- 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 .......
A) are about friendships
B) are being used by businesses for marketing.
C) can damage business reputations
D) advertise on business web sites.
- 2. 2 Why do advertisers like social nework sites?
A) Most users have high disposable income.
B) They can influence consumer behaviour.
C) They are cost-effective to advertise on.
D) Detailed information on each user allows targeted ads.
- 3. What does the word 'Few' at the beginning of paragraph 6 mean?
A) only
B) Hardly any
C) some
D) not any
- 4. 4 What should users not do on social networks?
A) download viruses
B) contact predators
C) upload copyrighted music
D) be too free with their personal information
- 5. 5 Personal information on social network sites .......
A) is translated into many languages
B) is sold to the government
C) gives a good description of the user's personality
D) can be used in court
- 6. 6 Social networking is great for ......
A) academic organisations
B) academic organisations
C) groups of people separated over wide areas
D) people who write too much information about themselves
- 7. A
Sundance by Teresa Wilson
Kerry:
I really don't know why this book is so popular. I mean, I suppose it is going to appeal to young girls who want danger and romance, but I found this book really tedious. For a start, the characters were really unconvincing. The author went out of her way to add lots of details about the characters, but I found these details really pointless. I thought that some of the facts she presented about the main characters would become significant in some way later in the novel, but they didn't. They were just worthless bits of information. I also was disappointed that, although this book is meant to be about kids at high school, the writer seems to have no recollection at all about what it's like to be 17. The main character thought and acted like a 32-year old. It just wasn't believable. I'm not saying Teresa Wilson is a bad writer. She can obviously string words together and come up with a story that is appealing to a large number of people, but she lacks anything original. There is no flair. It just uses the same sort of language as you can see in many other mediocre novels.
B
Wild Ways by Margery Emerson
Liz:
I have to say that I won't forget this book for a long time. I was hooked from the very first chapter. The devastating story affected me so much that I don't know if I'll ever feel the same again. I was close to tears on several occasions. I've got images in my brain now that I don't think will ever leave me. It's incredibly well-researched and, although it is fiction, is based on shocking real-life events. I learned an awful lot about things that went on that I never knew before. Margaret Emerson has a brilliant way with words and I really felt real empathy towards the characters, although I was sometimes irritated by the choices they made. However, the parallel story, the part that is set in the present, is not quite so good. I found myself just flicking through that part so that I could get back to 1940s Paris.
C
Orchid by Henry Rathbone
Imogen:
This is a delightful novel full of wonderful imagery, a paints a remarkable picture of life in a distant time and a far-away place. If you're looking to learn about Eastern culture in great detail, then this is probably not the book for you, as the writer skims over most of the more complicated aspects of the country's etiquette. The historical aspects are also not covered in much depth. However, I wonder whether this was the writer's intention. By doing this, he symbolise the superficiality of the girl's life. She, like the book, is beautiful and eager to please, but remains too distant from us, the readers, to teach us much. Although I loved the book and read it in one sitting, the ending was a bit of a disappointment. A story which involves so much turmoil, in a place where the future is uncertain, should not have a happy-ever-after fairy-tale ending.
D
High Hills by Mary Holland
Hannah:
I read this book for a literature class. I know it's a classic, and I did try to like it, but I just didn't get into it. I kept persevering, hoping that I'd start to enjoy it, but no such luck. The famous scene out on the moors was definitely the best bit of the book, but even that I found ridiculous when it is clearly supposed to be passionate. As I approached the end of the book, I figured there must be some kind of moral to the story, something that I would learn from the experience of trudging through seven hundred long pages, but there was nothing worthwhile. I don't know why the literary world sees this book as such a masterpiece. The characters are portrayed as being intelligent, but they do such stupid things! And as for it being a love story - marrying someone you don't love and then being abused by them - that doesn't spell love to me.
1. was set in an Oriental country....
A) imogen
B) hannah
C) liz
D) kerry
- 8. 2. finished in an unrealistic way ......
A) imogen
B) liz
C) kerry
D) hannah
- 9. 3. had characters that the reader could sympathise with .............
A) imogen
B) kerry
C) liz
D) hannah
- 10. 4. is well-known and was written a long time ago .............
A) hannah
B) liz
C) kerry
D) imogen
- 11. 5. contained two stories .........
A) imogen
B) kerry
C) hannah
D) liz
- 12. 6. was not set in the past .........
A) kerry
B) imogen
C) liz
D) hannah
- 13. 7. was historically accurate............
A) hannah
B) liz
C) imogen
D) kerry
- 14. 8. made the reader cry.............
A) imogen
B) liz
C) hannah
D) kerry
- 15. 9. contained insignificant details.......
A) hannah
B) liz
C) kerry
D) imogen
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