Question

When Barbra ­Streisand discovered in 2003 that a photograph of her California beach house was among 12,000 photos on the Internet as part of a ­collection by photographer Kenneth Adelman, she did what any famous person would do: hit him with a $50 million lawsuit. But in trying to hold back the images, she caused a different outcome. Her legal actions led to almost half a million people visiting the website, viewing and copying the photos within a month.

Ever since then, the effect of letting public know something you are trying to keep secret has been called the “Streisand effect”. The problem for anyone trying to suppress information is that the Internet is the world’s biggest and most efficient copying machine. Put a ­document on to a connected machine and it will spread. So when you want to be famous, you can’t, but if you find ­yourself in the spotlight and want to erase ­yourself, you cannot.

There is no shortage of examples of the Streisand effect. Nine-year-old Martha Payne created a simple blog, posting the meals her school served. She took a photo of what was barely a filling meal by anyone’s standards. With the photo, she filled a comment, “Now Dad understands why I am hungry when I get home.” The thing did not go too far, until the local authority banned little Martha from doing that again. Martha posted a supposedly final post called “Goodbye”, explaining everything. Once the media found this out, things went from bad to worse for the authority. Now the blog has more than 9.5 million page views. Martha has even expanded her blog by including pictures of school meals taken by other kids from all over the world, like Germany and Japan.

We can find similar examples throughout history, to be frank. Man has experienced the Streisand effect ever since the birth of mass communication. Why does it exist? Every time you are told not to see what’s in the secret shiny box wrapped in gift paper, you’re going to do everything in your power to do exactly that! Just realizing that knowing something about someone is harmful to their status, we will want to know that piece of information. This is exactly the human nature. This is what lawyers and authorities should be familiar with. Unfortunately, a few of them fail to grasp it.

1.The underlined word “suppress” in Paragraph 2 probably means________.

A. give away B. look into

C. cover up D. search for

2.What speeded up the spread of Martha’s story?

A. Parents’ complaints.

B. The authority’s order.

C. The photos of other kids.

D. Supporting from the school.

3.What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A. The root of Streisand effect.

B. The influence of Streisand effect.

C. People’s reaction to Streisand effect.

D. Historical examples of Streisand effect.

4.What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Streisand effect benefits most famous people.

B. It’s not a good idea to argue against authorities.

C. The ban on something may have opposite effect.

D. Turning to the law is a perfect way to get one out of trouble.

Answer 1

1.C

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

試題分析:本文由史翠珊效應(yīng)，9歲瑪莎佩恩創(chuàng)建的有關(guān)學(xué)校食堂的博客這兩個例子揭示人類的本性——僅僅意識到了解了一些對于別人地位不利的事情，,我們?nèi)韵胍�知道更多的信息�?/p>

1. effect of letting public know something you are trying to keep secret has been called the “Streisand effect”讓公眾知道你試圖保密的事情的效應(yīng)被稱為“史翠珊效應(yīng)”。由此句的keep secret可知The problem for anyone trying to suppress information意思就是任何人試圖掩蓋信息的問題。cover up ,掩蓋，蓋住。故選C。

2.The thing did not go too far, until the local authority banned little Martha from doing that again直到地方當(dāng)局禁止小瑪莎再次這樣做，這件事情才走的很遠。以及Martha posted a supposedly final post called “Goodbye”, explaining everything. Once the media found this out, things went from bad to worse for the authority. 瑪莎發(fā)布所謂最終篇帖子，叫做"再見"，解釋一切。一旦媒體發(fā)現(xiàn)這一點，事情就會因為官方變得很更糟。由此可知是官方的命令加速了這件事的傳播。故選B。

3. effect，然后Why does it exist?它為什么存在？以及Just realizing that knowing something about someone is harmful to their status, we will want to know that piece of information. This is exactly the human nature. This is what lawyers and authorities should be familiar with. Unfortunately, a few of them fail to grasp it. 僅僅意識到了解了一些對于別人地位不利的事情，,我們會想要知道那片信息。這完全是人類的本性。這是律師和當(dāng)局應(yīng)該很熟悉的。不幸的是，他們沒有幾個未能把握住它。故選A。

4.禁止可能產(chǎn)生相反的效果。故選D。

考點：考察科普說明類閱讀。