1997年3月上海市高級口譯筆試真題
The One-to-One Contacts service, which is advertised in the national press, breaches the strict guidelines set down by ICSTIS, the information line watchdog, because of the sexual nature of the calls.
The company does not use British 0898 numbers. Callers from Britain are directed to ring telephone numbers in the Virgin Isles. and then given Guyanan number for the chatline service, ringing up pounds in international calls in the process. The countries of origin were not stated in the advertisements.
BT wanted to end the services, but because of the relatively unsophisticated routing between Britain and Guyana, it could not isolate the 52 numbers involved. The company told Guyana Telecom and Telephones that it would block direct dialling from Britain to every number in Georgetown, the capital, if the recorded sex lines were not put out of business. But the chatline company claimed that BT acted unfairly.
A High Court judge has granted an injunction preventing BT from taking action until he can hear both sides of the story.
The chatline company broke industry rules by advertising a sex line outside top-shelf publications--in the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers.
A BT spokeswoman explained: "The stop on IDD calls to Georgetown would have lasted two or three days while we found ways to block the relevant numbers. In the meantime, calls to other numbers would have been put through the operator at international direct dialling costs."
1. Why does the British Telecom plan to end the One-to-One Contacts service?
2. Introduce briefly in your own words the practice of the One-to-One Contacts company.
3. Why didn't the British Telecom cut the chatline service immediately?
Question 4~6
Summer is coming, and woe is you. You'd like to bake in the blazing sun and get a deep, dark tan. but worries about skin cancer may keep you indoors. Tanning salons are an alternative, but they're awfully expensive (and so artificial). What to do? Before long you may be able to acquire the perfect tan from the inside of your body out. No sun or sunlamps will be needed.
Researchers at the University of Arizona have discovered a synthetic peptide hormone that stimulates certain skin cells to produce melanin, a pigment that darkens the skin and protects it from ultraviolet radiation. The hormone could be useful not only in acquiring a tan but also in preventing aging of the skin. In addition, it might help to cure vitiligo--a disease that causes a progressive depigmentation of the skin and afflicts 1 to 2 percent of the world's population.
