If you want to share movies with the world, you don't need to be a famous movie star. With YouTube, anyone can make their own videos and put them on the Internet. Three friends founded the website https://www.youtube.com in February 2005. These former PayPal co-workers set out to start the company in a garage. Over a year and a half later, they sold it to Google for US$1.65 billion.
How does it work? YouTube is a free video-sharing website. People upload their videos, which can be watched right on YouTube's web page without another video player. You can also link its videos to your own personal sites. YouTube is very popular because it is free of charge and user-friendly. A hundred million video clips are viewed every day, and nearly 20 million different people visit YouTube each month.
At first, big American TV stations like NBC and CBS were annoyed that people were watching their shows for free on YouTube. However, the site became so popular that these stations now have official pages on YouTube. As the saying goes, "If you can't beat them, join them."
如果您想和全世界分享電影,您不必是個有名的電影明星。有了YouTube,人人都可以把自制的影片放上網(wǎng)。三位好友在2005年二月時創(chuàng)立了 www.youtube.com這個網(wǎng)站。這些之前在PayPal工作的同事,在一個車庫里著手創(chuàng)辦公司。一年半之后,他們以十六億五千萬美金的天價將公司賣給了Google。
它是如何運作的?YouTube是一個免費的影片分享網(wǎng)站。人們上傳影片,使用者不需透過影片播放器就可以直接在YouTube的網(wǎng)頁上觀看這些影片。您也可以將其影片連結到自己的個人網(wǎng)站上。因為YouTube免付費又易于使用,所以它大受歡迎。每天有一億部短片被人觀賞,而且每個月有將近兩千萬人連上 YouTube網(wǎng)站。
一開始,美國各大電視公司如NBC和CBS等,對于人們免費在YouTube上看他們的節(jié)目感到生氣。但是該網(wǎng)站實在太受歡迎了,導致現(xiàn)在這些電視臺在YouTube上都擁有自己的官方網(wǎng)頁。常言道:若你阻止不了別人做某事,那自己也加入一起做。
Building Your Vocabulary
1.upload vt.(將計算機數(shù)據(jù))上傳
Tim uploaded his photos to his own website.
提姆將他的照片上傳至自己的網(wǎng)站上。
2.annoyed a. 惱怒的
Mr. Chen was annoyed that his son lied.
陳先生很氣他的兒子說謊。
3.official a. 官方的;正式的
According to the official news, the mayor will visit Singapore.
根據(jù)官方消息,那位市長將出訪新加坡。
Phrases for Learning
1.set out to + 原形動詞 開始……
We set out to paint this wall.
我們開始油漆這片墻。
2.free of charge 免費
You can pick these flowers free of charge.
你可以免費摘取這些花朵。
3.As the saying goes, 主詞 + 動詞 常言道……
As the saying goes, "Honesty is the best policy."
常言道:『誠實為上策』。
參考字詞
1.former a. 前任的
2.user-friendly a. 易使用的
3.clip n. 短片
Enjoy Box
PayPal
PayPal 是在線拍賣公司 eBay 旗下的公司,提供網(wǎng)上收款及付款服務。PayPal 是屬于信用卡支付款項的系統(tǒng),有以下兩種付款方式:使用信用卡和使用 PayPal 賬戶內(nèi)的余額。若賬戶內(nèi)沒有余額,就只能以信用卡支付款項。相反的,若賬戶中有余額(例如有買家付款到賬戶內(nèi)),使用者可以把余額放在賬戶里當購物基金,也可以把余額提領出來。
PayPal以快捷、安全、方便為號召,一旦使用者設好在線賬戶,往后的交易就只需透過 email 便可輕松進行。如此機制可免除在在線使用信用卡時,每交易一次就得經(jīng)歷一次的繁復手續(xù),并同時降低賬號數(shù)據(jù)被黑客盜用的風險。由于 PayPal 能幫助使用者解決跨國交易時收付款項等較麻煩的問題,并加速網(wǎng)上交易的步伐,因此受到拍賣網(wǎng)站賣家和買家的歡迎。這使 Paypal 目前擁有約一千萬名注冊使用者,去年透過它完成的交易金額便達三十五億美元?,F(xiàn)在,全球正慢慢掀起一股 PayPal 的熱潮。
Tips In Use
...put them on the Internet.
(……放上網(wǎng)。)
Three friends founded the website...
(三位好友……創(chuàng)立了……這個網(wǎng)站。)
本文提到許多與網(wǎng)絡相關的用語。以下為讀者做介紹:
link vt. 連結
post vt. 張貼
download vt. 下載
homepage n. 首頁
(web) page n. 網(wǎng)頁
video player n. 影像播放器
(video) blog n. (影像)部落格,網(wǎng)志
Internet (= net) n. 因特網(wǎng)
site (= website) n. 網(wǎng)站