁷, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find Special English on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning²⁸ English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA.

 

1 user   

n.用户，使用者

参考例句：

• The company is the biggest user of oil.该公司是最大的石油用户。
• The umbrella keeps the rains off the user.雨伞使撑伞人免受雨淋。

2 users   

用户，使用者( user的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new software will prove a boon to Internet users. 这种新软件将会对互联网用户大有益处。
• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。

3 mate   

n.伙伴，同事；配偶；大副；v.(使)交配

参考例句：

• Where is the mate to this glove?这副手套的另一只在哪儿？
• She has been a faithful mate to him.她一直是他忠实的配偶。

4 evolving   

adj.进化的，展开的v.演变，进化( evolve的现在分词 )；（动植物等 ）进化，进化形成

参考例句：

• Language is constantly and gradually evolving. 语言在不断地缓慢发展。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Our galaxy is a continuously evolving system. 我们的星系是一个不断演化的星系。 来自辞典例句

5 launched   

v.发射( launch的过去式和过去分词 )；[计算机]开始（应用程序）；发动；开展（活动、计划等）

参考例句：

• He launched a bitter diatribe against the younger generation. 他对年轻一代发起了猛烈的抨击。
• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide. 这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。

6 ease   

n. 安乐,安逸,悠闲; v. 使...安乐,使...安心,减轻,放松

参考例句：

• His mind was at ease and he felt confident in the future. 他心情舒畅,对前途很有信心。
• You should ease up on the child and stop scolding her. 你应该对那个孩子宽松些,不要再骂她了。

7 whereas   

conj.而，却，反之

参考例句：

• They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。

8 prior   

adj.更重要的，较早的，在先的；adv.居先；n.小修道院院长；大修道院副院长

参考例句：

• The duty to protect my sister is prior to all others.保护我的妹妹是我最重要的责任。
• I took up one-year prior course in German in this college.我在这所大学读了一年的德语预科。

9 enthusiasm   

n.热情，激情；巨大兴趣；热衷的事物

参考例句：

• We set about our task at once with great enthusiasm.我们立刻兴致勃勃地干起来。
• A team which is full of enthusiasm is more likely to win.情绪高涨的球队更可能获胜。

10 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

11 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

12 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 compromise   

n.妥协；妥协方案；vt.损害；vi.妥协，让步

参考例句：

• The spokesman made it clear that no compromise was yet in sight.发言人表明，目前还不会妥协。
• The probable outcome of the talks is a compromise.会谈的结果很可能是妥协。

15 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

16 discussion   

n.讨论，谈论；论述

参考例句：

• It is certain he will come to the discussion.他肯定会来参加讨论。
• After months of discussion,a peace agreement is gradually taking shape.经过几个月的商讨，和平协议渐渐有了眉目。

17 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

18 privacy   

n.私人权利，个人自由，隐私权

参考例句：

• In such matters,privacy is impossible.在这类事情中，保密是不可能的。
• She wept in the privacy of her own room.她在自己房内暗暗落泪。

19 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

20 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

21 captured   

俘获( capture的过去式和过去分词 )； 夺取； 夺得； 引起（注意、想像、兴趣）

参考例句：

• Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。

22 babble   

v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语

参考例句：

• No one could understand the little baby's babble. 没人能听懂这个小婴孩的话。
• The babble of voices in the next compartment annoyed all of us.隔壁的车厢隔间里不间歇的嘈杂谈话声让我们都很气恼。

23 substantive   

adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体

参考例句：

• They plan to meet again in Rome very soon to begin substantive negotiations.他们计划不久在罗马再次会晤以开始实质性的谈判。
• A president needs substantive advice,but he also requires emotional succor. 一个总统需要实质性的建议，但也需要感情上的支持。

24 mode   

n.方式，样式，模式，风格，时兴；[音乐]调式

参考例句：

• Wearing jeans is out of mode at present.现在穿牛仔裤过时了。
• His mode of doing business is offensive to me.他干事情的方式叫我很不喜欢。

25 spontaneous   

adj.自发的，不由自主的

参考例句：

• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。
• Spontaneous applause broke out as soon as she finished speaking.她一讲完，大家不约而同都鼓起掌来。

26 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

27 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

28 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。