閱讀材料：
Communal online encyclopedias represent one of the latest resources to be found on the Internet. They are in many respects like traditional printed encyciopedias, however, is that any internet user can contribute a new article or make an editorial change in an existing one. As a result, the encyclopedia is authored by the whole community of Internet users. The idea might sound attractive, but the communal online encyclopedias have several important problems that make them much less valuable than traditional, printed encyclopedias.
交互式在線百科是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上新的資源模式。在線百科在諸多方面與傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科全書類似。但是在線百科同傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科不同的地方在于任何一個網(wǎng)民都可以創(chuàng)建或者編進詞條。因而，可以說在線百科是由所有網(wǎng)民共同編輯的。這個想法聽起來可能很不錯，但是跟傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科全書相比，在線百科也因此具有了一些嚴(yán)重的問題。而這些問題將很大程度地削減在線百科的價值。
First, contributors to a communal online encyclopedia often lack academic credentials, thereby making their contributioins partially informed at best and downright inaccurate in many cases. Traditional encyclopedias are written by trained experts who adhere to standards of academic rigor that nonspecialists cannot really achieve.
首先，在線百科信息的提供者往往缺乏學(xué)術(shù)資格，因為他們提供的信息很多時候不夠完美，甚至是不夠精確的。傳統(tǒng)的百科全書是由受過良好訓(xùn)練的專家編撰的。這些專家符合嚴(yán)格的學(xué)術(shù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，而這一點是業(yè)余人士無論如何都達不到的。
Second, even if the original entry in the online encyclopedia is correct, the communal nature of these online encyclopedias gives unscrupulous users and vandals or hackers the opportunity to fabricate, delete, and corrupt information in the encyclopedia. Once changes have been made to the original text, an unsuspecting user cannot tell the entry has been tampered with. None of this is possible with a traditional encyclopedia.
第二，即使在線百科詞條最初是正確的，但是其互動的特性允許一些無原則的用戶，蓄意破壞的人以及黑客們偽造、刪除和篡改條目。當(dāng)原始的版本被篡改之后，那些對條目深信不疑的用戶不能發(fā)現(xiàn)問題。而這樣的情況是不會發(fā)生在傳統(tǒng)百科全書中的。
Third, the communal encyclopedias focus too frequently, and in too great a depth, on trivial and popular topics, which created a false impression of what is important and what is not. A child doing research for a school project may discover that a major historical event receives as much attention in an online encyclopedia as, say, a single long-running television program. The traditional encyclopedia provides a considered view of what topics to include or exclude and contains a sense of proportion that online “democratic” communal encyclopedias do not.
第三，在線互動百科對于緋聞和流行話題的關(guān)注過多過深，這一點使大家對孰輕孰重產(chǎn)生錯覺。孩子可能會通過在線百科完成學(xué)校留的作業(yè)。這時，他可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)在線百科上面，重大的歷史事件所受的關(guān)注度跟一檔長線播出的電視節(jié)目是一樣的。而在傳統(tǒng)百科中，對于內(nèi)容的取舍和均衡是非常注意的，而這一點在具有“民主性”的在線百科上是沒有體現(xiàn)的。
閱讀部分需要提取的觀點是：
- Main point: 在線互動百科的缺陷種種
- Sub point 1:最初創(chuàng)建的時候可能不準(zhǔn)確
- Sub point 2:即使初始是準(zhǔn)確的，也可能會被篡改
- Sub point 3:對于瑣碎流行的內(nèi)容關(guān)注過多
在聽力部分，我們可以預(yù)測到的就是這三個缺點都是不存在的。
The communal online encyclopedia will probably never be perfect, but that's a small price to pay for what it does offer. The criticisms in the reading are largely the result of prejudice against and ignorance about how far online encyclopedias have come.
盡管在線互動百科永遠都不會達到完美，但是總體看還是瑕不掩瑜的。閱讀部分的批評更多是來自于偏見和對于在線百科發(fā)展進程的忽略。
First, errors. It's hardly a fair criticism that encyclopedias online have errors. Traditional encyclopedias have never been close to perfectly accurate. If you are looking for a really comprehensive reference work without any mistakes, you are not going to find it, on or off line. The real point is that it's easy for errors in factual material to be corrected in an online encyclopedia. But with the printed and bound encyclopedia, the errors remain for decades.
