Take Away English-Living Online 网上生活

Young people socialising online.

How do you meet new people, make new friends, or find out about the latest bands? Here in the UK young people have traditionally done their socialising in bars, pubs and clubs.

However, there is a new generation growing up that finds it easier to manage their social lives on the net, using free websites like MySpace, Bebo or MSN Spaces.

Welcome to the social networking website – a place where you can present yourself to the digital community and meet other like-minded people.

The most successful social networking website in the UK is MySpace.com. As of July 2006, MySpace is the world’s fourth most popular English-language website, attracting almost 3 million visitors per month. MySpace claims to have 95 million members with 500,000 new members joining the community each week.

So how has it become so successful? Perhaps its secret is in its simplicity¹. Each new member can build their own page simply – uploading photos, videos and MP3 files. Then they describe themselves, listing their likes, dislikes, favourite bands, relationship status, etc. It’s an easy way to hook up with people who share your interests.

Briana Dougherty, a 25-year-old MySpace devotee, told us, “It’s a casual way to stay in contact without appearing weird².” It seems that many people do not feel comfortable giving out their phone number or personal e-mail address to new acquaintances but are perfectly³ happy to trade MySpace profiles.

While socialising is the key to MySpace’s success, love of music is at the heart of the community. Indeed, most aspiring⁴ musicians in the UK upload their songs to the site, and with good reason: unsigned artists, Arctic Monkeys and Lilly Allen created such a buzz on the site that they were offered recording⁵ contracts and scored number one hits.

Here at Learning English we feel that social network sites could be a great place to practise your English. Why not give it a try? You can tell us about your experience by filling in the new comments form at the top of the screen.

GLOSSARY 词汇表
the latest bands 最新乐队 social lives 社交生活 digital community 数码社区 uploading 上载 relationship status 个人情感关系状况 devotee 热爱者 new acquaintances 新相识 aspiring musicians 胸怀大志的音乐家 created such a buzz 引起轰动 number one hits 榜首的轰动单曲	socialising 社交 social networking website 社交交际网站 like-minded people 趣味相投的人 mp3 files mp3 文件 hook up with 交流；沟通 weird 古怪的 to trade 交换 unsigned artists 没有签约的歌手 recording contracts 签约 comments form 反馈表

 

1 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。