Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
There is a certain inevitability that ebook sales have now overtaken paperback sales on Amazons US site. Amazons Kindle 2 is so light and so cheap that its easy to see why people have rushed to buy it. Though Im still not keen on the design of the Kindle, it is a vast improvement on its predecessor and certainly tolerable. Beyond the device itself, Amazon has done a great job of rolling out Kindle apps, ensuring that people like me-who have an iPad but not a Kindle-can still join in the fun. Once youre into the Kindle ecosystem, Amazon locks you in tightly-just as Apple does with its iTunes/ iPod ecosystem. Its so easy to buy from Amazons store and the books are so cheap that its not worth the effort of going elsewhere.
While I remain opposed to Amazons DRM -indeed, Im opposed to DRM on any ebooks-I have to admit that the implementation is so smooth that most Kindle users wont care at all that their ebooks cant be moved to other devices.
The ebook trend is nowhere near peaking. Over the next five years we can expect to see more and more readers move away from printed books and pick up ebooks instead. But I dont think that will mean the death of the printed book.
There are some who prefer printed books. They like having shelves filled with books theyve read and books they plan to read; they like the feel of the book in their hands and the different weights and typefaces and layouts of different titles. In other words, they like the physical form of the book almost as much as the words it contains.
I can sympathise with those people. As I wrote earlier this week, my ideal situation would be for publishers to bundle ebooks with printed ones-in much the same way that film studios btmdie DVDs with digital copies of films. Theres no reason to think that lovers of printed books will change their minds. There will undoubtedly be fewer of them as time goes by because more people will grow up with ebooks and spend little time with printed ones. However, just as there are people who love vinyl records, even if they were born well into the CD era, there will still be a dedicated minority who love physical books.
Since there are fewer of these people, that will mean fewer bookshops and higher prices for printed books but I dont think the picture is entirely bleak. There is scope for smaller print runs of lavishly designed printed books and bookshops aimed at book lovers, rather than the Stieg Larsson-reading masses. With mainstream readers out of the printed book market, book lovers might even find they get a better experience.
56. What can be inferred from Paragraph One?
A.Most people buy Kindle 2 mainly because of its low price.
B.The author of the passage is a loyal customer of Apple products.
C.Amazons Kindle 2 surpassed Kindle 1 in designing.
D.The sales of ebook outnumbered those of paperback in the U. S.
57. According to the passage, the reason why the author opposes to Amazons DRM is that ______
A.ebooks can only be purchased on Amazon. com
B.Kindle books are not compatible with other electronic reading devices
C.once implemented, ebooks cant be transferred to other equipments
D.ebooks installed on Kindle 2 cant be edited freely
58. It can be learned that the trend of ebooks______
A.will come to stop any time soon
B.will reach the summit in the near future
C.will meet its heyday when printed books die
D.has already reached its peak
59. Why does the author believe that the surging sales of ebooks wont mean the death of the printed book?
A.Because a minority will stick to their love of printed books.
B.Because the majority of book lovers wont change their minds.
C.Because people always hold nostalgic feelings towards printed books.
D.Because people will return to the printed books as time goes by.
60. According to the author, which of the following is TRUE about the future of printed books?
A.They will be bundled with ebooks.
B.They will no longer be available in the market.
C.They will be sold in small quantity and high quality.
D.They will be redesigned to cater to the masses.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
It would be all too easy to say that Facebooks market meltdown is coming to an end. After all, Mark Zuckerbergs social network burned as much as $ 50 billion of shareholders wealth in just a couple months. To put that in context, since its debut on NASDAQ in May, Facebook has lost value nearly equal to Yahoo, AOL, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, OpenTable, Groupon, LinkedIn, and Angies List combined, plus that of the bulk of the publicly traded newspaper industry:
As shocking as this utter failure may be to the nearly 1 billion faithful Facebook users around the world, its no surprise to anyone who read the initial public offering prospectus . Worse still, all the crises that emerged when the company debuted-overpriced shares, poor corporate governance, huge challenges to the core business, and a damaged brand-remain today. Facebook looks like a prime example of what Wall Street calls a falling knife-that is, one that can cost investors their fingers if they try to catch it.
Start with the valuation. To justify a stock price close to the lower end of the projected range in the IPO, say $ 28 a share, Facebooks future growth would have needed to match that of Google seven years earlier. That would have required increasing revenue by some 80 percent annually and maintaining high profit margins all the while.
Thats not happening. In the first half of 2012, Facebook reported revenue of $ 2.24 billion, up 38 percent from the same period in 2011. At the same time, the companys costs surged to $ 2.6 billion in the six-month period.
This so-so performance reflects the Achilles heel of Facebooks business model, which the company clearly stated in a list of risk factors associated with its IPO: it hasnt yet figured out how to advertise effectively on mobile devices, The number of Facebook users accessing the site on their phones surged by67 percent to 543 million in the last quarter, or more than half its customer base.
