大學英語六級巔峰閱讀附答案

　　下面是小編整理的，希望對大家有幫助。

　　eBay

　　eBay is a global phenomenon-the world's largest garage sale, online shopping center, cardealer and auction site with 147 million registered users in 30 countries as of March 2005. Youcan find everything from encyclopedias to olives to snow boots to stereos to airplanes for sale.And if you stumble on it before the eBay overseers do, you might even find a human kidney ora virtual date.

　　eBay Basics

　　eBay is, first and foremost. an online auction site. You can browse through categories likeAntiques, Boats, Clothing & Accessories, Computers & Networking,Jewelry &Watches and Video Games. When you see something you like, you click on the auction title andview the details, including pictures, descriptions,payment options and shipping information.

　　If you place a bid on an item,you enter a contractual agreement to buy it if you win the auction.All auctions have minimum starting bids, and some have a reserve price-a secret minimumamount the seller is willing to accept for the item. If the bidding doesn't reach the reserveprice, the seller doesn't have to partwith the item. In addition to auctions, you can find tons offixed-price items on eBay that make shopping there just like shopping at any other onlinemarketplace. You see what you like, you buy it, you pay for it and you wait for it to arrive atyour door.

　　You can pay for an item on eBay using a variety of methods, including money order, cashier'scheck, cash, personal check and electronic payment services like PayPal and BidPay. It's up toeach seller to decide which payment methods he'll accept.

　　Just as you can buy almost anything on eBay, you can sell almost anything, too. Using a simplelisting process, you can put all of the junk in your basement up for sale to the highest bidder.When you sell an item on eBay,you pay listing fees and turn over a percentage of the final saleprice to eBay.

　　Once you register ***for free*** with eBay, you can access all of your eBay buying and sellingactivities in asingle location called "My eBay."

　　eBay Infrastructure

　　A series of service disruptions in 1999 caused real problems for eBay's business. Over thecourse of threedays, overloaded servers intermittently shut down, meaning users couldn'tcheck auctions, place bids or complete transactions during that period. Buyers, sellers andeBay were very unhappy, and a complete restructuring of eBay's technological architectureFollowed.

　　In 1999, eBay was one massive database server and a few separate systems running thesearch function. In 2005, eBay is about 200 database servers and 20 search servers.

　　The architecture is a type of grid computing that allows for both error correction and growth.With the exception of the search function, everything about eBay can actually run onapproximately 50 servers-Web servers,application servers and data-storage systems. Eachserver has between 6 and 12 microprocessors. These50 0r so servers run separately, but theytalk to each other,so everybody knows if there is a problem somewhere. eBay can simply addservers to the grid as the need arises.

　　While the majority of the site can run on 50 servers,eBay has four times that.The 200 serversare housed in sets of 50 in four locations,all in the United States. When you're using eBay, youmay be talking to anyone of those locations at any time-they all store the same data. If one ofthe systems crashes. there are three others to pick up the slack.

　　When you're on the eBay Web site and you click on a listing for a Persian rug, your computertalks to Web servers, which talk to application servers, which pull data from storage serversso you can find out what the latest bid price is and how much time is left in the auction. eBayhas local partners in many countries who deliver eBay's static data to cut down on downloadtime, and there are monitoring systems in 45 cities around the world that constantly scan forproblems in the network.

　　Using eBay: Security

　　In order to make buyers feel safer when making purchases on eBay, all tangible ***有形的*** itemsare automatically insured for $200. A recipe that was supposed to be delivered to you via e-mail is not considered a tangible item.But if you purchased a set of speakers that neverarrived, and you go through the dispute process and eBay determines you were defrauded ***欺騙***， you can get your money back up to $200.

　　Buyer Fraud

　　Buyer fraud is typically less damaging than seller fraud. The most common type of fraud abuyer can commitis simply not paying for an item. Sellers can deal with non-paying bidders byfiling an Unpaid Item dispute. eBay will then attempt to contact the buyer and get her to pay.If she does not respond to eBay's attempts after eight days, the seller is reimbursed***賠償*** foreBay's cut of the final sale price and can relistthe item for free. If the buyer does respond, thedispute can end in one of three ways:

　　The buyer decides to pay, and everybody's happy.

　　The buyer and the seller decide together to abandon the transaction,the seller getsreimbursed for the final-value fee and relists the item for free,and everybody's happy.

　　The seller decides noe to deal with the buyer, the buyer gets an unpaiditem strike against her,and the seller gets reimbursed for the final-value fee and relists the item for free.

