(推荐)2017年江苏省英语高考阅读C

2017

年江苏省英语高考阅读

C

A

new

commodity

brings

about

a

highly

profitable,

fast-growing

industry,

urging

antitrust

（ 反垄断）

regulators

to

step

in

to

check

those

who control its flow. A century ago, the resource in question was oil.

Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants

（巨头）

that deal in

data, the oil of the digital age. The most valuable firms are Google,

Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. All look unstoppable.

Such situations have led to calls for the tech giants to be broken

up. But size alone is not a crime. The giants' success has benefited

consumers. Few want to live without search engines or a quick delivery.

Far

from

charging

consumers high

prices,

many

of

these

services

are

free

(users

pay,

in

effect,

by

handing

over

yet

more

data).

And

the

appearance

of new-born giants suggests that newcomers can make waves, too.

But

there

is

cause

for

concern.

The

internet

has

made

data

abundant,

all-present

and

far

more

valuable,

changing

the

nature

of

data

and

competition.

Google

initially

used

the

data

collected

from

users

to

target

advertising

better.

But

recently

it

has

discovered

that

data

can

be

turned

into

new

services:

translation

and

visual

recognition,

to

be

sold

to

other

companies.

Internet

companies’

control

of

data

gives

them

enormous

power.

So

they

have

a

“God’s

eye

view”

of

activities

in

their

own

markets

and

beyond.

This nature of data makes the antitrust measures of the past less

useful.

Breaking

up

firms

like

Google

into

five

small

ones

would

not

stop

remaking themselves: in time, one of them would become great again. A

rethink

is

required

—

and

as

a

new

approach

starts

to

become

apparent,

two

ideas stand out.

The

first

is

that

antitrust

authorities

need

to

move

form

the

industrial

age

into

the

21st

century.

When

considering

a

merger(

兼并

),for

example,

they

have

traditionally

used

size

to

determine

when

to

step

in.

They now need to take into account the extent of firms' data assets(

资

产

) when assessing

the impact

of

deals. The purchase

price could also

be

a signal that an established company is buying a new-born threat. When

this takes place, especially when a new-born company has no revenue to

speak of, the regulators should raise red flags.

The second principle is to loosen the control that providers of

on-line services have over data and give more to those who supply them.

Companies

could

be

forced

to

consumers

what

information

they

hold

and

how

much money they make form it. Governments could order the sharing of

certain kinds of data, with users' consent.

Restarting antitrust for the information age will not be easy But

if gove