Numbers are only part of the problem. The mounting pile of failure creates a negative feedback loop that threatens Facebooks future in other ways. Indeed, the more Facebooks disappointment in the market is catalogued, the worse Facebooks image becomes. Not only does that threaten to rub off on users, its bad for recruitment and retention of talented hackers, who are the lifeblood of Zuckerbergs creation.
Yet the brilliant CEO can ignore the sadness and complaints of his shareholders thanks to the super- voting stock he holds. This arrangement also was fully disclosed at the time of the offering. Its a pity so few investors apparently bothered to do their homework.
61. What can be inferred about Facebook from the first paragraph?
A.Its market meltdown has been easily halted.
B.It has increased trade with the newspaper industry.
C.It has encountered utter failure since its stock debut.
D.Its shareholders have invested $ 50 billion in a social network.
62. The crises Facebook is facing_____
A.have been disclosed in the IPO prospectus
B.are the universal risks Wall Street confronts
C.disappoint its faithful users
D.have existed for a long time
53. To make its stock price reasonable, Facebook has to____
A.narrow the IPO price range
B.cooperate with Google
C.keep enormously profitable
D.invest additional $ 2.6 billion
64. It can be inferred from the context that the Achilles heel refers to____
A.deadly weakness
B.problem unsolved
C.indisputable fact
D.potential risk
65. What effect will Facebooks failure in the market have?
A.Its users benefits will be threatened.
B.Talented hackers will take down the website.
C.The CEO will hold the super-voting stock.
D.The companys innovation strength will be damaged.
56.C)。定位：由题干提示定位到第一段第三句：Though Im still not keen Oil the design of the Kindle，it is a vast improvement Oil its predecessor and certainly tolerable.
详解：推理判断题。本题考查对第一段的理解。定位句指出尽管我还是对Kindle的设计提不起兴趣. 但较之第一代确实有了相当大的改进，还是非常不错的，即Kindle 2在设计上要优于Kindle l，故答案为 C)。A)大多数人购买Kindle 2主要是由于其价格便宜，文章第一段第二句指出亚马逊的电子书Kindle 2 既轻薄又便宜，这也就不难理解人们为何会蜂拥购买，而非仅仅因为价格原因，故排除;B)本文作者是 APPLE产品的忠实顾客，文章第一段第四句提到作者有iPad而没有Kindle，但不能由此推出作者是APPLE 产品的忠实顾客，为过度推断，故排除;D)在美国，电子书的销量已经超过了纸质书籍的销量，第一段笫一句指出亚马逊美国站的电子书籍销量远远超过纸质书籍，而非在全美国，故排除。
57.c)定位：由题干中的Amazons DRM定位到第二段第一句：I have to admit that the implementation is so smooth that most Kindle users wont care at all that their ebooks cant be moved to other devices：
详解：事实细节题。本题考查作者对亚马逊的数字版权管理持反对态度的原因。定位句提到我不得不承认安装过程实在是太便捷了，以至于大多数Kindle用户并不介意电子书无法安装到其他设备上，由此可知，电子书一旦安装后，不可以在其他设备上再次使用，C)中的transfer，equipments分别对应定位句中的move和devices，故为答案。A)电子书只能在亚马逊网站上购买原文并未提及，故排除;B)Kindle电子 书与其他电子阅读设备不兼容是对定位句的曲解，故排除;D)在Kindle 2上安装的电子书不能随意编辑 原文并未提及，故排除。
58.B)。定位：由题干中的trend of ebooks定位到原文第三段第一句：The ebook trend is nowhere near Deaking. 详解：事实细节题。本题考查电子书的发展趋势。定位句提到，电子书的发展趋势正在无限接近顶峰。换言之，电子书的发展趋势很快就会接近顶峰，故B)为答案。A)电子书的发展趋势很快就会停下来、C) 电子书的发展趋势在纸质书消失时将达到顶峰和D)电子书的发展趋势已经达到顶峰均为定位句的曲 解，故排除。
59.A)。定位：由题干中的the death of the printed book定位到第五段最后一句：However，just as there are people who love vinyl records，even if they were born well into the CD era，there will still be a dedicated minority who love physical books.
详解：事实细节题。本题考查作者认为电子书不会造成纸质书籍消亡的原因。定位句提到然而，正如有些生活在CD时代却依然热爱黑胶唱片的人一样，会有少数人仍然坚定地爱着纸质书，由此可知，仍有一部分人会坚持购买纸质书籍，故答案为A)。第五段第四句指出随着时间的流逝，这群人的数量无疑会 减少，因为更多的人将养成电子阅读习惯，在纸质书上花费的时问将越来越少，由此可知大部分书籍爱好者会改变阅读习惯，而非坚持原来的选择，故排除B)大部分纸质书籍爱好者不会改变选择C)因为人们对于纸质书籍总是抱有怀旧情怀和D)随着时间的流逝，人们会重新选择阅读纸质书籍，在原文中均未提及，故排除。
60.C)。定位：由题干中的the future of printed books和选项定位到最后一段第二句：There is scope for smaller print runs of lavishly designed printed books and bookshops aimed at book lovers.rather than the Stieg Larssonreading masses.
