On the Internet, ads are a real problem. They're a problem for us, the people, and not just because they clutter up our Web pages, they also cost us money (in mobile data charges), battery life and time.
Surprisingly, they're also a problem fo r advertisers and websites. Suddenly the popularity of ad-blocking software has reached a tipping point. According to a study by Adobe and PageFair (which offers anti-ad-blocking services), 41 percent of adults younger than 30 use these blockers. Overall, ad-blocker installations are up 48 percent in a year — and that was before Apple began approving ad-blocking apps for the iPhone and iPad last September, marking ad blocking has come to the mobile world for the first time in a huge way.
The thing is, most of those free articles, videos and services you enjoy are brought to you by the advertising. If you're not seeing the ads, then the central financial transaction of the online content economy collapses. What then?
Some websites appeal to visitors directly, asking you to view the ads. Last summer Wired. com’s home page said，“ Please do us a favor and disable your ad blocker.” Other sites sim ply turn you away if you have an ad blocker installed. The sites for leading UK broadcasters Channel 4 and ITV present a dark screen.
Enter ad-blocker-blocking technology — Web software that tries to fool the ad blockers so that the ads appear despite your blocker. Some companies that operate ad blockers even accept money from large advertisers，although they deny giving ads from those companies' special treatment.
But these tactics treat the public as the enemy. They create a technology arms race. "You will see our ads，like it or not!”
Advertising executives may tell you that one solution may be native advertising: ads dressed up as articles. They're displayed as actual stories or videos rather than splashy ads, so they pass through ad blockers. These can lead to some murky territory, however, blurring the line between traditional content and content aiming to sell you something.
So tech Utopians like me wonder why the answer isn't micropayments. You know, instead of looking at ads, you're automatically billed a few cents for each article you read or video you watch. Unfortunately, in the late 1990s and early 2000s a bunch of companies tried to invent micropayment systems; all of them failed.
To find out why, I tracked down the CEOs of some of the startups who have all moved on to other endeavors. "Micropayments sound great on paper," former BitPass CEO Douglas Knopper told me.“ But in practice, they require four things for the consumer that are hard to pull off: simplicity, ubiquity, security — and it has to be free. The economics to the retailer don’t work, because there are too many middlemen — credit card processors, etc. So until someone figures out how to crack the code ... micropayments aren’t going to get any traction.”
The timing was wrong, too. Charles Cohen, founder of failed micropayment company Beenz, told me that these efforts mostly died "because the dot-com bubble burst, and most o f the companies who were accepting and issuing our microcurrency went up in a puff of smoke.”
So micropayments may face an uphill battle, but there aren't any screamingly obvious reasons why they couldn't work now. It seems Web companies would be happy to get out of the ad-blocking arms race，while Web users，well，we wouldn’t mind paying a few cents here and there to never encounter another intrusive banner ad or slow-to-load video ad.
Online ads are a nuisance for people because________ .
细节题。第1段第2句指出，网上广告让我们困扰的原因有四点，一方面广告会把 网页弄得乱七八糟，另一方面加载广告会因消耗移动流量而费钱（cost our money) ， 损耗电池寿命（battery life ) 而且浪费我们的时间（time )。故选B (加载广告消耗时 间）。注意选项A 与文中提及的clutter up our Web pages表述相似，容易误选。应辨析两 种表达的差异。根据词典的释义：be full of意为 “ containing as much or as many things or people as possible, so there is no space left” 。据此.可知，A 更强调网页被广告充满 了，已经没有空间展示其他内容。clutter up意为 “ to cover or fill a space or room w ith too many things，so that it looks very untidy” 。强调堆得乱七八糟，让网页页面显得很不整 洁。言下之意，广告影响了网页的视觉效果，但没有影响网页的内容呈现。因此排除 选项A 。选项C试图用pay money for...吸引考生视线，与后文作者倡议的付费消除广告 混淆。
We can learn from Paragraph 2 that________ .
