雅思备考读外刊：Delete Facebook?

　　雅思阅读的重点考察还是大家的理解能力。理解能力的提高，对于我们的阅读能力，乃至整体英文水平的提升，都有着难以估量的作用。相信大家在备考雅思考试中，不止一次的被提醒着外刊阅读的重要性。因为通常情况下，报刊文章篇幅较短，而信息量极大，且逻辑性强。所以整体而言，为了培养自己对于英文信息处理的能力（理解力），外刊文章是你最优的选择。今天课窝网就和大家分享一篇关于Facebook的文章。

　　Delete Facebook? No thanks.

　　But we'd all be happier if we used it less.

　　I don't want to stop using Facebook.

　　I could tell you a dozen reasons why. Some of them are even pretty good. There's work, of course. A good chunk of the traffic on any given column I write comes from Facebook. I can't afford to give those readers up, and I'm not sure how I'd replace them.

　　Then there are the friends I've made or kept in my life — the childhood pal who's renovating a chateau in France; the high-school classmate I didn't know so well back then, but whose dry wit I relish now; the Russian lit professor I met in a Buffy; the Vampire Slayer fan group on a different platform in the early aughts.

　　注释

　　这几段作者列举了几个无法放弃脸书的理由：工作、朋友、兴趣爱好等。

　　A good chunk of 大量的

　　traffic 通信量，流量

　　renovate 翻新; 修复; 整修

　　chateau [法]城堡，别墅

　　dry wit 冷幽默；冷峻又不失幽默；假装正经的诙谐

　　relish 品味；享受；喜爱

　　Buffy巴菲，Facebook已确定其智能手机的开发代码

　　in the early aughts 在2000年初

　　除了a good chunk of, 还有a big chunk of/ a well chunk of，都表示相当一部分的，大量的。常见搭配有a chunk of meat一大块肉；a chunk of bread一块面包

　　这里的relish the dry wit理解为品味冷幽默。Wit 还有其他搭配用法，mother wit/ 天生的智力; at one's wit's end: 不知所措；智穷力竭。

　　Aught原义是nothing，zero。The Aughts 复数形式相当于”the decade,”"2000s"。表示千禧之年开始的十年，表示2000s的相关用法："Two-thousands", "Twenty Hundreds", "Twenty-ohs", , the "Zeros", "the Aughts", "the Noughties", "the Aughties", "the Oughties"

　　To give up Facebook would mean returning to the sort ofsocial hierarchythat felt normal a few decades ago — folks I saw at weddings and funerals, shows or birthday parties at the wide bottom, acquaintances in the middle tiers, and close friends at the top.

　　Now, instead of social circles, I have social networks full ofsubtlesocialgradations— an extended web of friends and acquaintances and work friends and friends of friends and people I had that great conversation withthat one time at that one party and folks whosewitty rejoindersI appreciate when theypop upon someone else's page and that guy whohad my back inthat argument abouttop sheetsversusduvet covers.

　　There would be nomeasurableimpact if most of these people disappeared from my life. My daily routine would notalter. My most important emotional relationships would continue unchanged.

　　注释

　　这几段举例说明了如果没有脸书，我们的社交方式可能不同，但不会给我们的生活造成很大的影响。

　　social hierarchy 社交圈分级

　　subtle 微妙的，难以捉摸的

　　gradations 渐变，阶段，等级

　　witty 诙谐的，机制的

　　rejoinders (机智的)应答; (尖锐的)反驳

　　pop up 突然出现，冒出

　　top sheets 上层床单

　　duvet covers 被套

　　measurable 可观的

　　alter 改变；变化

　　had one’sback意思为to protect/support someone,one from unanticipated matters, while one is attending to a particular function。由指在始料未及的时候支持或保护某人。而这里的have my back in the argument 引申为支持或者赞同作者在另一篇文章中的观点。

　　And yet the dozens of people I encounterprimarilyon social mediaadd value to my life, sometimespreciselybecause they're from outside my immediate social circle, race or class.As the mother of an infant, this social network was mylifeline, connecting me to a world that didn'trevolve around feedings and diapers.I would hate to give it up.

