The United Nations, notorious for endless deliberations, is trying a technological quick fix. Its Global Compact Office, which promotes corporate responsibility, has embraced a once marginal social technology—the wiki—in hopes 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.

   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. 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）：本文選自Newsweek, 08/06/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象：第1-3題分別模仿2001年真題Text 3第1-3題，第4、5題模仿2004年真題Text 1第4-5題。

   1． What is the passage mainly about?

    [A] A review of UN’s work efficiency

    [B] An introduction of the wiki technology

    [C] The history of Wikipedia

    [D] The problems of the wiki technology

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

    [A] very trustworthy

    [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 recognized by UN and has become a standard technology.

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

    [C] It can enhance communication 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

   本文是一篇介紹維客技術(shù)的說明文。第一段先通過一個實例——即關(guān)于聯(lián)合國采用了一項新技術(shù)——來引出話題，第二段具體介紹了什么是維客技術(shù)，該技術(shù)的優(yōu)勢及發(fā)展趨勢等。第三、四段則進(jìn)一步通過組織機(jī)構(gòu)和公司對于維客技術(shù)的使用，來說明該技術(shù)的實用性。

   詞匯注釋

   marginal [`mB:dBVinEl] adj. 邊緣的, 邊際的  foster [`fCstE] vt. 養(yǎng)育, 撫育, 培養(yǎng), 鼓勵

   consensus [kEn`sensEs] n. 一致同意         chaos [` keiCs] n. 混亂, 混沌

   enlist [in`list] v. 謀取(支持、贊助等)        vulnerable [`vQlnErEbl] adj. 易受攻擊的

   comply [kEm`plai] vi. 順從, 答應(yīng), 遵守     quasi- [`kweisai]表示“類似,準(zhǔn),半”之義

   bizarre [bi`z`B:] adj. 奇異的，古怪的        impose [im`pEuz] vt. 強(qiáng)加, 以...欺騙

   hierarchical [9haiE`rB:kikEl] adj. 分等級的

   難句突破

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

   主體句式  Its Global Compact Office has embraced a technology.

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  該長句結(jié)構(gòu)比較復(fù)雜。首先，which引導(dǎo)的定語從句用來補充說明Global Compact Office，破折號中間的內(nèi)容則是具體說明前面提到的這項技術(shù)，而后面的that引導(dǎo)的從句則是對于hope的說明。

   句子譯文  旨在增進(jìn)組織機(jī)構(gòu)責(zé)任的全球微縮辦公室，利用了一種曾經(jīng)是邊緣化的技術(shù)—維客—以幫助分布在80個國家的員工分享信息，減少達(dá)到?jīng)Q議前的各種討論并加快速度。

   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.

   主體句式  Wiki software first gained popularity thanks to Wikipedia.

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  這個句子結(jié)構(gòu)比較簡單，但是由于附加了很多內(nèi)容使得句子結(jié)構(gòu)看上去有一些復(fù)雜。破折號中間的內(nèi)容是對什么是wiki software的定義，而逗號后面的是對什么是Wikipedia的說明。

   句子譯文  維客軟件—這種軟件讓任何能夠上網(wǎng)的人可以輕松地創(chuàng)造、刪除和編輯一個網(wǎng)頁上的內(nèi)容—由于維基百科的廣泛使用而變得流行，維基百科由于讓網(wǎng)民來編寫百科全書的內(nèi)容，因此被譽為網(wǎng)上比較偉大的資源。

   題目分析

   1．B. 主旨題。縱觀全篇文章，主要是在介紹wiki這項新的技術(shù)。

   2．D. 推理題。從全文來看，現(xiàn)在聯(lián)合國和其他一些大的公司和組織機(jī)構(gòu)都已經(jīng)開始采用維客技術(shù)，說明其應(yīng)用前景是令人看好的。

   3．C. 細(xì)節(jié)題。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”。因此C為正確答案。

   4．A. 細(xì)節(jié)題。該題的B,C,D選項都可以在文章第二段中找到答案，但是全文沒有任何關(guān)于A選項的表述。而且從邏輯上來推斷，即使該技術(shù)得到了聯(lián)合國的承認(rèn)，也沒有理由認(rèn)為它從此就成為了一種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

   5．C. 細(xì)節(jié)題。C選項的原文對應(yīng)信息為“a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki software”。

   參考譯文

    聯(lián)合國一向以冗長拖沓的審議而聞名，現(xiàn)在該機(jī)構(gòu)正在嘗試使用一種新的技術(shù)手段來迅速改善這種狀況。旨在增進(jìn)組織機(jī)構(gòu)責(zé)任的全球微縮辦公室，利用了一種曾經(jīng)是邊緣化的技術(shù)—維客—以幫助分布在80個國家的員工分享信息，減少達(dá)到?jīng)Q議前的各種討論并加快速度。全球微縮辦公室通過是使公眾參與到對2000余家公司的進(jìn)展報告進(jìn)行審查來實現(xiàn)這一點—這一努力的目的在于每一家公司都充分遵守已建立起來的社會和環(huán)境方針綱要。鼓勵公眾的參與是否能夠增進(jìn)效率還有待證實，但是聯(lián)合國的這一行動是一種迅速發(fā)展的趨勢的比較新例證。

維客軟件—這種軟件讓任何能夠上網(wǎng)的人可以輕松地創(chuàng)造、刪除和編輯一個網(wǎng)頁上的內(nèi)容—由于維基百科的廣泛使用而變得流行，維基百科由于讓網(wǎng)民來編寫百科全書的內(nèi)容，因此被譽為網(wǎng)上比較偉大的資源�，F(xiàn)在這種技術(shù)正在大規(guī)模地傳播，并以沖破那些技術(shù)怪人的世界而進(jìn)入了主流世界。在所謂的“維客工作場”中，越來越多的組織已經(jīng)通過使用維軟件開始從傳統(tǒng)的等級架構(gòu)轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橐环N自我組織和合作的網(wǎng)絡(luò)—維客軟件是一組技術(shù)組合，包括維客、博客、以及其它工具—從而進(jìn)行跨組織和跨地域的創(chuàng)新。管理人員們稱這些新工具使得團(tuán)隊之間更容易合作和分享信息，或使得各個項目高效地進(jìn)行。IBM 的信息和合作軟件部門副總裁肯·比斯康蒂稱“合作軟件在公司如何創(chuàng)造和創(chuàng)新的過程中起到了非常重要的作用”。

    聯(lián)合國采用維客這一事件證明了一些組織正在開始走出維客技術(shù)會給操作帶來混亂的害怕。正如維基百科證明的那樣，對于公眾開放的網(wǎng)站非常容易引來各種傷害、偏見、矛盾和其他問題。但是大多數(shù)企業(yè)維客都是不對公眾開放的，只允許在公司的防火墻內(nèi)部的員工訪問。技術(shù)專家稱這些準(zhǔn)封閉系統(tǒng)通過記錄每一個改動以及改動者來時人們做到負(fù)責(zé)任。

    IBM從2005年開始使用內(nèi)部維客，并在考慮將這種概念賣給客戶。其中的第一個用途就是雇員們通過維客來合作撰寫一個博客宣言：一組如何在辦公室內(nèi)外合理使用博客的政策。成千上萬的員工參與了宣言的撰寫和修訂，該宣言比較后得到了公司的批準(zhǔn)—成為了公司的官方政策。