进军“元宇宙”：Facebook宣布更名为Meta

As he renames Facebook as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is placing a bold bet on his vision of the future: a techno-utopia(技术乌托邦) where people are connected and live in a virtual universe.

The word “metaverse” was originally used in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction book Snow Crash from 1992, where human beings interacted with software in a three-dimensional virtual environment.

This is slightly different from “cyberspace”, which fictionally is a space including all compared to the metaverse, which allows people to be aware of their physical environments while interacting with it—similar to the difference between AR (digital objects overlayed<叠加> on the real world) and VR (interacting solely with digital objects).

Facebook is not the only tech giant to show its ownership of the metaverse. Apple, in particular, is also thought to be working on AR and VR devices. But for Zuckerberg, a failure to be at the heart of the world’s move to smartphones has motivated him to be at the forefront of what he thinks will be the next big change.

Critics have complained that the move is a timely attempt by Zuckerberg to distance Facebook from its latest wave of scandals(丑闻), after whistle-blower(告密者) Frances Haugen revealed lots of secret internal information to regulators and journalists, highlighting its struggle to self-regulate. But in interviews, Zuckerberg said the change had been carefully planned, for at least six months, and was not an attempt to move away from what critics claim is an increasingly bad brand.

If Zuckerberg’s grand plans are successful, the potential gains are not simply billions of dollars in advertising income, but also a flourishing online shopping business. He has said he intends to support an alternate digital economy—where users can buy digital items, such as art or clothes, to take with them as they teleport from space to space—as non-fungible tokens(非同质代币) increasingly gain in popularity. Inevitably, cryptocurrencies(加密数字货币) and NFTs would play a role in this shared world, he confirmed on Thursday. But getting there will be filled with challenges.

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1.What can we know about the word ‘metaverse’?

A It was invented by the author of Snow Crash.

B It is fictionally an all-encompassing space.

C Its meaning is the same as AR.

D It has the same meaning with VR.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据‘metaverse’定位到第二和第三段，可知1992年尼尔·斯蒂芬森(Neal Stephenson)在他的科幻小说《雪崩》(Snow Crash)中首次使用metaverse，即尼尔创造了metaverse这一词；B选项是对cyberspace的描述；C和D项中的AR和VR是作者举例的另外两个概念，用以说明metaverse和cyberspace之间的细微差别。故选A。

2.What stimulated Zuckerberg to march into the metaverse?

A Apple’s action on AR and VR devices.

B The failure to become the core of smartphone world.

C The lack of success in moving to smartphone business.

D His idea of the next big change to the whole world.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据stimulated定位到第四段最后一句，对扎克伯格来说，未能成为世界向智能手机转移的核心，激励了他站在他认为即将是下一个重大转变(即the metaverse)的前沿，故选B。

3.How do critics think of Zuckerberg’s action?

A It’s to draw a line with the latest scandals.

B It’s to reveal internal documents to journalists.

C It’s to emphasize its struggle to self-regulate.

D It’s to give up all of Zuckerberg’s bad brand.

解析：选A。A 观点态度题。根据critics定位到第五段，批评人士称此举是扎克伯格试图及时将Facebook与最新一波丑闻划清界限的举动，故选A。

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A Zuckerberg will win more than money if succeed.

B Zuckerberg intends to support art or clothes business.

C Tokens become more and more welcome nowadays.

D Cryptocurrencies plays a crucial part in our present life.

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据题目定位到最后一段，可知如果扎克伯格的计划成功了，潜在的收益不仅仅是数十亿的广告收入，还包括蓬勃发展的在线购物业务；B项不正确因为他打算支持的是an alternate digital economy；C项不正确因为越来越受欢迎的是non-fungible tokens；D项不正确因为扎克伯格证实加密数字货币将不可避免地在这个共享世界(即他计划中的世界)中发挥作用，而不是现在的世界，故选A。