　　But whatever I tell myself, however I justify it, my inability to quit Facebook feels less like a decision and more like a personalfailing.

　　(It isparticularlymortifyingto realize that this is a thing that really only old people like me worry about.Kids have been abandoning Facebook for years, or never joining the site at all; they prefer stuff like Snapchat or Instagram or YouTube, which is another culture- and economy-changing phenomenon no one pays enough attention to.Or quite possibly they're all using some amazing new platform that I'm not actually interested enough to know about yet.)

　　注释

　　然而，作者还是无法离开脸书，她将此归因于个人问题，因为很多人（尤其是年轻人）早就不再使用脸书了。

　　add value to my life 给生活增添意义

　　lifeline 生命线；救生索

　　revolve around 围绕…转动；以…为中心/主题

　　feedings and diapers（给婴儿的）喂食和尿布

　　failing 弱点；缺点，过失；失败

　　mortifying 令人窘困的；使人羞愧的

　　Kids have been abandoning Facebook for years, or never joining the site at all; they prefer stuff like Snapchat or Instagram or YouTube, which is another culture- and economy-changing phenomenonno one pays enough attention to.

　　孩子们已经不用脸书很多年了，有的甚至从没登过，他们偏好Snapchat, Instagram，油管，这是一个足以改变文化和经济的现象，却无人关注。

　　I've thought about how I'dreplicatethe functions Facebook has so skillfully grouped together: I could text my friends, use another messaging service, send paper or electronic invitations for events, or start an old-fashioned e-mail list to talk about Game of Thrones orpressing cheese matters.

　　That Facebook profits by collecting our personal data is not even mychief concern, although it's clearly the prompt for this "Whither Facebook?" moment. (And any other online platform is likely to behave the same way.) There's even a hashtag — #deletefacebook — that folks are sharing on Twitter because, seriously, this is how we think now.

　　Facebookviolatedusers' privacy by allowing a researcher to collect personal data from people who'd neverconsentedto share it, selling that information to a political research firm.

　　注释

　　脸书能带给用户诸多便利，但它搜集个人信息，然后未经同意就出售这些信息，这引起了大家对脸书的抵制（虽然其他平台也在做同样的事情）。

　　Replicate复制，折叠

　　chief concern主要关切事项;主要关注点

　　violate违反；侵犯

　　consent同意；赞成；答应

　　Facebook violatedusers' privacy by allowing a researcher to collect personal data from people who'd never consented to share it, selling that information to a political research firm.

　　脸书允许研究人员以之为途径收集那些私密的且不与他人分享的个人信息，并贩卖给政治问题研究公司，这侵犯了用户的个人隐私。

　　Folks who are mad aren't wrong, but I'm not that angry, or even very surprised.I've always assumed the worst, and while we all hate that our data might be used for someone else'scommercial or political gain, I really don't mind when a Facebook ad informs me that a pair of boots I've beeneyeinghave gone on sale.

　　It's more that while at times I love Facebook, I do not like it.

　　注释

　　尽管许多人对脸书贩卖用户信息给机构表示愤怒，作者淡定地指出自己对此并不在意。作者的态度是：爱脸书，但不喜欢它这种做法。

　　commercial or political gain 商业或者政治获利

　　eye 注视，定睛地看

　　这里eye做动词用，to eye someone closely (或 narrowly)/ 端详某人。例句：He eyed the three strangers with suspicion.他以怀疑的目光注视着那三个陌生人。Eye也有期待；考虑的意思。例句：He is eyeing a run for the governor next year.他在考虑明年要竞选州长。

　　eyeball（eyeballed, eyeballing, eyeballs）也有相同的用法，意为盯住看；仔细对…打量。例如：we eyeballed one another.我们相互打量了一番。

　　Sure, there's the time my high-school pal's daughter broke her leg and Iswooped inlike a fairy godmother witha bundle ofbooks (delivered via Amazon), or the time the Russianlitprofessor in New York actually got me to start readingWar and Peaceby recommending a good translation. These interactions were important to me.

