英语听力精选进阶版 14103

The Great Firewall of China

Summary

14 December 2012

There's been uproar¹ on China's tightly-controlled internet after local media reported that the state news agency Xinhua has an account on Twitter. Along with Facebook and YouTube, the popular western social networking website is banned in China. 

Reporter:

Viv Marsh²

Report

Xinhua has had an English-language account on Twitter for months, and it's not clear why China's regional press chose to mention its existence now. But it's provoked both anger and amusement among Chinese web users, whose every mouse-click is monitored by what's known as the Great Firewall.

One comment left on the website of the news magazine Caijing, said Xinhua's officials should be arrested for jumping the wall. Another ventured plaintively³, "please allow us to visit Twitter too".

Xinhua's cyber-journey to the West may be news to many of China's netizens, but it hasn't gone there alone. Also posting on Twitter in English are the official China Daily and Global Times, in what seems to be an attempt to promote China's soft power.

Joining them on the other side of the Great Firewall are some of the best-known Chinese dissidents, including the artist and activist⁴ Ai Weiwei, who used special software to circumvent⁵ the controls. This doesn't mean there's contact between them. More than six thousand people worldwide follow Xinhua's frequent posts on Twitter - but the news agency itself doesn't follow anyone at all.

1 uproar   

n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸

参考例句：

• She could hear the uproar in the room.她能听见房间里的吵闹声。
• His remarks threw the audience into an uproar.他的讲话使听众沸腾起来。

2 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

3 plaintively   

adv.悲哀地，哀怨地

参考例句：

• The last note of the song rang out plaintively. 歌曲最后道出了离别的哀怨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds cry plaintively before they die, men speak kindly in the presence of death. 鸟之将死，其鸣也哀；人之将死，其言也善。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。