2020考研英语阅读理解精读100篇：Unit 39

Unit 39

The United Nations, notorious for endless deliberations, ①is trying a technological quick fix. Its Global Compact Office, which promotes corporate responsibility, has embraced a once marginal social technology—the wiki—in the hope that it will help staff in 80 countries share information and reach consensus with less deliberation and more speed. The office has done this by enlisting the public in its review of progress reports from more than 2,000 companies—an effort to make sure each is complying with established social and environmental guidelines. It’s debatable whether encouraging public input is a good way to increase efficiency, but the move is the latest example of a quickly growing trend.

②Wiki software—easy-to-use programs that let anyone with Internet access create, remove and edit content on a Web page—first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia, the user-generated encyclopedia that has come to be praised as one of the Web’s greatest resources. Now the technology is increasingly spreading outside the world of bizarre tech people and into the mainstream, being adopted by workplaces, corporations and even governments. In what’s been called the “wiki workplace,” a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki software—a basket of technologies that include wikis, blogs and other tools—to foster innovation across organizational and geographic boundaries. Executives say the new tools make it easier for teams to collaborate and share information, and to get projects up and running on the fly. “Collaborative software has become a very important part of how businesses will invent and innovate,” says Ken Bisconti, IBM’s vice president of messaging and collaboration software.

That the United Nations is embracing wikis is an indication that organizations are beginning to get over their fear that this technology could introduce chaos into their operations. As Wikipedia has demonstrated, Web sites that are open to the public are vulnerable to deliberate injury, bias, inconsistency and other problems. But most corporate wikis are closed to the public, limiting access to employees inside the company firewall. These quasi-closed systems, say technology experts, impose accountability simply by keeping a record of every change and who made it.

IBM has used internal wikis since 2005, with an eye to selling the concept to its clients. One of its first applications was a wiki that employees could use to collaborate on writing a blogging manifesto: a set of policies for appropriate use of blogs in and out of the office. Thousands of employees contributed and edited that manifesto, which after receiving corporate approval—became the company’s official policy.

注（1）：本文选自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象：第1~3题分别模仿2001年真题Text 3第1~3题，第4、5题模仿2004年真题Text 1第4、5题。

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A) It is about how the United Nations is forced to adopt the wiki software to improve efficiency.

B) It is an introduction to the wiki technology and its growing trend.

C) It reviews the advantages and disadvantages of wiki technology.

D) It is about the immaturity of the wiki technology and its future development.

2. The application of the wiki technology turns out to be _______.

A) very reliable

B) rather superficial

C) somewhat contradictory

D) quite encouraging

3. The basic problem of applying wiki technology lies in that _______.

A) some people doubt it is a communist plot

B) the technology is still not mature enough to be used widely

C) there might be purposeful injury and damage from the public

D) the technology can only be used internally

4. Which of the following is NOT the advantage of wiki technology?

A) It is a safe technology when being applied both externally and internally.

B) The public can participate in the creation of web contents.

C) It can enhance communication at least within an organization.

D) It helps promote innovation and improve work efficiency.

5. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A) UN has gained positive results by using wiki technology.

B) IBM’s adoption of wikis turns out to be a failure.

C) Wiki software is changing some corporate network structure.

D) Wiki websites will replace conventional websites.

篇章剖析

本文是一篇介绍维客技术的说明文。第一段先通过一个实例——联合国采用了一项新技术——来引出话题。第二段具体介绍了什么是维客技术，该技术的优势及发展趋势等。第三、四段则进一步通过组织机构和公司对于维客技术的使用来说明该技术的实用性。

词汇注释

marginal /ˈmɑːdʒɪnəl/ adj. 边缘的，边际的

consensus /kənˈsensəs/ n. 一致同意

enlist /ɪnˈlɪst/ v. 征召；谋取（支持、赞助等）

comply /kəmˈplai/ vi. 遵守，答应，顺从

bizarre /bɪˈzɑː/ adj. 奇异的，古怪的

hierarchical /ˌhaɪəˈrɑːkɪkəl/ adj. 分等级的

foster /ˈfɒstə/ vt. 培养，鼓励；养育，抚育

chaos /ˈkeɪɔs/ n. 混乱，混沌

vulnerable /ˈvʌlnərəbl/ adj. 易受攻击的

quasi- /ˈkwɑːzi/ 类似；准；半

impose /ɪmˈpəuz/ vt. 强加；以…欺骗

难句突破

① Its Global Compact Office, which promotes corporate responsibility, has embraced a once marginal social technology—the wiki—in the hope that it will help staff in 80 countries share information and reach consensus with less deliberation and more speed.

主体句式：Its Global Compact Office has embraced a technology.

