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25 views

27_8

Uploaded by

Le Nguyen
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PASSAGE 1

Social networks

Business applications
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs
and small businesses looking to expand their contact base. These networks often act as
a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services.
Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and
text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep
in touch with contacts around the world.
Medical applications
Social networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare professionals as a means to
manage institutional knowledge, disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight
individual physicians and institutions. The advantage of using a dedicated medical
social networking site is that all the members are screened against the state licensing
board list of practitioners. The role of social networks is especially of interest to
pharmaceutical companies who spend approximately "32 percent of their marketing
dollars" attempting to influence the opinion leaders of social networks.
Languages, nationalities and academia
Various social networking sites have sprung up catering to different languages and
countries. The popular site Facebook has been cloned for various countries and
languages and some specializing in connecting students and faculty.
Social networks for social good
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model
for social good. Such models may be highly successful for connecting otherwise
fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader
audience with interested and passionate users. Users benefit by interacting with a
like-minded community and finding a channel for their energy and giving.
Business model
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part, this may be
because social networking is a relatively new service, and the value of using them has
not been firmly established in customers' minds. Companies such as MySpace and
Facebook sell online advertising on their site. Hence, they are seeking large
memberships, and charging for membership would be counter productive. Some
believe that the deeper information that the sites have on each user will allow much
better targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide. Sites are also
seeking other ways to make money, such as by creating an online marketplace or by
selling professional information and social connections to businesses.
Privacy issues
On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users
giving out too much personal information and the threat of sexual predators. Users of
these services need to be aware of data theft or viruses. However, large services, such
as MySpace, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents. In
addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal
information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a
profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to
an individual, may be taken.
Investigations
Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal
investigations. Information posted on sites such as MySpace and Facebook, has been
used by police, probation, and university officials to prosecute users of said sites. In
some situations, content posted on MySpace has been used in court.

1 According to the text, social networks .......

are being used by businesses for marketing.


are about friendships.
can damage business reputations.
advertise on business web sites.

2 Why do advertisers like social nework sites?

Detailed information on each user allows targeted ads.


They are cost-effective to advertise on.
Most users have high disposable income.
They can influence consumer behaviour.

3 What does the word 'Few' at the beginning of paragraph 6 mean?

Hardly any
Not any
Some
Only

4 What should users not do on social networks?

be too free with their personal information


download viruses
contact predators
upload copyrighted music
5 Personal information on social network sites .......

can be used in court


gives a good description of the user's personality
is sold to the government
is translated into many languages

6 Social networking is great for ......

groups of people separated over wide areas


academic organisations
people who write too much information about themselves
the law enforcement agencies
PASSAGE 2
A Then the falling dominoes head out of the room into the streets, causing
progressively larger objects to tumble.
B These were all chosen to suit the town and fit in with the people’s way of life.
C Getting there involved driving along 48 kilometres of dirt roads and crossing
twelve rivers.
D Iruya is situated 3000 metres above sea level and the film crew was not used to
working in such conditions.
E The prop department did construct a small version on site, but most of the work
was done in a studio in London.
F Added to this was the total of one hundred and thirty 'actors' who were recruited
from a five neighbouring towns.
G Not so with the famous Irish drink company Guinness.
The Making of 'Tipping Point'

Many of the most expensive commercials ever made are those in which an A-list
celebrity flashes a beautiful smile at the cameras. SelectABCDEFG Their
recent television advertisement, the most expensive in British history, cost ten million
pounds, and it features, not the rich and famous, but villagers from the mountains of
Argentina.

The advertisement features a game of dominoes. It begins in a darkened room where


several thousand ordinary dominoes are set up on a specially-designed table.
SelectABCDEFG Dominoes knock over books, which in turn knock bigger
household objects such as suitcases, tyres, pots of paint, oil drums and even cars. The
final piece in the chain reaction is a huge tower of books. These flutter open to reveal
a structure in the shape of a pint of Guinness.

The location chosen for the commercial was Iruya, a village high up in the mountains
of north-west Argentina. SelectABCDEFG The journey there could take up
to ten hours. Asked why this remote destination was chosen for the shoot, the director
said that even though it was the most difficult location they could have picked, it was
perfect.

For one month, the village, population thousand, increased in size by almost thirty
percent. One hundred and forty crew members descended on the village. These
included the world record holders in domino toppling, Weijers Domino productions
from the Netherlands. SelectABCDEFG
Creating this film was no easy task. Preparations for filming took well over a month.
Twenty six truckloads of objects were brought in. SelectABCDEFG They
included 10,000 books, 400 tyres, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45 wardrobes and 6 cars.
Setting the objects up took skill and patience. They needed to be arranged so they
would fall over easily, and this involved balancing them on stones. Some of the
sequences had to be reshot 15 times and 24 hours of footage was captured. However,
the sequence in which six cars fell over was successfully shot in just one take.

Filming in this location was not without its difficulties. Firstly, being so isolated, it
was hard to obtain resources at short notice. The second problem was the high
altitude. SelectABCDEFG It was also hard working with the villagers who had
no experience of film-making. Finally, setting and resetting the props caused a good
deal of frustration.

Director Nicolai Fuglsig said about the project : ‘Despite all the challenges, the cast
was fantastic and it was a really amazing experience.’ Whether or not the effort put
into the advert pays off is another matter entirely.

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