详解：事实细节题。本题考查纸质书的发展趋势。由定位句可知，面向大众群体的斯泰格拉尔森式阅读将被淘汰，取而代之的是针对爱书者而设的装帧精美、数量不多的印刷本和书店。C)中的small quantity和better quality分别对应原文的smaller print，lavishly designed，故为答案。第五段第一句提到理想的情况是出版商把电子书和印刷本捆绑出售，而非未来的趋势，A)纸质书籍会和电子书捆绑出售为过度推断，故排 除;第五段最后一句指出还会有一小部分人购买纸质书籍，故排除B)纸质书籍会从市场上消失D)纸质书籍会迎合大众做出调整原文并未提及，故排除。
61.C)。定位：由题干定位到原文第一段。
详解：推理判断题。本题考查第一段的主旨大意。此种题型可以使用排除法，将各选项代入原文来验证对错。A)脸谱网的市场崩溃已被轻而易举地制止了，原文开篇指出，说脸谱网的市场崩溃将要结束未免太简单了.A)与原文不符，故排除;B)脸谱网增加了与报纸业之间的商务往来，原文首段末句plus that of 中的that指的是value，意指脸谱网自登陆纳斯达克以来，损失的价值等同于几个大型互联网企业加上大部分报业价值的总和，B)与原文不符，故排除;C)脸谱网自股票上市以来遭遇了巨大失败，由第一段中的 burned，lost等词可以推断脸谱网上市后遭遇了巨大失败，故为答案;D)脸谱网的股东们投资了500亿美元给一家社交网是对第一段第二句话的错误理解，故排除。
62.D)。定位：由题干中的crises和Facebook定位到原文第二段第二句：Worne still，all the cnses姒emerged when the company debuted--overpriced shares，poor corporate governance，huge challenges to the core business，and a damaged brand--remain today.
详解：事实细节题。D)已经存在很长时间了，与定位句中remain today的意思相同，故为答案。 A)已经显示在公开募股说明书中，第二段首句只是提到看过脸谱网公开募股说明书的人对其失败不会感 到震惊，并未表明脸谱网在其公开募股说明书中公开了所面l临的危机，属于推断过度，故排除;B)是华尔街所面临的普遍危机和C)使得忠实用户对其失望原文均未提及，故排除。
63.C)。定位：由题干中的stock price和Facebook定位到原文第三段第二、三句：To justify a stock price close to the lower end of the projected range in the IP0That would have required increasing revenue by some 80 percent annually and maintaining high profit margins all the while.
详解：事实细节题。本题考查脸谱网如何才能使其制定的股价合理，题干中的reasonable对应原文中的justify。定位句提到，要实现接近其公开募股说明书上的较低股价，比如每股28美元，这就要求脸谱网年收益增长要高达80%，并始终保持高利润率，故答案为c)。A)缩小公开募股中的价格范围，，原文未提及，故排除;B)和谷歌进行合作，原文只是提到要实现接近其公开募股说明书上的较低股价，脸谱网未来的发展将必须达到7年前谷歌那样的增长规模，故排除;D)再投资26亿美元，文中26亿美元是脸谱网上半年的运 营成本而不是投资，故排除。
64.A)。定位：由题干定位到原文第五段第一句：This S0SO performance renects The Achilles，heel of Facebooks business model
详解：语义理解题。本段提到，脸谱网现在还未解决如何有效地在移动设备上做广告这一问题，而用手机登录其网站的用户数量却不断飙升，且文章通篇语义色彩都是消极的，故可推出此处应指脸谱网商业模式中的致命软肋，故答案为A)。
65.D)。定位：由题于中的Facebooks failure in the market定位到原文倒数第二段最后两旬：Indeed, the more Facebooks disappointment in the market is cataloguedits bad for recruitment and reterItion of talented hackers，who are the lifeblood of Zuckerbergs creation.
详解：推理判断题。由定位句可知，脸谱网在市场上的失意不仅会影响到用户，还会影响招募和挽留天才 黑客，而这些人正是扎克伯格创造力的命脉。由此推知，脸谱网的创新力会因其市场失意而受到损害，故答案为D)。A)会威胁用户的利益，定位句中的run off on tlser8意指影响用户数量，故排除;B)天才黑客们会攻击其网站原文未提及，故排除;C)执行总裁会持有带超级投票权的股票是最后一段提到的一个事实，而非脸谱网市场失意带来的影响，故排除。
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