结构分析：该长句结构比较复杂。首先，which引导的定语从句用来补充说明Global Compact Office，两个破折号中间的内容则是具体说明前面提到的这项技术，而后面的that引导的从句则是对于hope的说明。

句子译文：旨在增进组织机构责任的全球微缩办公室，利用了一种曾经是边缘化的技术——维客——以帮助分布在80个国家的员工分享信息，减少达成决议前的各种讨论并加快速度。

② Wiki software—easy-to-use programs that let anyone with Internet access create, remove and edit content on a Web page—first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia, the user-generated encyclopedia that has come to be praised as one of the Web’s greatest resources.

主体句式：Wiki software first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia.

结构分析：这个句子结构比较简单，但是由于附加了很多内容使得句子结构看上去有一些复杂。两个破折号中间的内容是对wiki software的定义，而第二个逗号后面的内容是对什么是Wikipedia的说明。

句子译文：维客软件——让任何能够上网的人可以轻松地创造、删除和编辑一个网页上的内容——由于维基百科的广泛使用而变得流行，而维基百科由于让网民来编写百科全书的内容而被誉为网上最伟大的资源。

题目分析

1. B 主旨题。纵观全篇文章，主要是在介绍wiki这项技术及其发展趋势。A选项的错误原因在于联合国采用维客技术只是一个引出文章的例子。C选项的错误原因在于文章的主旨并不是评论维客技术的优缺点。D选项的错误原因在于维客技术尚不成熟这一点同样不是文章的主题。

2. D 细节题。从全文来看，现在联合国和其他一些大的公司和组织机构都已经开始采用维客技术，文章第二段第二句话也说明了维客技术现在不仅仅属于那些bizarre tech people，而是变得越来越普遍，说明其应用前景是令人看好的。

3. C 细节题。文章第三段中提到“As Wikipedia has demonstrated, Web sites that are open to the public are vulnerable to deliberate injury, bias, inconsistency and other problems”，而这个问题尚未得到解决，因此C为正确答案。

4. A 细节题。该题的B、C、D选项都可以在文章第二段中找到答案，但是全文没有任何关于维客技术安全性的明确表述。文章第三段指出了对外使用维客技术存在的弱点和问题，而内部由于责任明确而相对比较安全。

5. C 细节题。C选项的原文对应信息为“a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki software”。A选项中，关于联合国这项新措施的结果我们尚未得知。B选项表述错误。D选项的表述并没有在文章中出现。

参考译文

联合国一向以冗长拖沓的审议而闻名，现在该机构正在尝试使用一种新的技术手段来迅速改善这种状况。旨在增进组织机构责任的全球微缩办公室，利用了一种曾经是边缘化的技术——维客——以帮助分布在80个国家的员工分享信息，减少达成决议前的各种讨论并加快速度。全球微缩办公室通过使公众参与到对2000余家公司的进展报告进行审查来实现这一点——这一努力的目的在于每一家公司都充分遵守已建立起来的社会和环境方针纲要。鼓励公众的参与是否能够增进效率还有待证实，但是联合国的这一行动是一种迅速发展的趋势的最新例证。

维客软件——让任何能够上网的人可以轻松地创造、删除和编辑一个网页上的内容——由于维基百科的广泛使用而变得流行，而维基百科由于让网民来编写百科全书的内容而被誉为网上最伟大的资源。现在这种技术正在大规模地传播，并已冲破那些技术怪人的世界而进入了主流世界，应用于工作场所、公司甚至是政府。在所谓的“维客工作场”中，越来越多的组织已经通过使用维客软件开始从传统的等级架构转变为一种自我组织和合作的网络——维客软件是一组技术组合，包括维客、博客以及其他工具——从而进行跨组织和跨地域的创新。管理人员们称这些新工具使得团队之间更容易合作和分享信息，并使得各个项目高效地进行。IBM 的信息和合作软件部门副总裁肯·比斯康蒂称“合作软件在公司如何创造和创新的过程中起到了非常重要的作用”。

联合国采用维客这一事件证明了一些组织正在开始克服维客技术会给操作带来混乱的恐惧。正如维基百科证明的那样，对于公众开放的网站非常容易引来各种伤害、偏见、矛盾和其他问题。但是大多数企业维客都是不对公众开放的，只允许在公司的防火墙内部的员工访问。技术专家称这些准封闭系统通过记录每一个改动以及改动者来使人们做到负责任。

IBM从2005年开始使用内部维客，并在考虑将这种概念卖给客户。其中的第一个用途就是雇员们通过维客来合作撰写一个博客宣言：一组如何在办公室内外合理使用博客的政策。成千上万的员工参与了宣言的撰写和修订，该宣言最后得到了公司的批准，成为了公司的官方政策。