首先，關(guān)于錯誤。對于在線百科有錯誤的這種批評是很難令人信服的。傳統(tǒng)的百科全書也很難做到完全精確。如果你渴望一個完全沒有錯誤的綜合參考書，你是不會找到的，無論是線上還是線下。而且事實上，在線百科上的事實性錯誤時很容易糾正的，而那些紙質(zhì)的百科全書上的錯誤，確實數(shù)十年難有機會改正。
Second, hacking. Online encyclopedias have recognized the importance of protecting their articles from malicious hackers. One strategy they started using is to put the crucial facts in the articles that nobody disputes in a read-only format, which is a format that no one can make changes to. That way you are making sure that the crucial facts in the articles are reliable. Another strategy that's being used is to have special editors whose job is to monitor all changes made to the articles and eliminate those changes that are clearly malicious.
第二，黑客篡改。在線百科意識到了保護條目不受黑客惡意篡改的重要性了。他們采取的策略之一是對于無爭議的關(guān)鍵事實條目設(shè)置為只讀模式，這樣就沒有人可以修改了。這樣可以保證你相信條目里的關(guān)鍵事實是可以信賴的。另一個策略師設(shè)置專門的編輯來審查對于條目的修改，并刪除那些惡意篡改的內(nèi)容。
Third, what's worth knowing about? The problem for traditional encyclopedias is that they have limited space, so they have to decide what's important and what's not. And in practice, the judgments of the group of academics that make these decisions don't reflect the great range of interest that people really have. But space is definitely not an issue for online encyclopedias. The academic articles are still represented in online encyclopedias, but there can be a great variety of articles and topics that accurately reflect the great diversity of users' interests. The diversity of use in topics that online encyclopedias offer is one of their strongest advantages.
第三，關(guān)于內(nèi)容價值。傳統(tǒng)百科全書由于受到空間的局限不得不決定哪些事重要的，哪些是次要的。然而，在實踐中，是由學(xué)術(shù)團隊的判斷來決定的。這導(dǎo)致百科全書不能全部反應(yīng)讀者的興趣和需求。但是對于在線百科來說，空間就不是問題。學(xué)術(shù)類條目在百科中存在的同時，還有很多種類的條目和內(nèi)容用來滿足用戶多樣性的偏好。在線百科在內(nèi)容上的多樣性是他們的優(yōu)點。
聽力筆記內(nèi)容：
Main point: prejudice
Sub point one: never, accurate, corrected
Sub point two: read-only, monitor, eliminate
Sub point three: limited space, don't reflect, variety
Communal online encyclopedias represent one of the latest resources to be found on the Internet. They are in many respects like traditional printed encyciopedias, however, is that any internet user can contribute a new article or make an editorial change in an existing one. As a result, the encyclopedia is authored by the whole community of Internet users. The idea might sound attractive, but the communal online encyclopedias have several important problems that make them much less valuable than traditional, printed encyclopedias.
交互式在線百科是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上新的資源模式。在線百科在諸多方面與傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科全書類似。但是在線百科同傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科不同的地方在于任何一個網(wǎng)民都可以創(chuàng)建或者編進詞條。因而，可以說在線百科是由所有網(wǎng)民共同編輯的。這個想法聽起來可能很不錯，但是跟傳統(tǒng)紙質(zhì)百科全書相比，在線百科也因此具有了一些嚴(yán)重的問題。而這些問題將很大程度地削減在線百科的價值。
First, contributors to a communal online encyclopedia often lack academic credentials, thereby making their contributioins partially informed at best and downright inaccurate in many cases. Traditional encyclopedias are written by trained experts who adhere to standards of academic rigor that nonspecialists cannot really achieve.
首先，在線百科信息的提供者往往缺乏學(xué)術(shù)資格，因為他們提供的信息很多時候不夠完美，甚至是不夠精確的。傳統(tǒng)的百科全書是由受過良好訓(xùn)練的專家編撰的。這些專家符合嚴(yán)格的學(xué)術(shù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，而這一點是業(yè)余人士無論如何都達不到的。
Second, even if the original entry in the online encyclopedia is correct, the communal nature of these online encyclopedias gives unscrupulous users and vandals or hackers the opportunity to fabricate, delete, and corrupt information in the encyclopedia. Once changes have been made to the original text, an unsuspecting user cannot tell the entry has been tampered with. None of this is possible with a traditional encyclopedia.
第二，即使在線百科詞條最初是正確的，但是其互動的特性允許一些無原則的用戶，蓄意破壞的人以及黑客們偽造、刪除和篡改條目。當(dāng)原始的版本被篡改之后，那些對條目深信不疑的用戶不能發(fā)現(xiàn)問題。而這樣的情況是不會發(fā)生在傳統(tǒng)百科全書中的。
Third, the communal encyclopedias focus too frequently, and in too great a depth, on trivial and popular topics, which created a false impression of what is important and what is not. A child doing research for a school project may discover that a major historical event receives as much attention in an online encyclopedia as, say, a single long-running television program. The traditional encyclopedia provides a considered view of what topics to include or exclude and contains a sense of proportion that online “democratic” communal encyclopedias do not.