推断题。第2段第4句明确指出广告拦截软件的安装总量在一年中已然增长了 48%。故选D (广告拦截软件的安装率在上升）。41%的30岁以下的成年人使用这些拦 截软件，并不是大部分的成年人，故排除B 。
Blocking online ads will have an effect on________ .
细节题。第3段第1句提到广告能推荐你喜欢的免费文章、视频和服务。拦截广告 也许会拦截部分免费服务的信息，但并不意味着阻断其他获取免费服务的渠道，故应 排除A 。第2句提到了广告被拦截之后会出现的问题：网络内容经济的核心金融交易就 会崩溃，因此可以推断广告被拦截会影响金融交易，故选C。
If you have an ad-blocker installed,________ .
推断题。第4段第1到4句逐一列举有些网站会请求用户浏览广告、禁用广告拦截 器、拒绝安装了广告拦截软件的用户访问或显示黑屏等做法，说明各大网站对安装了广告拦截软件的用户，都或多或少地表现出不友好。故选A 。
Although ad-blockers are loaded, we can still see the ads because________.
推断题。第5段第2句指出有些运营广告拦截器的公司会收取大型广告客户的钱， 私下对它们的广告进行特殊处理。由此可以推断这些广告拦截公司是在欺骗大众，故 选C。
What does the word "murky" underlined in Paragraph 7 mean?
语义题。文中murky的意思是“ 模糊的，含糊的”。整句的意思是伪装成故事的广告（软文）模糊了传统内容与推销内容之间的界限。故选A ( 不易看清的，不分 明的）。试比较这几个词的释义：
murky adj. complicated and difficult to understand.
obscure adj. difficult to understand.
somber adj. sad and serious; dark and without any bright colours.
gloomy adj. dark, especially in a way that makes you feel sad.
ambiguous adj. something that is ambiguous is unclear, confusing, or not certain, especially because it can be understood in more than one way.
According to Douglas Knopper, micropayment systems failed mainly because________.
细节题。第9段第3句中道格拉斯提到小额支付需要满足用户的四点要求，而这 四点都难以实现。故选B ( 必要条件难以满足）。选项A 是小额支付无法成功的后果。 第4句提到零售商如果使用小额支付，由于中间环节过多，得不到经济效益。故排除 选项C。第5句中出现figures out—词，是说有人破译代码，而非中间商算出利润。故排 除D 。
Charles Cohen’s statement in Paragraph 10 implies that________.
推断题。第10段第1句提出小额支付当时遭遇失败的原因也是时机不对。但不能 因此说错误的时机对公司来说就一定意味着失败。选项C排除。第2句查尔斯为作者分 析之前所有努力失败的原因，注意信号词“ because” ，由于网络泡沫的破灭，大多数 使用和发布小额交易软件的公司都已烟消云散。句中用了隐喻的修辞手法，把小额交 易软件比作“ 膨胀的气泡爆破后化为一缕青烟” ，暗指这些公司都关门破产。故应选 A ( 小额支付公司关门破产）。
What's the author's tone about the future of micropayments?
观点题。全文最后一段用了欲扬先抑的手法，先说小额支付可能面临苦战，然后 话锋一转（注意信号词but)，用双重否定指出这些软件还是可以使用的。第2句分别 从网络公司和网络用户两个角度指出使用小额支付可能带来的好处，网络公司可以摆 脱广告拦截竞备赛，网络用户不再受网络广告的困扰，一举两得。由此可见作者对小 额支付的前景是乐观的，故选A 。
Which of the following can be the title of this passage?
主旨题。该题要求选取文章标题。梳理全文可以看出，作者从网络广告这个问题 入手，着重提出解决这一问题的办法— 用广告拦截软件或使用小额支付。选项A和D 都只是文章中涉及的部分内容，不能统领全文。故排除。可以看出两个解决方案都是 为了消除广告，因此选C ( 消除网络广告的方法）。需注意，因为前两段都在说广告 是一个问题，容易误选B ( 网络广告带来的问题）。