　　In the end, the damage to the seller is relatively small. Another type of buyer fraud occurswhen a buyer sends false payment. In most cases,this is in the form of a bounced check, andthe seller finds out about it before shipping the item. Bounced checks are as common on eBayas they are in the rest of the world, and many sellers choose not to accept personal checks forthis reason.

　　Seller Fraud

　　Seller fraud is what most people think about when they worry about using eBay. There are twomain ways in which a buyer can be defrauded by a seller: The item the buyer purchased isdramatically different from how it was described in the listing; or the item simply never arrives.

　　One thing to keep in mind when you think you've been defrauded is that miscommunication iscommon on eBay.For instance, if you didn't read every word of the auction listing for your item,you may have missed the part that said the seller would be out of town for three weeks andwouldn't be able to ship the item untilshe returned. This could be why you don't have your itemand the seller isn't answering your e-mails. Also,e-mail is not the most straightforward formof communication. If your item hasn't arrived after two weeks, and you've e-mailed the sellerbut haven't heard back, it's a good idea to check your junk mail folder. Your seller may havesent a response e-mail that just never made it to your inbox. If there's nothing fromthe sellerin your junk folder, you can request that eBay reveal your seller's phone number so you cangive him a call and see what's going on.

　　If you don't get an answer to your phone call ***or if your seller lives in another country and itwould cost too much money to call***, your next step is to start the dispute process. When abuyer believes he has been defrauded, he can file a complaint, and eBay will work to solve theproblem. When you file a complaint in eBay's "Item Not Received or Significantly Not asDescribed" system,eBay will act as middleman between you and your seller to try to settle thedis pute. lf that fails, you can file a claim to get reimbursed for your purchase.

　　eBay購物

　　eBay是一種全球化現象，它是世界上最大的舊貨出售和線上購物中心、汽車經銷商和拍賣站點。自2005年3月起它已在30個國家擁有了1.47億個註冊使用者。你能在eBay上找到一切東西.從百科全書到橄欖、雪地靴、立體音響、到飛機，應有盡有。[1]如果你在eBay監察員插手之前偶然上上eBay網，你甚至可能找到一個人的腎臟或一個虛擬約會物件。

　　eBay基本知識

　　eBay首先是一個線上的拍賣站點。你可以通過分類目錄瀏覽古董、小船、服裝和裝飾品、電腦和網際網路類產品、珠寶扣手錶以及電子遊戲等物品。你看見你喜歡的東西時，你可以點選一下拍賣標題，看看包括產品圖片、產品描述、支付選擇和送貨方式等有關該產品的詳細資訊。

　　如果你競標一件物品，贏得拍賣的話。你就可以輸入一項合同協議買下它。所有的拍賣品都有一個最低起價，並且有些產品還有一個保留——賣方願意接受的祕密的最低價。[2]如果投標達不到保留價，賣方就不必出售該商品了。除拍賣之外，你還可以在eBay上找到大量價格固定的商品，這使得在eBay購物就像在其他任何一家線上商場購物一樣。你看見你喜歡的東西，買下它，付錢，然後就等貨物上門。

　　[3]對於在eBay上買的東西，你可以採用包括匯票、銀行支票、現金、個人支票和像PayPal和BidPay一樣的電子支付服務在內的多種付款方式。到底用哪種方式付款取決於各個賣家願意接受哪種方式。

　　正如你在eBay上幾乎能買到任何東西一樣，你也幾乎可以在上面出售任何東西。列張清單，你就可以將你所有放在地下室裡不要的東西擺出去競賣。你在eBay出售一樣物品時，你得支付掛牌費並且把最後售價的一部分分給eBay。

　　[4]一旦你註冊了***免費***eBay，你就能進入eBay網並在一個叫“我的eBay”的單獨的地方進行所有的買賣活動了。

　　eBay的基礎設施

　　1999年發生的一系列服務混亂使eBay的經營出現了實質性的問題。在三天多的時間裡，超載的伺服器出現間歇關閉，這意味著使用者在此期間不能檢視拍賣情況，不能投標或完成交易。買方、賣方和eBay都非常不開心，因此在那之後eBay公司進行了—次徹底的技術結構改造。

　　在1999年，eBay是靠一臺巨大的資料庫伺服器和一些單獨的系統執行檢索功能。到2005年，eBay有了大約200臺數據庫伺服器和20臺檢索伺服器。

　　eBay的結構採用一種網格計算體系，可以進行錯誤修正和升級。除檢索功能以外，eBay的一切操作實際上都能在大約50臺伺服器上執行。這些伺服器包括Web伺服器，應用伺服器和資料儲存系統。[5]每臺伺服器有6到12個微處理器。這50多臺伺服器是分開執行的，但是他們可以彼此交流，因此如果某個地方出了問題，大家都會知道。需要的時候，eBay只需給網格增加伺服器就行了。

