“Withouttrust,”writesRachelBotsman,“societycannotsur...

問題詳情：

    “Without trust,” writes Rachel Botsman, “society cannot survive, and it certainly cannot thrive."

Clearly, we are in trouble. Two-thirds of people surveyed last year in 28 countries expressed low levels of trust in "mainstream institutions" of business, government and media.

In “Who Can You Trust?” Botsman, an Oxford lecturer offers a timely and accessible framework for understanding what trust is, how it works, why it matters and how it is evolving. It is an important guidance to the obstacles and opportunities we face as a society if we are to repair and redefine trust.

Through human history, trust has evolved in three basic stages: Local trust was enough when people lived in small communities and everybody knew everybody else; industrialization and urbanization required institutional trust so that people could trust complete strangers running governments, corporations, and standards for international trade, commerce and finance. We are now living through a massive global .shift of trust from institutions to individuals: distributed trust facilitated by high-tech platforms, many of which are run by the private sector.

This shift is caused by several factors. First, accountability is unequal. Rich, powerful and well-connected individuals have been able to accumulate vast quantities of often undocumented wealth by avoiding tax and anti-bribery laws, while ordinary people are likely to be caught and punished for lawbreaking. Second, people in power are no longer seen to deserve greater respect as the details of their lives are exposed.

Botsman does not prescribe how we deal with that. But if the old ways of giving and cancelling trust such as voting, markets and consumer choice are no longer functioning, then we must change or replace them. Systems must be "driven democratically and rationally," become more "transparent, inclusive, and accountable" and, most important, be designed to "put people first," which profit-driven platforms have failed to do sufficiently.

Tech executives are responding to the trust crisis mainly with promises of more and better technology. But Batsman warns that the responsibility for ensuring that the robots being used are trustworthy lies with the human beings who design and use them. We have not thought through how we hold those people accountable, let alone their robots. She warns against a natural tendency "to become over-reliant on machines." Ideally machines should be programmed to "understand" their own limitations and even seek human help or intervention.

A growing number of people hope that new trust mechanisms can be established through the use of exciting new technologies such as the blockchain（區塊鏈）. In essence, blockchains are digital public ledgers of transactions that cannot be changed, thereby creating greater transparency and accountability and making corruption much harder.

However, Botsman warns that the blockchain is no panacea for human trust. Whether blockchain systems lead to more accountable governance and a more just global economy will depend on their design and the intentions of those who build them. There is no app for fixing trust.

"Who Can You Trust?" does make a clear case for why it is important for the companies, governments and other institutions to be much more transparent and subject themselves to new mechanisms that can credibly hold them accountable. It is the only way they can hope to earn and maintain trust in the future.

41．Which of the following orders of trust evolution is right?

A．institutional trust→ industrialized trust→ individual trust

B．urbanized trust→ local trust→ institutional trust

C．local trust→ institutional trust→ distributed trust

D．local trust→ urbanized trust →individual trust

42．What can we conclude from the passage?

A．Profit-driven platforms pay no attention to the importance of people.

B．It is the people who design and use technology that count in restoring trust.

C．New technologies, such as the blockchain can prevent corruption from happening.

D．People should rely on new technologies to create transparency and accountability.

43．What do the underlined words “no panacea" mean?

A．not a Herculean task                                   B．a hard nut

C．not a cure-all medicine                               D．a catch -22

44．What's the author's attitude toward the possibility of using technology to restore trust?

A．Supportive                                                B．Negative

C．Indifferent                                                D．Skeptical

【回答】

41．C

42．B

43．C

44．D

【分析】

這是一篇說明文。去年在28個國家進行的調查顯示，三分之二的受訪者對企業、*和媒體等“主流機構”的信任度較低。針對這種現象，牛津大學的一名講師博茨曼在Who Can You Trust?” 爲我們提供了一個及時、易懂的框架，幫助我們理解什麼是信任、信任是如何運作的、信任爲什麼重要以及信任是如何演變的。並說明技術可以幫助人們重建信任，但更強調重建信任的關鍵是設計和使用技術的人。

41．細節理解題。由第四段“Local trust was enough when people lived in small communities and everybody knew everybody else. We are now living through a massive global shift of trust from institutions to individuals: distributed trust facilitated by high-tech platforms”可知，當人們生活在小社區裏，每個人都互相認識時，本地的信任就足夠了。我們現在正經歷着一場大規模的全球信任，從機構到個人的轉變：由高科技平臺推動的分佈式信任。所以信任進化的順序是C選項。故選C項。

42．推理判斷題。由倒數第四段“But Batsman warns that the responsibility for ensuring that the robots being used are trustworthy lies with the human beings who design and use them”可知，但是Batsman*告說，確保使用的機器人是值得信賴的責任在於設計和使用它們的人類。所以通過Batsman的*告可以推斷出，設計和使用技術的人才是重建信任的關鍵。故選B項。

43．詞句猜測題。由倒數第二段換線詞後的“Whether blockchain systems lead to more accountable governance and a more just global economy will depend on their design and the intentions of those who build them. There is no app for fixing trust”可知，區塊鏈系統是否能帶來更負責任的治理和更公正的全球經濟，將取決於它們的設計和構建者的意圖。沒有固定信任的應用程序。所以通過上下文可以判斷下劃線的單詞“no panacea”是“不能包治百病的靈丹妙*”。故選C項。

44．推理判斷題。由倒數第四段“But Batsman warns that the responsibility for ensuring that the robots being used are trustworthy lies with the human beings who design and use them”. 但是Batsman*告說，確保使用的機器人是值得信賴的責任在於設計和使用它們的人類。倒數第二段“However, Botsman warns that the blockchain is no panacea for human trus”然而，Botsman*告說，區塊鏈並不是人類信任的靈丹妙*。最後一段“ It is the only way they can hope to earn and maintain trust in the future”這是他們希望在未來贏得並保持信任的唯一途徑。所以通過Batsman的*告可以看出，使用技術來重建信任存在着很多弊端和不確定*，而最後一段作者表示出這是他們在未來贏得並保持信任的唯一途徑。由此推斷出，作者對使用技術來重建信任的可能*持懷疑的態度。故選D項。

知識點：人際交往

題型：閱讀理解