【一起听英语】过去十年间的变化

十年来，人们的衣食住行发生着哪些变化，其中，哪些变化是最大的呢？

Kate Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 Minute English. Well this is one of our

last episodes¹ of the year, indeed of the decade². So in today’s programme we’re

going to be talking about how various things have changed over the last 10

years – the noughties. (This is the expression some people use to describe the

years 2000 to 2009 because the numbers include a ‘nought’ or zero). So

Rebecca , what has changed for you since the year 2000.

Rebecca answers

Kate Well one thing which has changed everybody’s lives dramatically³ throughout⁴

the world in the last ten years is the Internet.Can you cast⁵ your mind back to

the year 1999 and try to remember how you used the internet back then?

Rebecca answers

Kate Yes, I remember having a strong sense of the Web⁶’s possibilities but I never

imagined what a huge part it would play in my everyday life - working with it,

using it at home, for keeping in touch with friends email, listening to radio,

music and booking holidays etc.

 

Rebecca answers

Kate Well, the Web has changed all our lives in so many ways and today we’re

going to focus⁷ on one aspect of it – social networking. Are you a social

networker?

Rebecca answers 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009

Page 2 of 4

Kate gives some more examples. Here's my question for this week. How many users⁸

does Facebook have?

a) 100 million users

b) 200 million users

c) 300 million users

Rebecca answers

Kate Good answer. I’ll let you know if you were right at the end of the programme.

Can you guess how Facebook might have started?

Rebecca I think it was something to do with Harvard university in Amercia – is that

right?

Kate Yes! Originally⁹ a ‘facebook’ was the name given to a document given

American students when they first arrived at university designed to put them in

touch with other students with whom they might be friends. Then a young

student call Mark Zukerman decided¹⁰ to put it on the web rather than using

paper.

We're going to hear from Chris Cox, the vice¹¹ president of ‘Facebook’. Before

we listen can you explain what upload means¹²?

Rebecca Well upload means to put something on the web. You can upload pictures,

music, videos. The opposite of course is to ‘download’ which means you take

materials from the web and put them on to your own computer or Ipod.

Kate Thanks – well let’s listen. Can you tell me what Facebook was like in its early

days? 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009

Page 3 of 4

Extract¹³ 1

Mark built a service that allowed you to upload your picture and your name and where you

came from, your birthday, very basic things and the service had a feature that said you could

add somebody as a friend.

Rebecca He said that Mark built a service which allowed you to upload your

picture, name, your birthday and basic things. More or less what we see on the

site today but just more basic.

Kate And then what happened? Chris Cox again.

Extract 2

Within a matter of month or so I think pretty much everybody at Harvard was on Facebook

and we slowly launched¹⁵ it at one university after another and then suddenly Mark’s inbox

was full of other universities saying could you launch¹⁴ this here. And there was a very

common story which was within weeks of the launch of Facebook.com at a school it would

become….90 % of the student body would join.

Rebecca So it seemed become successful very quickly. He said that within a month

everybody was on Facebook and soon afterwards all the other universities were

asking for it. He used the words inbox – this is of course his email inbox where

he receives emails.

Kate Thanks so there we have just one example of how our everyday lives have

been changed by the internet and social networking in the last ten years. We

are now able to stay in touch with friends in a way which was unimaginable

ten years ago. Now the answer to the question I asked you.

Rebecca I think I said… 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009

Page 4 of 4

Kate And you were correct. Let's have a quick re-cap of the vocabulary we've come

across today. First of all we had noughties, upload, download, inbox and

launch.

Rebecca: Goodbye! 

1 episodes   

插曲，片断( episode的名词复数 )； 一集

参考例句：

• The novel deals with the romantic episodes of her early life. 小说叙述了她早期生活的浪漫插曲。
• Three episodes have been telescoped into a single programme. 把叁集的内容压缩成了一个节目。

2 decade   

n.十年，十年期

参考例句：

• Prices have risen steadily during the past decade.过去的十年间，物价一直在上涨。
• The century has rounded into its ninth decade.本世纪已进入了90年代。

3 dramatically   

ad.显著地

参考例句：

• His quality of life has improved dramatically since the operation. 手术后他的生活质量大大改善了。
• Our way of life has changed dramatically over the last ten years. 在过去10年里我们的生活方式发生了巨大的变化。

4 throughout   

adv.到处，自始至终；prep.遍及，贯穿

参考例句：

• These magazines are sold at bookstores throughout the country.这些杂志在全国各地书店均有发售。
• Guilin is known throughout the world for its scenery.桂林以山水著称于世。

5 cast   

vt./vi.(cast,cast)投掷；投射；抛

参考例句：

• You can cast your vote at the local polling station.你可以在当地的投票站投票。
• He cast off fear and decided to make a try.他去掉害怕心理，决定试一试。

6 web   

n.网，蛛丝，蹼，织物，圈套，卷筒纸；vi.生蹼，形成网；vt.织蜘蛛网于，使落入圈套

参考例句：

• The spider weaves a web.蜘蛛织网。
• You mean the World Wide Web?你是说国际互联网？

7 focus   

n.焦点，焦距；vi.聚焦，注视；vt.使聚焦，调焦，集中

参考例句：

• She was the focus of everyone's attention.她是大家注意的焦点。
• The noise made it hard for me to focus on work.噪音让我无法集中注意力工作。

8 users   

用户，使用者( user的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new software will prove a boon to Internet users. 这种新软件将会对互联网用户大有益处。
• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。

9 originally   

adv.本来，原来，最初，就起源而论，独创地

参考例句：

• Originally I didn't want to go.我本意不想去。
• After much discussion they settled on the plan originally proposed.他们讨论了很久，然后确定了原来提出的那个计划。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

12 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

13 extract   

vt.取出，提取，获得，摘录；n.摘录，提出物

参考例句：

• The article was a choice extract from her writings.这篇文章是从她的著作中摘录出来的精粹。
• We can extract oil from olive.我们可以从橄榄中榨油。

14 launch   

vt.发动，推出；发射；n.发射，下水，投产

参考例句：

• The makers are about to launch out a new product.制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。
• Would it be wise to launch into this rough sea?在这样汹涌的大海中游泳明智吗？

15 launched   

v.发射( launch的过去式和过去分词 )；[计算机]开始（应用程序）；发动；开展（活动、计划等）

参考例句：

• He launched a bitter diatribe against the younger generation. 他对年轻一代发起了猛烈的抨击。
• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide. 这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。