　　當大部分站點都能在50臺伺服器上執行時,eBay又增加了3倍的伺服器。200臺伺服器被分成了四組，每級50臺服務囂，各佔一個位置。伺服器全部都在美國。使用eBay時，你可以在任何時候和任何一個位置的伺服器進行交流——它們儲存的資料都是一樣的。如果其中一個系統崩潰，還有其他3個可以用。

　　[6]你登陸eBay網站，點選一下波斯小地毯的目錄，你的電腦便會將資訊傳達給Web伺服器，Web伺服器又將資訊傳達給應用伺服器，應用伺服器於是從貯存伺服器中提出資料，你就可以查到最新的競標價以及這項拍賣還剩下多少時間。eBay在很多國家都有負責傳送eBay的靜態資料以減少下載時間的本地合夥人，在全世界45個城市還有不斷掃描網路問題的監控系統。

　　使用eBay：安全

　　為了使購買者在eBay上買東西的時候感到更安全，所有的有形物品都會自動投保200美元。[7]不過通過***傳送給你的一份食譜就不被認為是一件有形物品了。如果你購買了一套揚聲器但一直沒送到，你可以接通糾紛處理平臺，eBay會確定你是否被欺騙了，如果是，你就可以得回高達200美元的保險金。

　　買方欺詐

　　與賣方的欺詐行為相比，買方欺詐通常造成的損失較小。買方最常見的欺詐行為就是買了東西不付棧。[8]賣方可以通過向eBay“出價不要糾紛處理平臺”提出申請來對付那些不付款的投標者。eBay會盡量與買方聯絡讓她付錢。如果在eBay催款8天之後她仍未做出反應.eBay就會取消收取該商品的最後銷售提成以補償賣方，賣方可以把那件商品免費重新放到商品目錄上去。如果買方做出迴應，糾紛就會以下列三種方式之一了結：

　　買方決定付錢，皆大歡喜。

　　買方和賣方一同協商後決定放棄交易.賣方通過免交最後銷售價提成得到補償，並將該商品免費重新放到商品目錄上，也是皆大歡喜。

　　賣方決定不與買方交易以打擊買方的不付款行為，賣方通過免交最後銷售價提成得到補償，並將該商品免費重新放到商品目錄上。

　　最後，對賣方造成的損失相對來說就很小了。另一種型別的買方欺詐行為是買方用假支票支付。在大多數情況下，買方使用空頭支票會被賣方在寄送商品之前查出來。[9]空頭支票在全世界其他地方隨處可見，在eBay上也是如此。因此很多賣家都選擇不接受個人支票付款。

　　賣方欺詐

　　大多數人不放心在eBay購物就是因為考慮到賣方可能的欺詐行為。賣方主要以兩種方式欺騙買方：買方購買的東西與商品目錄上的描述有非常大的差別;或者賣方沒有將東西選到買方手中。

　　當你認為你被欺騙了的時候，要注意一件事.即在eBay上經常發生交流失誤。例如，如果你在拍賣目錄裡沒有詳細閱讀你要買的商品的每一句描述，你可能就會錯過說賣方將外出3周，要等她回來才能送貨的這部分資訊。這可能是為什麼你沒有收到你買的東西，以及為什麼賣方沒有回你郵件的原因。此外，***不是最直接的交流方式。如果你要的東西在兩週之後還沒到，並且你已經發了***給賣方，但是沒有收到回覆，你最好檢查一下你的垃圾箱。你的賣方可能回了一封***給你，但沒有被放到你的收件箱。如果你的垃圾箱也沒有賣方的任何田復，你就可以要求eBay顯示賣方的電話號碼，你可以打電話給他，看看是怎麼回事。

　　如果打電話也沒有迴音***或者如果你的賣方住在另一個國家。打電話太貴***，你可以進入下一步的糾紛處理。當買方確信自己已經被欺騙時，他可以正式提出投訴.eBay會對此問題進行處理。當你在eBay的“物品未收到或與描述的嚴重不符”系統提出投訴時，[l0]eBay會作為你和你賣方的中間人進行糾紛調解。如果調解失敗，你就可以正式提出索賠得到補償。

　　1. Which of the following may be banned by eBay overseers?

　　A*** Virtual dates.

　　B*** Any over-priced products.

　　C*** Priceless antiques.

　　D*** Rare animals for pets.

