首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The average U. S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial
The average U. S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial
admin
2015-10-21
82
问题
The average U. S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre. According to a recent report by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, broadband Internet service in the U.S. is not just slower and more expensive than it is in tech-savvy nations such as South Korea and Japan; the U. S. has fallen behind infrastructure-challenged countries such as Portugal and Italy as well.
The consequences are far worse than having to wait a few extra seconds for a movie to load. Because broadband connections are the railroads of the 21st century—essential infrastructure required to transmit products(these days, in the form of information)from seller to buyer—our creaky Internet makes it harder for U. S. entrepreneurs to compete in global markets. As evidence, consider that the U. S. came in dead last in another recent study that compared how quickly 40 countries and regions have been progressing toward a knowledge-based economy over the past 10 years. "We are at risk in the global race for leadership in innovation," Federal Communications Commission(FCC)chairman Julius Genachowski said recently. "Consumers in Japan and France are paying less for broadband and getting faster connections. We’ve got work to do. "
It was not always like this. A decade ago the U. S. ranked at or near the top of most studies of broadband price and performance. But that was before the FCC made a terrible mistake. In 2002 it reclassified broadband Internet service as an " information service " rather than a "telecommunications service. " In theory, this step implied that broadband was equivalent to a content provider(such as AOL or Yahoo!)and was not a means to communicate, such as a telephone line. In practice, it has stifled competition.
Phone companies have to compete for your business. Even though there may be just one telephone jack in your home, you can purchase service from any one of a number of different longdistance providers. Not so for broadband Internet. Here consumers generally have just two choices; the cable company, which sends data through the same lines used to deliver television signals, and the phone company, which uses older telephone lines and hence can only offer slower service.
The same is not true in Japan, Britain and the rest of the rich world. In such countries, the company that owns the physical infrastructure must sell access to independent providers on a wholesale market. Want high-speed Internet? You can choose from multiple companies, each of which has to compete on price and service. The only exceptions to this policy in the whole of the 32-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are the U. S. , Mexico and the Slovak Republic, although the Slovaks have recently begun to open up their lines.
A separate debate—over net neutrality, the principle that Internet providers must treat all data equally regardless of their origin or content—has put the broadband crisis back in the spotlight. Earlier this year a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s plan to enforce net neutrality, saying that because the FCC classified the Internet as an information service, it does not have any more authority to ensure that Internet providers treat all content equally than it does to ensure that CNN treats all political arguments equally. In response, the FCC announced its intention to reclassify broadband Internet as a telecommunications service. The move would give the FCC power to enforce net neutrality as well as open broadband lines up to third-party competition, enabling free markets to deliver better service for less money.
Yet, puzzlingly, the FCC wants to take only a half-step. Genachowski has said that although he regards the Internet as a telecommunications service, he does not want to bring in third-party competition. This move may have been intended to avoid criticism from policy makers, both Republican and Democrat, who have aligned themselves with large Internet providers such as AT&T and Comcast that stand to suffer when their local monopolies are broken. It is frustrating, however, to see Genachowski acknowledge that the U. S. has fallen behind so many other countries in its communications infrastructure and then rule out the most effective way to reverse the decline. We call on the FCC to take this important step and free the Internet.
What does the word "stifled" mean in the third paragraph?
选项
A、Aggravated.
B、Lessened.
C、Suppressed.
D、Accelerated.
答案
C
解析
语义题。由第三段内容可知,原本电话公司要通过竞争来获得生意,但网络服务被等同于“内容提供商”而不是“通讯工具”。第四段第四句接着指出,消费者的选择就只有两种,要么是电缆公司,要么是电话公司。可见,美国的这一做法“抑制”了竞争,而不是[A]“恶化”、[B]“减小”或[D]“加剧”竞争,故[C]正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/UPKO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheAmericanWay:FreedomTheheartoftheAmericancalendarisJuly【4】Americanshavecelebratedthisdateas"Independence
It’seasytoseewhythepriceofgasolineissoupsettingtosomanypeople.Gaspricesaretheoneeconomicindicatoryousee
Oureverydayencounterswithlanguagearesonaturalandsoextensivethatwerarelyconsiderlanguageasanobjectofsufficie
MeaninginLiteratureInreadingliteraryworks,weareconcernedwiththe’meaning’ofoneliterarypieceoranother.Howev
Besides"American"characteristics-individualism,self-reliance,informality,punctualityanddirectness,therearealsosome"n
Thewordpenoriginallymeant"featherusedforwritingwithink".Nowitreferstoanydeviseusedforwritingwithink.Thisi
InEnglish,"vis"bearsthemeaningof"tolookatsomething"andcanbecombinedwithaffixestoformnewwords,asinsupervis
______isNOTarepresentativenovelistfamousforblackhumor.
Ifyouintendusinghumorinthetalktomakepeoplesmiling,【M1】______youmustknowhowtoidentifysharedexperiencesandpr
Whatmightdrivingonanautomatedhighwaybelike?Theanswerdependsonwhatkindofsystemisultimatelyadopted.Twodistinc
随机试题
A.首次晨尿B.随机尿C.3小时尿D.24小时尿E.餐后2小时尿用于尿糖测定的标本
关于幽门梗阻,下列不正确的是
老年性阴道炎的病因是
根据合同法律制度的规定,在受赠人()的情况下,赠与人可以撤销赠与。
2008年9月1日某公司由于承担国家游泳场重要工程项目,经批准免税进口了一套机械施工设备,项目完工,公司于2009年8月14日公司将该设备出售给了国内另一家企业。该设备的到岸价格为1300万元,关税税率为10%,海关规定的监管年限为5年,按规定公司应补缴关
我国供气来源多元化,主要包括国产气和进口气两部分。国产气主要有常规天然气、页岩气和煤层气等,进口气主要有进口LNG和进口管输气。近年来,我国天然气供应量稳步增加,国产气、进口管输气、进口LNG都呈上涨趋势。国产气从2010年的989.7亿立方米增至2014
要创建一个"教师管理"库,最快捷的建立方法是
Translatingisacomplexandfascinatingtask.Infact,A.Richardshasclaimedthatitisprobablythemostcomplextypeofeve
CreativeThinkingI.FactstobeknownaboutcreativethinkingA.Peoplearecreative【T1】______【T1】______B.Itisn’tdeveloped
FederalExpressisacompanythatspecializesinrapidovernightdeliveryofhigh-prioritypackages.Thefirstcompanyofitsty
最新回复
(
0
)