2004年9月上海市高級口譯筆試真題
If that's so, then why is the Mac market share, even after Apple's recent revival, sputtering at a measly 5 percent? Jobs has a theory about that, too. Once a company devises a great product, he says, it has a monopoly in that realm, and concentrates less on innovation that protecting its turf. "The Mac-user interface was a 10-year monopoly," says Jobs. "Who ended up running the company? Sales guys. At the critical juncture in the late '80s, when they should have gone for market share, they went for profits. They made obscene profits for several years. And their products became mediocre. And then their monopoly ended with Windows 95. They behaved like a monopoly, and it came back to bite them, which always happens."
A wicked smile cracks the bearded, crinkly Steve Jobs's visage, and for a moment he could be the playful upstart who shocked the world 20 years ago. "Hmm, look who's running Microsoft now," he says, referring to former Procter & Gamble marketer Steve Ballmer. "A sales guy!" The smile gets broader. "I wonder…" he says.
11. The sentence "their creation is still around two decades later." (para.2) can be paraphrased as which of the following?
(A) Their creation is still being widely used 20 years later.
(B) They have been fascinated by their own creation for 20 years.
(C) Mac models being used today are based on their creation 20 years ago.
(D) Their creation has surpassed other models over the past 20 years.
12. In the sentence "that the GUI was groovy" (para.3), the word "groovy" can be interpreted as ________.
(A) fashionably modern
(B) practical and inexpensive
(C) most sophisticated
(D) odd and strange looking
13. When Steve Jobs thinks "he knows why" (para.5), he implies that ________.
(A) people do not love the product they make today
(B) Apple people have special passion for what they make
(C) some products are liked by those who make them
(D) Apple people either love iMac or PowerBook
14. According to Jobs, the main reason the Mac market share did not go up much was that ________.
(A) sales people were only concerned about profits
(B) the monopoly of Mac lasted too long
(C) any monopoly would end sooner or later
(D) market share and company profit were treated equally
15. The purpose of the passage is to tell ________.
(A) how the Macintosh was unveiled twenty years ago by the team of whiz kids
(B) Apple's popularizing the idea of windows on a screen and a mouse
(C) Macintosh's contribution to the development of computers over the past two decades.
(D) the ups and downs in the development of Macintosh over the past two decades
Questions 16-20
"Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clerk left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase," George W. Bush said, announcing his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars. "They made that journey in the spirit of discovery… America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons."
Yet there are vital differences between Lewis and Clark's expedition and a Mars mission. First, Lewis and Clark were headed to a place amenable to life; hundred of thousands of people were already living there. Second, Lewis and Clark were certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation. Third, the Lewis and Clark venture cost next to nothing by today's standards. In 1989 NASA estimated that a people-to-Mars program would cost $400 billion, which inflates to $600 billion today. The Hoover Dam cost $700 million in today's money, meaning the sending people
