①The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing-Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for$13.5bn,but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service,which doesn’t have any physical product at all.②What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.

digital economy  数字经济

grocery chain  连锁杂货店

upmarket  a. 高级的，高端的

physical product  实体产品

intricate  a. 错综复杂的

detailed  a. 详尽的；精细的；细致的

数字经济巨头的势力及野心十分惊人——亚马逊公司刚刚宣布以135亿美元的价格收购高端连锁食品店WholeFoods， 而在两年前， Facebook甚至出资更高收购了压根儿没有任何实体产品的What sApp(即时) 通讯服务。What sApp为Facebook提供的，是一套复杂而精确详尽的用户朋友圈及其社交生活网。

①Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities,but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through.②Even without knowing what was in the messages,the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be.③What political journalist,what party whip,would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting?④It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops it owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.

go through  被认可，成交；通过

enormously  ad. 极其，非常

revealing  a. 揭示内情的，泄密的

party whip  党鞭，党组织秘书

makeup  n. （小组或团队的）组成，构成

plot  v. 密谋，策划

not so much..., but...  与其说，毋宁说

Facebook当时向欧委会承诺不会把电话号码与Facebook身份信息相关联， 但协议刚获准通过，它就背弃了这一承诺。即使不了解信息的具体内容，但其发送者以及接收者的(身份)信息在极大程度上也会透漏内情，且这种情况仍会继续。特蕾莎·梅的政敌正在其中进行密谋的那些What sApp(聊天)群，哪个政治记者，哪个党鞭会不想知道其成员构成?也许， WholeFoods对于亚马逊的价值与其说是在于它旗下的460间店铺，倒不如说在于其顾客的购买记录。

①Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power.②But it is clumsy.③For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy.④By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power.⑤But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too.⑥Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them.⑦The users of their services are not their customers.⑧That would be the people who buy advertising from them-and Facebook and Google,the two virtual giants,dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.

address  v. （着手）解决，处理（问题）

clumsy  a. 笨拙、不灵活的；使用不便的

remedy  v. 纠正，改正；治疗，救治

conceptual  a. 观念上的，概念上的

to sb's disadvantage  对……不利

竞争法似乎是解决这些权力失衡问题的唯一办法。但它却笨拙不堪。一方面，相较于数字经济中革新的步伐，它太慢了。某个问题待其得到解决和补救时，这个问题可能已经在市场中蒸发不见了，取而代之的是新的权力滥用。但是还存在一个更深层的概念性问题。当前所阐释的竞争法应对的是消费者的经济损失问题，而当这些服务的用户并不是它们的支付者时，法规就不明确了。其(数字巨头)服务的用户不是它们的顾客。它们的顾客是那些花钱购买广告的人一而Facebook和Google这两大实质上的巨头，它们掌控了数字广告，这不利于所有其他的媒体和娱乐公司。

①The product they’re selling is data,and we,the users,convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants.②Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield.③Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes.④It doesn’t feel like a human or democratic relationship,even if both sides benefit.

convert  v. 使转变，转化；改装，改造

for sb's benefit  为了某人的利益，为了帮助某人

farm  v. 养殖；耕种；承包出去

bug  n. 昆虫，小虫子；缺陷

aphid  n. 蚜虫

predatory  a. 捕食性的，食肉的

spammer  n. 垃圾邮件发送者

even if  即使，就算

它们售卖的产品是数据，而我们这些用户，将我们的生活转化为数据，为数字巨头盈利之用。就好像有些蚂蚁会养殖一种名为蚜虫的昆虫，以获取它们进食时分泌出的蜜露，同样地， Google养殖我们是为了获取我们数字生活所产生的数据。蚂蚁防范食肉昆虫靠近其蚜虫进食之处；Gmail防范垃圾邮件发送者入侵我们的收件箱。这可不像一种人类的，或者说民主的关系，尽管双方均能够获益。

31. According to Paragraph 1, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its_______

[A]digital products  

[B]user information

[C]physical assets  

[D]quality service

32.Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may_______    

[A]worsen political disputes  

[B]mess up customer records

[C]pose a risk to Facebook users  

[D]mislead the European commission

33.According to the author, competition law _______   

[A]should serve the new market powers

[B]may worsen the economic imbalance

[C]should not provide just one legal solution

[D]cannot keep pace with the changing market

34.Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook users because ________

[A]they are not defined as customers  

[B]they are not financially reliable

[C]the services are generally digital  

[D]the services are paid for by advertisers

35.The ants analogy is used to illustrate  _______  

[A]a win-win business model between digital giants

[B]a typical competition pattern among digital giants

[C]the benefits provided for digital giants’ customers

[D]the relationship between digital giants and their users

BCDAD

31、首段①句破折号后指出Facebook高价收购没有任何实体产品的What sApp， ②句暗示原因：What sApp能为其提供一张精细的用户朋友关系和社交生活网， 也即“用户信息”， [B] 正确。

32、第二段②③句指出Facebook背弃承诺， 将电话号码与Facebook ID挂钩。其危害是：即使不了解信息的具体内容， 但消息接收者与发送者的信息也会极大程度上泄露内情(enormously revealing) ， 如此一来用户自然会面临隐私威胁， [C] 正确。

33、由题干关键词competion law定位至第三段， ②句直接指出， 竞争法笨拙不堪(clumsy) ， ③句引出原因之一：它跟不上数字经济变化的速度， [D] 符合文意。

34、5句引出竞争法的第二个问题：概念性问题，⑥⑦句进而解释，当前所阐释的法律是“保护消费者不受经济损失(...to consumers) ”， 但问题在于用户(users) 没有为服务付钱， 不能算作消费者， 因而他们难以受到法律保护的原因在于“身份定位问题”，即没被定义为消费者(即顾客)，[A]正确。

35、末段②③句把动物界现象(蚂蚁养殖、保护蚜虫以获取蜜露) 与我们的世界(Google养殖/保护我们以获取我们的数据) 相类比；末句对这种关系加以讽刺， 可见该类比意在揭示以Google、Facebook为代表的科技巨头VS用户之间的不平等关系， [D] 符合文义。