Attacking an increasingly popular Internet business practice, a consumer watchdog group Monday filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asserting that many online search engines are concealing the impact special fees have on search results by Internet users. Commercial Alert, a 3-year-old group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, asked the FTC to investigate whether eight of the Web’s largest search engines are violating federal laws against deceptive advertising.
The group said that the search engines are abandoning objective formulas to determine the order of their listed results and selling the top spots to the highest bidders without making adequate disclosures to Web surfers. The complaint touches a hot-button issue affecting tens of millions of people who submit search queries each day. With more than 2 billion pages and more than 14 billion hyperlinks on the Web, search requests rank as the second most popular online activity after E-mail.
The eight search engines named in Commercial Alert’s complaint are: MSN, owned by Microsoft; Netscape, owned by AOL Time Warner; Directhit, owned by Ask Jeeves; HotBot and Lycos, both owned by Terra Lycos; Altavista, owned by CMGI; LookSmart, owned by LookSmart; and iWon, owned by a privately held company operating under the same name. Portland, Ore.-based Commercial Alert could have named more search engines in its complaint, but focused on the biggest sites that are auctioning off spots in their results, said Gary Ruskin, the group’s executive director. “Search engines have become central in the quest for learning and knowledge in our society. The ability to skew (扭曲） the results in favor of hucksters (小贩）without telling consumers is a serious problem.” Ruskin said. By late Monday afternoon, three of the search engines had responded to The Associated Press inquiries about the complaint. Two, LookSmart and AltaVista, denied the charges. Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla said MSN is delivering “compelling search results that people want.”
The FTC had no comment about the complaint Monday. The complaint takes aim at the new business plans embraced by more search engines as they try to cash in on their pivotal(关键)role as Web guides and reverse a steady stream of losses. To boost revenue, search engines in the past year have been accepting payments from businesses interested in receiving a higher ranking in certain categories or ensuring that their sites are reviewed more frequently.
51. The consumer group complained about（ ）.
52.（ ）is the most popular activity online.
53. Which of the following is NOT a correct statement?
54. All the following share one similarity EXCEPT（ ）.
55. The primary aim of some companies’ sponsoring the search engines is to（ ）.
问题1选项
A.special fees that Internet users were charged
B.Federal Trade Commission
C.Commercial Alert
D.online search engines
问题2选项
A.Sending pages of information
B.Sending E-mail
C.Surfing the net
D.Selling the top spot
问题3选项
A.There are too many pages or hyperlinks on the Internet, so people usually use search engine to find a certain site.
B.More than 8 search engines are accused of selling their search engine spots by Commercial Alert.
C.The headquarters of Commercial Alert is in Portland Oregon.
D.The search engines are Web guides.
问题4选项
A.LookSmart
B.CMGI
C.Altavista
D.Microsoft
问题5选项
A.cash in on their important role as Web guides
B.boost their avenue
C.reverse a series of losses
D.have their sites visited by the internet users more
第1题:A
第2题:B
第3题:B
第4题:C
第5题:D
第1题:
51.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】事实细节题。根据问题中的complain一词定位到第一段第二行filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asserting that many online search engines are concealing the impact special fees have on search results by Internet users asserting that many online search engines are concealing the impact special fees have on search results by Internet users.（向联邦贸易局投诉，许多在线搜索引擎都在隐瞒特别费用对互联网用户搜索结果的影响），可知这个机构是抱怨用户被收取了特殊费用费，所以只有A项“互联网用户收取的特殊费用”正确。B项“联邦贸易委员会”是申诉机构；C项“商业警报”根据第一段最后一句可知，这是一个消费者维权组织，故排除C；D项“在线搜索引擎”不够全面，应该指出具体事项。
52.【试题答案】B
【试题解析】事实细节题。文章二段最后一句search requests rank as the second most popular online activity after E-mail。（搜索的需求是网上仅次于E-mail的第二大受欢迎的活动），可知网上最受欢迎的活动是收发E-mail。A项“发送信息页”；C项“上网”；D项“销售第一”在文中都未提及且不符合题意，故错误。
53.【试题答案】B
【试题解析】事实细节题。第三段开头The eight search engines named in Commercial Alert’s complaint are…（商业警报投诉中提到的八个搜索引擎是……），后文接着具体列举了这八种搜索引擎， B项“超过八个”是不正确的。A项定位到第二段最后一句With more than 2 billion pages and more than 14 billion hyperlinks on the Web（在网上有超过20亿个网页和超过140亿个超链接）可知A项“互联网上有太多的网页或超链接，所以人们通常使用搜索引擎来查找某个网站”正确；C项定位第三段第四行Portland, Ore.-based Commercial Alert could have named more search engines in its complaint, but focused on the biggest sites…（位于俄勒冈州波特兰市的《商业警报》本可以在投诉中提及更多搜索引擎，但重点放在最大的网站上……）可知C项“商业警报总部在俄勒冈州波特兰”正确；D项定位到最后一段第二句more search engines as they try to cash in on their pivotal role as Web guides and reverse a steady stream of losses.（越来越多的搜索引擎试图利用其作为网络向导的关键作用，扭转持续不断的亏损）可知D项“搜索引擎是网络指南”正确。
54.【试题答案】C
【试题解析】事实细节题。定位到文章的第三段，看看文章中含的选项的这几个词，A、B、D从第三段可知都是拥有搜索引擎的公司的名字，只有C是CMGI公司所拥有的搜索引擎的名字，所以A、B、D都是公司，而C是搜索引擎，故C与其他不同。
55.【试题答案】D
【试题解析】主旨大意题。题目问一些公司赞助搜索引擎的主要目的是什么。文章的最后一句是To boost revenue, search engines in the past year have been accepting payments from businesses interested in receiving a higher ranking in certain categories or ensuring that their sites are reviewed more frequently.（为了增加收入，搜索引擎在过去几年里接受了一些公司的资助， 这些都是想在同类中提高地位或者愿意使网站被人们经常浏览的公司）。所以说资助搜索引擎的公司的目的就是让自己的网站被上网者多多浏览），所以答案是D项“让他们的网站更受网民的访问”。A项“充分发挥他们作为网络向导的重要作用”；B项“促进他们的发展”；C项“扭转一系列损失”，均不符合题意。
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