第三，在線互動百科對于緋聞和流行話題的關(guān)注過多過深，這一點使大家對孰輕孰重產(chǎn)生錯覺。孩子可能會通過在線百科完成學(xué)校留的作業(yè)。這時，他可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)在線百科上面，重大的歷史事件所受的關(guān)注度跟一檔長線播出的電視節(jié)目是一樣的。而在傳統(tǒng)百科中，對于內(nèi)容的取舍和均衡是非常注意的，而這一點在具有“民主性”的在線百科上是沒有體現(xiàn)的。
閱讀部分需要提取的觀點是：
- Main point: 在線互動百科的缺陷種種
- Sub point 1:最初創(chuàng)建的時候可能不準(zhǔn)確
- Sub point 2:即使初始是準(zhǔn)確的，也可能會被篡改
- Sub point 3:對于瑣碎流行的內(nèi)容關(guān)注過多
在聽力部分，我們可以預(yù)測到的就是這三個缺點都是不存在的。
The communal online encyclopedia will probably never be perfect, but that's a small price to pay for what it does offer. The criticisms in the reading are largely the result of prejudice against and ignorance about how far online encyclopedias have come.
盡管在線互動百科永遠都不會達到完美，但是總體看還是瑕不掩瑜的。閱讀部分的批評更多是來自于偏見和對于在線百科發(fā)展進程的忽略。
First, errors. It's hardly a fair criticism that encyclopedias online have errors. Traditional encyclopedias have never been close to perfectly accurate. If you are looking for a really comprehensive reference work without any mistakes, you are not going to find it, on or off line. The real point is that it's easy for errors in factual material to be corrected in an online encyclopedia. But with the printed and bound encyclopedia, the errors remain for decades.
首先，關(guān)于錯誤。對于在線百科有錯誤的這種批評是很難令人信服的。傳統(tǒng)的百科全書也很難做到完全精確。如果你渴望一個完全沒有錯誤的綜合參考書，你是不會找到的，無論是線上還是線下。而且事實上，在線百科上的事實性錯誤時很容易糾正的，而那些紙質(zhì)的百科全書上的錯誤，確實數(shù)十年難有機會改正。
Second, hacking. Online encyclopedias have recognized the importance of protecting their articles from malicious hackers. One strategy they started using is to put the crucial facts in the articles that nobody disputes in a read-only format, which is a format that no one can make changes to. That way you are making sure that the crucial facts in the articles are reliable. Another strategy that's being used is to have special editors whose job is to monitor all changes made to the articles and eliminate those changes that are clearly malicious.
第二，黑客篡改。在線百科意識到了保護條目不受黑客惡意篡改的重要性了。他們采取的策略之一是對于無爭議的關(guān)鍵事實條目設(shè)置為只讀模式，這樣就沒有人可以修改了。這樣可以保證你相信條目里的關(guān)鍵事實是可以信賴的。另一個策略師設(shè)置專門的編輯來審查對于條目的修改，并刪除那些惡意篡改的內(nèi)容。
Third, what's worth knowing about? The problem for traditional encyclopedias is that they have limited space, so they have to decide what's important and what's not. And in practice, the judgments of the group of academics that make these decisions don't reflect the great range of interest that people really have. But space is definitely not an issue for online encyclopedias. The academic articles are still represented in online encyclopedias, but there can be a great variety of articles and topics that accurately reflect the great diversity of users' interests. The diversity of use in topics that online encyclopedias offer is one of their strongest advantages.
第三，關(guān)于內(nèi)容價值。傳統(tǒng)百科全書由于受到空間的局限不得不決定哪些事重要的，哪些是次要的。然而，在實踐中，是由學(xué)術(shù)團隊的判斷來決定的。這導(dǎo)致百科全書不能全部反應(yīng)讀者的興趣和需求。但是對于在線百科來說，空間就不是問題。學(xué)術(shù)類條目在百科中存在的同時，還有很多種類的條目和內(nèi)容用來滿足用戶多樣性的偏好。在線百科在內(nèi)容上的多樣性是他們的優(yōu)點。
聽力筆記內(nèi)容：
Main point: prejudice
Sub point one: never, accurate, corrected
Sub point two: read-only, monitor, eliminate
Sub point three: limited space, don't reflect, variety