作為雅思考生，我們讀外刊要有一定的目的性，不僅僅是為了擴(kuò)大我們的閱讀面，還要有意識(shí)地針對(duì)雅思考試，提高自己的水平。本文的話，我們做了一些注釋，主要幫助大家習(xí)得雅思口語(yǔ)的知識(shí)。

Mobilisation often explodes, seemingly at random, according to the authors, most of whom work at the Oxford Internet Institute. Most online petitions, for instance, attract only a small number of supporters. Success does not depend on the subject matter—similar ones often fare quite differently—but the personality of potential participants. Extroverts, for instance, are more likely to act because they are sensitive to “social information”: seeing that others have already signed and knowing that their endorsement will be seen too. As a result, if a petition's initial audience includes enough people with the right mindset, it can quickly take off (as do political Twitter hashtags). Politics in the age of social media are thus better understood by chaos theory than by conventional social science. Collective action online is a bit like the weather: small events can have a big impact. The book's intriguing conclusion: social media are making democracies more “pluralistic”, but not in the conventional sense of the word, involving diverse but stable groups.Instead, the authors see the emergence of a “chaotic pluralism”, in which mobilisations spring from the bottom up.

據(jù)大都在牛津互聯(lián)網(wǎng)研究院工作的該書作者，表面上看，動(dòng)員組織的爆發(fā)經(jīng)常是隨機(jī)的。例如，大多數(shù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)請(qǐng)?jiān)肝闹皇且恍〔糠种С终摺３晒Σ蝗Q于題材——同樣的題材常常是結(jié)果迥異——而是取決于潛在參與者的性格。例如，外向的人更有可能采取行動(dòng)，因?yàn)樗鼈儗?duì)“社會(huì)信息”敏感：看到別人已經(jīng)簽名，就知道他們的支持也會(huì)被看到。因而，一場(chǎng)請(qǐng)?jiān)改軌?和政治性的推特話題一樣)迅速發(fā)動(dòng)起來(lái)的前提就是初始旁觀者中包括足夠多的具有正確心態(tài)的人。因而，在社交媒體時(shí)代，用混沌理論比用傳統(tǒng)社會(huì)科學(xué)能更好地理解政治。網(wǎng)絡(luò)集體行為有點(diǎn)像天氣：一連串的小事件能夠造成巨大影響。該書的有趣結(jié)論是：社交媒體正在讓民主變得更加“多元化”。但是，這里的pluralistic一詞已經(jīng)沒(méi)有了其傳統(tǒng)的含義，不再指多樣但穩(wěn)定的群體。相反，作者看到的是一種動(dòng)員和組織都是自下而上的“無(wú)序多元化”。

【經(jīng)典句式】

explode爆發(fā)

seemingly看似

at random隨機(jī)地

petition請(qǐng)?jiān)?/p>

depend on取決于

subject matter題材

fare quite differently結(jié)果迥異

personality性格

potential潛在

participant參與者

extrovert外向者

likely可能的;傾向于

be sensitive to對(duì)……敏感

endorsement支持

initial最初的

mindset思維方式;心態(tài)

take off起飛;蓬勃發(fā)展

as do … 和……一樣

conventional傳統(tǒng)的

impact影響

intriguing吸引人的

democracy民主;民主國(guó)家

diverse多樣的

emergence出現(xiàn)

spring from來(lái)自

【犀利觀點(diǎn)】集體&個(gè)人：

Collective action online is a bit like the weather: small events can have a big impact.

One day, say the authors, it will be possible to predict, and perhaps even trigger such social-media surges, in thesame way that meteorologists have become good at forecasting the weather. The big question is: who will be the political weathermen? Only two groups of actors are sure to have good access to social-media data and enough resources to develop software to sift through them: one is online giants, such as Facebook and Google, the other governments. So social media, like other forms of technology, will cutboth ways in politics: they are making societies more democratic,but will also provide those in power with new tools of control.

該書的作者稱，總有一天，用氣象學(xué)家已經(jīng)擅長(zhǎng)的預(yù)測(cè)天氣的方式，去預(yù)測(cè)甚至激發(fā)此類社交媒體的大爆發(fā)將成為可能。問(wèn)題是：誰(shuí)會(huì)是政治的天氣預(yù)報(bào)員?只有兩類人能充分利用社交媒體數(shù)據(jù)并且具有足夠的資源開發(fā)出篩選數(shù)據(jù)的軟件：一類是像臉書和谷歌這樣的網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭，另一類是政府。因而，社交媒體將像其他形式的技術(shù)那樣，給政治造成截然相反的兩種影響：它們正在讓社會(huì)變得更加民主，但是也將給掌權(quán)之人帶來(lái)新的掌控工具。

【經(jīng)典句式】

predict預(yù)測(cè)

trigger激發(fā)

social-media surge社交媒體的大爆發(fā)

meteorologist氣象學(xué)家

forecast預(yù)測(cè)

have good access to能充分利用

develop software開發(fā)軟件

sift through篩選

online giant網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭

democratic民主的

【大作文萬(wàn)用句式】

One day it will be possible to …總有一天，……將成為可能。

cut both ways in …造成截然相反的兩種影響

【犀利觀點(diǎn)】社交媒體的影響：

Social media, like other forms of technology, will cut both ways in politics:they are making societies more democratic,but will also provide those in power with new tools of control.

本文觀點(diǎn)選自“微信公眾號(hào)”，不代表本站立場(chǎng)，如有任何問(wèn)題，請(qǐng)聯(lián)系雅思中國(guó)網(wǎng)進(jìn)行修改或刪除。