2011年考研英語特訓：看閱讀背單詞(1)

　　A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide―the division of the world into the info (information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.

　　There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the Internet of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments afraid their countries will be left behind want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we've ever had.

　　Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.

　　To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why America's Second Wave infrastructure----- including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on----- was built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain's former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be. That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.

　　譯文

　　今天，人們十分關注所謂的數字分化問題--世界分成信息富有和信息貧困兩部分。當今這種分化確實存在，我和妻子20年前就曾談到這一迫近的危險。然而，當時還不太明顯的是存在著一些新的積極因素來抵制數字分化。我們完全有理由感到樂觀。

　　一些技術上的因素使我們有理由期望分化會縮小。隨著互聯網的日趨商業化，網上交易變得普及--畢竟，上網人數越來越多，潛在客戶就越多。越來越多的政府唯恐自己的國家落后，紛紛推廣互聯網接人。在一、二十年之內，全球將有一、二十億人互聯。因此，我認為在未來的數年中，數字分化將縮小而不會變大。這是好消息，因為互聯網很可能成為與我們所面臨的貧困做斗爭的最有力的工具。

　　當然，互聯網的使用不是消除貧困的唯一方法。互聯網也不是我們所擁有的唯一工具，但它擁有巨大潛力。

　　想要利用互聯網，一些貧困國家就必須克服對國外投資所持有的那種過時的、反殖民的種種偏見。那些認為國外投資是對本國主權侵犯的國家最好還是好好研究一下美國基礎設施的歷史。當初美國建立自己的工業基礎設施時，缺乏必要資金，因此美國的第二波基礎設施浪潮--包括公路、海港、高速公路、碼頭等等--都是用國外資金建造的。英國人、德國人、荷蘭人和法國人都在前英國殖民地投資。他們提供資金，美國移民者來建造。想想看，誰擁有這一切?是美國人。我想，就這一點來說，巴西或其他任何地方同樣也該這樣。在建設第三波基礎設施的浪潮(今天主要指電子基礎設施)中，擁有的國外資金越多，那么情況將會越好。這并不是要卑躬屈膝、認人愚弄，也不是對國外公司不加控制，而是意味著你已認識到國外公司對本國能源及通信基礎設施建設的重要性，而這些基礎設施則需要充分利用互聯網。

　　詞匯

　　access n. 進口，人口;取得的方法

　　派生：accessible a. 易接近的，可到達的 accession n. 就職

　　例句：The only access to their house is along that narrow road. 只有沿著那條狹窄的路走才能到達他們的房子。

　　詞組：access to 接近;have/gain access to 可以獲得;easy of access 易于接近

　　anti-colonial a. 反殖民的

　　commercialize v. 使商業化，使商品化

　　派生：commerce n. 商業，商務，貿易 commercialism n. 商業主義 commercial a. 商業的，盈利的，商品化的

　　例句：Love matters should not be commercialized. 不應該把戀愛商品化。

　　combat n. 戰斗，斗爭v. 與……戰斗

　　例句：The troop has much experience of actual combat. 這支部隊有實際作戰經驗。

　　辨析：war, battle, combat

　　war 指全面戰爭;battle 指局部戰爭;combat 指比battle 規模小的戰斗。

　　corporation n. 公司;法人

　　派生：corporate a. 團體的;社團的，全體的

　　例句：It grew from a tiny start-up to a multimillion-dollar corporation. 那家公司從小小的新公司發展成數百萬美元的大公司。

　　decade n. 十年

　　例句：This should be the aim over the next decade, it is crucial to our survival. 這應該成為今后十年的奮斗目標，它關系到我們的生死存亡。

　　Defeat v. 戰勝;打敗

　　例句：Our school defeated another school at football. 在足球比賽中我們學校戰勝了另一個學校。

　　divide v. 分，分割;分配，分享

　　派生：division n. 分割，除法

　　例句：Fire-break divided them at conveniently spaced intervals. 防火帶把他們的距離適當分開了。

　　詞組：divide…into 分，劃分、除，除盡;divide among/between 在……之中分配;divide sth. with sb. 與某人分享某物;divide by 除以

　　辨析：separate, divide

　　separate 指把原來連接在一起的或者靠近的東西分割開來;divide 是指把整體分成若干份。

　　enormous a. 巨大的，龐大的，極大的

　　派生：enormously ad. 巨大地，極大地

　　例句：An enormous gap remains between the advanced countries and the developing countries. 在先進國家和發展中國家之間仍然存在著巨大的差距。

　　辨析：enormous, huge

　　enormous 巨大的，較huge 正式，暗示超出尋常體積或程度，超大;huge 巨大的，兩詞都著重大小，數量之極多，體積之巨大。

　　finance n. 財政;金融 v. 為……籌集資金，供以經費

　　派生：financial a. 財政的，金融的

　　例句：She is an expert in finance. 她是一位金融專家。

　　The government will finance the new building with the taxes it collected. 政府將用征繳的稅收為新建筑籌集資金。

　　Impoverish v. 使……困難;使……貧瘠，惡化

　　派生：impoverishment n. 貧困

　　例句：Our lives would have been greatly impoverished if we had not got this job. 如果我們沒有這份工作，我們的生活會很貧困。

　　infrastructure n. 基礎結構;基礎設施

　　例句：Vast sums are needed to keep the infrastructure. 保養基礎設施需要大量資金。

　　invasion n. 侵略，侵犯

　　派生：invade v. 侵略，入侵 invader n. 侵略者

　　例句：The navy is our principal bulwark against invasion. 海軍是我們抵御侵略者的重要保障。

　　investment n. 投資，投資額

　　派生：invest v. 投資，投入investor n. 投資者

　　例句：He made an investment of $ 10,000 in the supermarket. 她在這個超市投資了1萬美元。

　　loom v. 隱約出現;逼近

　　例句：A figure loomed out of the forest. 一個影子隱約在森林出現。

　　詞組：loom large 赫然聳現;顯得嚴重

　　potential a. 潛在的;有可能的 n. 潛力

　　例句：For years, scientists have debated the potential impact of oil spills. 多少年來，科學家們就一直在探討石油溢漏可能造成的影響。

　　詞組：be potential for 對……有潛力，有可能

　　Prejudice n. 成見，偏見

　　例句：We should cast away all prejudices to deal with this problem. 我們應該拋棄所有偏見來處理這個問題。

　　詞組：have a prejudice against 對……有偏見

　　sovereignty n. 最高統治權;主權

　　例句：China's sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be infringed. 中國的主權與領土完整不容侵犯。

　　spread v. 張開;擴展，散開 n. 傳播，蔓延

　　例句：He spread some apple jam on the bread. 他在面包上涂上蘋果醬。

　　The spread of the scientific knowledge is necessary. 科普知識的傳播是很必要的。

　　詞組：spread sth. with sth. 把某物鋪在某物上;spread over 延展，延神

　　telecom n. 電信(全稱 telecommunication)

　　universalize v. 使普遍化

　　派生：universal a. 全體的，與全體有關的;普遍的 universally ad. 全體地，普遍地 universalization n. 一般化，普遍化