听力原文:

Facebook
脸书
Imperial ambitions
帝国的野心
Mark Zuckerberg prepares to fight for dominance of the next era of computing
为了统治下一个时代的信息计算，马克扎克伯格正在积极备战
NOT since the era of imperial Rome has the “thumbs-up” sign been such a potent and public symbol of power. A mere 12 years after it was founded, Facebook is a great empire with a vast population, immense wealth, a charismatic leader, and mind-boggling reach and influence. The world’s largest social network has 1.6 billion users, a billion of whom use it every day for an average of over 20 minutes each. In the Western world, Facebook accounts for the largest share of the most popular activity (social networking) on the most widely used computing devices (smartphones); its various apps account for 30% of mobile internet use by Americans. And it is the sixth-most-valuable public company on Earth, worth some $325 billion.

重点词汇：

1 thumbs-up/down 翘拇指（表示接受或成功）；拇指向下（表示拒绝或不成功）
2 potent 有强效的；有力的；烈性的；影响身心的
3 mere 仅仅的；只不过
4 charismatic 有超凡魅力的；有号召力（或感召力）的
5 mind-boggling 难以想象的；难以理解的；令人惊愕的

听力原文:

Even so, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 31-year-old founder and chief executive, has even greater ambitions . He has plans to connect the digitally unconnected in poor countries by beaming internet signals from solar-powered drones, and is making big bets on artificial intelligence (AI), “chatbots” and virtual reality (VR). This bid for dominance will bring him into increasing conflict with the other great empires of the technology world, and Google in particular. The ensuing battle will shape the digital future for everyone.

重点词汇：

1 beam 发射（电波）；播送
2 solar 太阳能的
3 drone an aircraft without a pilot, controlled from the ground 无人驾驶飞机
4 ensue 接着发生；因而产生

听力原文:

Empires built on data Facebook has prospered by building compelling services that attract large audiences, whose attention can then be sold to advertisers. The same is true of Google. The two play different roles in their users’ lives: Google has masses of data about the world, whereas Facebook knows about you and your friends; you go to Google to get things done, but turn to Facebook when you have time to kill. Yet their positions of dominance and their strategies are becoming remarkably similar. Unparalleled troves of data make both firms difficult to challenge and immensely profitable, giving them the wealth to make bold bets and to deal with potential competitors by buying them. And both firms crave more users and more data—which, for all the do-gooding rhetoric, explains why they are both so interested in extending internet access in the developing world, using drones or, in Google’s case, giant balloons.

重点词汇：

1 prosper 繁荣；兴旺；成功；发达
2 compelling 非常强烈的；不可抗拒的
3 unparalleled 无比的；无双的；空前的；绝无仅有的
4 trove发掘出来的金银财宝;
5 crave 渴望；热望
6 do-gooding （对某人）有好处，有用处，有益；帮助
7 rhetoric 华而不实的言语；花言巧语

听力原文:

The task is to harness data to offer new services and make money in new ways. Facebook’s bet on AI is a recognition that “machine learning”—in which software learns by crunching data, rather than having to be explicitly programmed—is a big part of the answer. It already uses AI techniques to identify people in photos, for example, and to decide which status updates and ads to show to each user. Facebook is also pushing into AI-powered digital assistants and chatbot programs which interact with users via short messages. Next week it is expected to open up its Messenger service (which can already be used to do things like order an Uber car), to broaden the range of chatbots. And Facebook’s investment in VR—it bought Oculus, the cheerleader of this emerging field, for $2 billion in 2014—is a bold guess about where computing and communication will go after the smartphone.

重点词汇：

1 harness 控制，利用（以产生能量等）
2 recognition *认出；认识；识别 *承认；认可；* 赞誉；赏识；奖赏
3 cheerleader（某一政治家、某种观点或做法等的）支持者，摇旗呐喊者
4 Oculus 眼

听力原文:

But Facebook faces rivals in all these areas. Google is using AI techniques to improve its internet services and guide self-driving cars, and other industry giants are also investing heavily in AI—though with the deepest pockets and the most data to crunch, Facebook and Google can attract the best researchers and most promising startups. Facebook lags behind Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft when it comes to voice-driven personal assistants; when it comes to chatbots, it faces competition from Microsoft and a host of startups eager to prove that bots are the new apps, And its push into VR—which Mr Zuckerberg sees as a stepping stone to “augmented reality” (AR), where information is superimposed on the real world—pits it against formidable rivals, too. Microsoft has jumped straight to AR with its HoloLens headset, its most impressive product in years, and Google, already active in VR, has invested in Magic Leap, a little-known AR startup.

重点词汇：

1 a host of 许多 一大群;
2 augment 增加；提高；扩大
3 superimpose 使（图像甲）叠映在（图像乙）上
4 pit 使…表面有斑点；在…上打洞 pit sb/sth against sth 使竞争；使较量；使经受考验
5 hololens 全息[光]透镜;
6 deepest pockets 最深的陷阱
7 formidable　可怕的；令人敬畏的；难对付的

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