　　2.Sellers have the right to refuse the deal if the offer is lowertban__________________.

　　A*** the minimum starting bid

　　B*** the reserve price

　　C*** the average market price

　　D*** the wholesale cost

　　3.PayPal and BidPay are special names for_____________________.

　　A*** money orders

　　B*** cashier's checks

　　C*** personal checks

　　D*** electronic payment services

　　4.On eBay, you buy or sell an item at______________________.

　　A*** My Account

　　B*** My Market

　　C*** My Store

　　D*** My eBay

　　5.At present, each of eBay's server is equippedwith_______________microprocessors.

　　A*** 200

　　B*** about 50

　　C*** 6 to 12

　　D*** 20

　　6.When you click on a listing on the eBay Web site,your computer first com municatesto______________.

　　A*** search servers

　　B*** Web servers

　　C*** application servers

　　D*** storage servers

　　7.A recipe is not considered tangible item if________________.

　　A*** it is delivered later than the contracted time

　　B*** it never arrives at your place

　　C*** it is delivered to the buyer through e-mail

　　D*** it costs less than the market price

　　8.Sellers may contact eBay and apply for an Unpaid Item disputeagainst__________________.

　　9.Many sellers tend to refuse personal checks for fear of___________________.

　　10.During the dispute process between the seller and the buyer, eBay plays the roleof_____________.

　　1.[A][定位]根據題幹中的eBay overseers定位至首段末句。

　　解析：在原文該句末明確提到，此處是唯一提到overseers的地方，其他選項均來提及，很明顯，本題答案為A。

　　2.[B][定位]本題題乾的題眼不明顯，根據選項關鍵詞bid，price，cost等在原文查詢與“出價”有關的細節，由此定位至第1個小標題eBay Basics部分的第2段笫3句。

　　解析：題幹中的have the right to refuse the deal是原文該句doesn’t have to part with the item的近義改寫，因此答案為B。

　　3.[D][定位]根據題幹中的PayPal和BidPay定位至第1個小標題eBay Basics部分的第3段首句。

　　解析：原文該句末的electronic payment services like PayPal and BidPay表明PayPal和BidPay屬於electronic payment services，因此本題應選D。

　　4.[D][定位]根據題幹中的buy or sell及選項定位至第1個小標題eBay Basics部分的末段。

　　解析：本題的題幹題眼不明顯，應從選項入手，因為這些選項都是專有名詞，在原文應該比較顯眼。逐一查詢選項就可發現只有D在第1個小標題下末段提及，其他選項均未提及。

　　5.[C][定位]根據題幹中的server和microprocessors定位至第2個小標題eBay Infrastructure部分的第3段第3句。

　　解析：本題除了可根據題乾的題眼定位原文找到答案外，還可查詢與選項數字相關的內容，這些數字集中在第2個小標題下第2、3段，這樣，查詢到C的時候就可發現這一組數字為正確答案。

　　6.[B][定位]根據題幹中的listing和Web site定位至第2個小標題eBay Infrastructure部分的末段首句。

　　解析：原文該句提到了多個server，還有多個套疊的定語從句，但是根據題幹中的first可以迅速選擇B，因為這是在原文中首先提到的server。

　　7.[C][定位]根據題幹中的recipe和tangible定位至第3個小標題Using eBay：Security部分的首段第2句。

　　解析：根據題眼定位後，可知只有C在原文提及，其他選項都屬於無中生有。

　　8.[non-paying bidders]

　　[定位]根據題幹中的Unpaid Item dispute定位至第3個小標題Using eBay: Security部分的次標題BuyerFraud下首段第3句。

　　解析：空白處應為名詞***片語***。本題要求查詢申請Unpaid Item dispute的用處，原文句中的deal with...by filing an Unpaid Item dispute表明賣方以此對付那些不付款的投標者，因此deal with後的賓語non-paying bidders為本題答案。

　　9.[bounced checks]

　　[定位]根據題幹中的personal checks定位至第3個小標題Using eBay: Security部分的次標題Buyer Fraud下末段末句。

　　解析：空白處應為名詞***片語***。只要在原文找到this reason的所指，就能順利解決本題。根據該段的主要內容和末句的主語可以推斷this reason指的就是bounced checks，這就是本題答案。

　　10.[middleman]

　　[定位]根據題幹中的dispute process定位至全文末段倒數第2句。

　　解析：空白處應為名詞***片語***。題目中的plays the role of與原文中的act as為同義詞，加上題目中的between the seller and buyer和原文一致，不難判斷本題答案應為原文act as後的middleman。