英文讀書會(5/31)

2011053023:37

Reciting article:

Internet: Unit 25

The Internet is an important part of the daily lives of millions of Americans, and it continues to grow rapidly. But it has not always been a happy story. In the late of 1990's, everybody was in love with the Internet, and stock prices of on-line companies were very high. After the stock 'bubble' burst, a large number of Internet companies went bankrupt. Many services, such as website and photo hosting, were once free. Now, companies are starting to charge for these services.

Despite these troubles and changes, the future of the Net is very bright. People regularly use the Net to read news, check stock prices, and conduct banking. Businesses are moving more and more of their operations on-line. Many companies no longer sell items in stores, preferring to sell exclusively on-line. Within businesses, e-mail communication has become the number one means of sending out messages and information.

The personal lives of American have also been strongly affected by the Internet. E-mail is extremely popular, as are chatrooms and forums. Every day, thousands of new friendships are formed on-line, this could have a strong impact on social relations.

The Internet is still very young, and its full impact has yet to be felt.

Vocabulary:

anti-virus program

attachment

block

blog

broadband

browse

browser

bulletin board

chat

chatroom

click

cookie

crash

cyberspace

download

e-commerce

e-mail

emotion

e-tailer

firewall

flame

forum

fraud

FTP

hack

hacker

homepage

host

hyperlink

ISP

lag

lurk

modem

mouse

netiqutte

newbie

off-line

on-line

operating system

password

PM (personal message)

pop up ad

pornography

post

register

reply

scan

search engine

server

shareware

spam

spyware

troll

upgrade

upload

URL

username

virus

website

WWW (world wide web)