2018-04-19

Face-off

① On April 11th Mark Zuckerberg testified before testy politicians in Washington about the firm's latest privacy controversy, first to a joint hearing of two Senate committees that lasted around four hours, and then again on April 12th to a House of Representatives committee.

② While in the long term some sort of regulation is inevitable, it seems less likely in the near term.

③ Laws take years and sometimes decades to come into effect for burgeoning industries.

④ For Facebook to change in any meaningful way, Congress will have to change too.

⑤ One of the most stunning revelations of the highly choreographed hearings was not anything Mr Zuckerberg said, but how little America's politicians seemed to know about Facebook and the way the world of digital communications operates.

⑥ There is little hope for smart regulation that will protect users' privacy until the people who would draft laws understand the ecosystem they need to tame.

⑦ The Cambridge Analytica scandal gave Mr Zuckerberg a crash course in political diplomacy, but the education of politicians about the opaque, labyrinthine world of digital data is only just beginning.

▍生词好句

face-off: n. 对决；竞争

testify /ˈtɛstɪfʌɪ/: vi.（出庭）作证 vt. 证实

A testify to B: A 作为证据证实了 B

testy /ˈtɛsti/: adj. 怒气冲冲的；暴躁易怒的

hearing /ˈhɪərɪŋ/: n. 听证会

senate /ˈsɛnɪt/: n. 参议院

House of Representatives: 众议院

burgeoning /ˈbəːdʒ(ə)nɪŋ/: adj. 飞速发展的

burgeon /ˈbəːdʒ(ə)n/: vi. 飞速发展

stunning /ˈstʌnɪŋ/: adj. 令人震惊的

revelation /rɛvəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/: n. 被揭露的真相、内情

reveal /rɪˈviːl/: vt. 泄露；披露

revealing /rɪˈviːlɪŋ/: adj. 发人深思的

choreograph /ˈkɒrɪəɡrɑːf/: vt. 策划；安排

draft /drɑːft/: vt. 起草

ecosystem /ˈiːkəʊsɪstəm/: n. 生态系统

tame /teɪm/: vt. 驯化；监管控制 adj. 温顺的；驯服的

crash course: 强化速成课

diplomacy /dɪˈpləʊməsi/: n. 处理人际关系的手腕、手段；外交

opaque /ə(ʊ)ˈpeɪk/: adj. 不透明的；混沌的

labyrinthine /ˌlæbəˈrɪnθaɪn/: adj. 错综复杂的

▍补充例句

· testify

He testified that five people were harassed by the boss.

The empty shops in the street testify to the depth of the recession.