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Technology and politics
科技和政治
The signal and the noise
信号和噪音
Ever easier communications and ever-growing data mountains are transforming politics in unexpected ways, says Ludwig Siegele. What will that do to democracy?
交流变得越来越容易，海量的数据积累正在以不可预知的方式改变着政治，Ludwig Siegele如是说。这样的技术会给民主带来什么？
DONALD TRUMP, THE Republican front-runner for the American presdency, is clearly riding a wave of anger—but he is also wielding a huge virtual megaphone to spread his populist messages. “@realDonaldTrump”, the Twitter account of the property magnate turned politician, has more than 7m followers and the number is rising by about 50,000 every day. Moreover, since each of his tweets is re-tweeted thousands of times and often quoted in mainstream media, his real audience is much bigger. And if he does win the Republican nomination, it will be hard to tune him out. “How do you fight millions of dollars of fraudulent commercials pushing for crooked politicians?” he tweeted in early March. “I will be using Facebook & Twitter. Watch!”
重点词汇：
1 wield 拥有，运用，行使，支配（权力等）
2 megaphone 扩音器；喇叭筒；传声筒
3 property 不动产；房地产
4 magnate 权贵；要人；富豪；（尤指）产业大亨. property magnate 地产大亨
5 tune sb out 不理睬某人
6 fraudulent 欺骗的；欺诈的
7 crooked dishonest 不诚实的；欺诈的
听力原文:
If Ted Cruz, his fellow Republican, were to clinch the nomination, the campaign for America’s presidency would be quieter—but no less digital. Mr Cruz’s victory in the Iowa primaries was based on effective number-crunching. He bombarded potential supporters with highly targeted ads on Facebook, and used algorithms to label voters as “stoic traditionalists”, “temperamental conservatives” or “true believers” to give campaign volunteers something to go on. He also sent official-looking “shaming” letters to potential supporters who had previously abstained from voting. Under the headline “Voting Violation”, the letters reminded recipients of their failure to do their civic duty at the polls and compared their voting records with those of their neighbours.
重点词汇：
1 clinch 成功取得；赢得
2 number-crunching基于大数据计算
3 bombard 轰炸；轰击
4 algorithm 算法；计算程序
5 stoic n 坚忍克己的人;禁欲主义者，恬淡寡欲的人，不以苦乐为意的人; adj. 坚忍的，苦修的;
6 abstain （投票时）弃权
7 recipient 受方；接受者
8 civic 公民的;市民的
听力原文:
The way these candidates are fighting their campaigns, each in his own way, is proof that politics as usual is no longer an option. The internet and the availability of huge piles of data on everyone and everything are transforming the democratic process, just as they are upending many industries. They are becoming a force in all kinds of things, from running election campaigns and organising protest movements to improving public policy and the delivery of services. This special report will argue that, as a result, the relationship between citizens and those who govern them is changing fundamentally.
重点词汇：
1 upend 颠倒，放倒
例句：We’ll have to upend the sofa to get it through the door.
我们得把沙发倒过来才能抬过这门.
If successful, we will upend our main competitors.
如果成功, 我们将击败我们的主要竞争对手.
听力原文:
Incongruous though it may seem, the forces that are now powering the campaign of Mr Trump—as well as that of Bernie Sanders, the surprise candidate on the Democratic side (Hillary Clinton is less of a success online)—were first seen in full cry during the Arab spring in 2011. The revolution in Egypt and other Arab countries was not instigated by Twitter, Facebook and other social-media services, but they certainly helped it gain momentum. “The internet is an intensifier,” says Marc Lynch of George Washington University, a noted scholar of the protest movements in the region.
重点词汇：
1 incongruous 不合适的；不相称的；不协调的
2 in full cry 激情呐喊；大声疾呼
3 instigate 煽动；唆使；鼓动
4 momentum 推进力；动力；势头
5 intensifier 强调成分，强化词（尤指形容词或副词，如so或very）
6 noted（以…）见称，闻名，著名
7 scholar 学者
听力原文:
In the course of just a few years digital technology has become an essential ingredient in any protest movement. The Arab spring is just one example of how the internet has facilitated political mobilisation. Others include the civil unrest in Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park, the Maidan protests in Ukraine and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, all in 2013 or 2014. In America the main instances have been Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and more recently Black Lives Matter, a campaign drawing attention to violence against African-Americans. In Europe, Spain’s Indignados, an anti-austerity coalition, in 2011 became the first big protest movement to make extensive use of social media. Even Islamic State relies on its online propaganda and messaging apps, which allow the self-styled caliphate to recruit new fighters and keep in touch with those on the ground
重点词汇：
1 In the course of 在…期间，在…过程中;
2 ingredient （成功的）因素，要素
3 political mobilisation 政治动员
4 unrest 动荡；动乱；骚动
5 maidan （南亚城镇中或近郊的）草地，广场，空地
6 instance 例子；事例；实例
However, this special report will argue that, in the longer term, online crusading and organising will turn out to matter less to politics in the digital age than harnessing those ever-growing piles of data. The internet and related technologies, such as smartphones and cloud computing, make it cheap and easy not only to communicate but also to collect, store and analyse immense quantities of information. This is becoming ever more important in influencing political outcomes.
重点词汇：
1 crusade （长期坚定不移的）斗争，运动
2 harness 控制，利用（以产生能量等）
听力原文:
America’s elections are a case in point. Mr Cruz with his data savvy is merely following in the footsteps of Barack Obama, who won his first presidential term with the clever application of digital know-how. Campaigners are hoovering up more and more digital information about every voting-age citizen and stashing it away in enormous databases. With the aid of complex algorithms, these data allow campaigners to decide, say, who needs to be reminded to make the trip to the polling station and who may be persuaded to vote for a particular candidate.
重点词汇：
2 hoover up 获得大量的（某物）
2 hoover 用真空吸尘器清扫（地毯、地板等）
3 stash 存放；贮藏；隐藏
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