　　But far more often Iscroll through my newsfeedlooking for the joke or the conversation or thepile-onthat'll make me feel that sense of connection and community that's the whole point of a social network.When I don't find it? I keep scrolling.

　　It feels like should be able to limit my own Facebook use more effectively than I am able. But Facebook spends billions each year to assure we'll all keep scrolling. I try to use Facebook less. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it does, I'm happier — like most Facebook users are when theycut back, studies have found.

　　注释

　　对作者而言，脸书已成为生活娱乐的重要部分，如果能减少使用，那自然更好。

　　swoop 猛扑，突袭

　　a bundle of 一包，一束，一捆；

　　lit=literature

　　scroll throughmy newsfeed滚动浏览新闻摘要

　　pile-on跟风

　　cut back削减

　　But far more often I scroll through my newsfeedlooking for the joke or the conversationor the pile-onthat'll make me feel that sense of connection and community that's the whole point of a social network.

　　然而，我更经常会做的却是滚动浏览新闻摘要，看段子，对话或者热搜，这些会让我感觉到与社会的联系，这就是社交网站的意义。

　　pile on作动词时表示把…堆上；成群地挤上，堆积。Pile-on做名词时，pile-on effect表示堆积效应，跟风。这里的the pile-on可以理解为热搜。

　　It's ahollowway to pass the time. Watching thetrashiest of superhero shows or reading thesmuttiestof novels feels like more of an accomplishment. At least I've started something and seen it through.

　　I delete Facebook from my phone, andfind myself firing upTwitter or Instagram (owned, of course, by Facebook). It's a false fix, and if any of those other platforms aren't harvesting our data with Facebook'sruthlessfocus, it's only because they haven't figured out how to do it yet.

　　None of this is going away,in no small partbecause we don't want it to go away — despite evidence that it makes us less happy, andless satisfied withourever-expandingconnections.

　　注释

　　作者指出，在脸书浪费时间，不如去读几本垃圾书，后者至少给人以某种成就感。但若删除脸书，人们又会陷入twitter等（它们若不收割我们的个人信息，那是因为它们还不知道怎么收割）。我们无法摆脱这些平台，是因为我们自己不愿意。

　　Hollow空虚的

　　trashy没用的；碎屑的；垃圾似的；无价值的

　　smutty猥琐的；污秽的；污言秽语

　　find myself firing up受激励的；受鼓舞的

　　ruthless无情的，残忍的

　　in no small part 在不小的程度上

　　less satisfied with对…较不满

　　ever-expanding不断扩张的

　　None of this is going away, in no small part because we don't want it to go away — despite evidence that it makes us less happy, andless satisfied withourever-expandingconnections.

　　这些平台都不会消失，在很大程度上是因为我们不想让它们消失，虽然证据显示，它们让我们的幸福感减弱，社会关系不断扩大，我们却越来越不满足。

　　New tech isn't to be feared. But this is a weird way to live.

　　We've spent the last few decades likegluttonsat a feast,gobbling upwhat's been put in front of us, confident that none of it was serious. I don't know where we're going with this. But we should figure it out. Fast.

　　注释

　　作者表明自己的态度：新科技并不可怕，但是人类现在的生活方式很怪异。几十年来，我们以娱乐的心态大肆消费给我们的一切，这会把我们引向何方？

　　Gluttons 贪吃的人

　　gobble up 狼吞虎咽；贪婪地抓住

　　以上就是小编为大家分享的关于外刊阅读的分享，希望对大家的英语整体提升有所帮助哦。更多雅思考试内容、广州雅思培训等问题，可以咨询我们。