《 中英對照讀新聞》Volunteer encyclopedia as accurate as Britannica志願性百科全書就和大英百科一樣精確

◎ 羅彥傑

Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that relies on volunteers to pen nearly 4 million articles, is about as accurate in covering scientific topics as Encyclopedia Britannica, the journal Nature wrote in an online article.

仰賴志願者書寫近4百萬篇條目的維基百科，在蒐羅科學性主題方面，約莫與大英百科全書一樣精確，自然期刊在一篇線上文章中指出。

The finding, based on a side-by-side comparison of articles covering a broad swath of the scientific spectrum, comes as Wikipedia faces criticism over the accuracy of some of its entries.

這項發現是就科學領域進行廣泛並列比較後所得出，在時機上則適逢維基百科本身的若干收錄條目精確性遭到批評。

Two weeks ago prominent journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. revealed that a Wikipedia entry that ran for four months had incorrectly named him as a suspect in the assassinations of president John F. Kennedy.

2週前知名記者約翰塞堅梭勒爵士透露，維基百科一條刊登長達4個月的記載，誤稱他是約翰甘迺迪總統遇刺案的嫌犯。

Unlike Britannica, which charges for its content and pays a staff of experts to research and write its articles, Wikipedia gives away its content for free and allows anyone _ amateur or professional, expert or novice _ to submit and edit entries.

不像大英百科全書針對內容收費而且付費給專家研究與書寫其文章，維基百科免費奉送內容，而且讓每一個人─不論是業餘或專業人士、專家或新手─得以呈交與編寫。

Wikipedia, which boasts 3.7 million articles in 200 languages, is the 37th most visited Web site on the Internet, according to the research service Alexa.

維基百科號稱以200種語言寫成370萬篇條目，根據研究服務機構Alexa指出，使用者最常造訪的網站中，維基百科名列第37名。

新聞辭典

side by side︰片語，指肩並肩、一起。例句︰I was running side by side with our captain.（我和隊長一起跑步。）

to give away︰片語，指贈送。例句︰I gave away my medals to my parents.（我把獎牌送父母。）

novice︰名詞，指新手。例句︰Novices are likely to make mistakes.（新手難免出錯。）

to boast︰動詞，指吹噓、自豪。例句︰He boasts his skill at tennis.（他吹噓自己的網球技術好。）