1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 66及答案与解析 0 It may be no surprise that the best-selling computer book so far this year is iPhone: The Missing Manual, by my colleague David Pogue. But here is something that did surprise me: The most popular edition of this book isnt on paper or the PDF file that OReilly Media also sel
2、ls. It is the downloadable application for the iPhone, according to Tim OReilly, the chief executive of OReilly Media. Amid all the discussion of micropayments and other ways that the creators of news and other content can be paid for their work, the iTunes App store is shaping up to be a surprising
3、ly viable way to sell all sorts of information and entertainment. There is a lot more content of the sort you would have bought in the past but now you can get free on the Web: a directory of Congressional offices, standup comedy routines, gym workout videos, Zagat restaurant guides and a growing li
4、brary of books. There is also a fair bit of free content, public-domain e-books like the complete works of Shakespeare and lots of advertising-supported media.(Business Week has a report this week on the App stores role in music.) Whats most interesting is how iPhone users are willing to spend money
5、 in ways that Web users are not. Ive criticized Apple from time to time for not having a coherent approach to delivering free content with advertising. But in some ways, the development of a market for paid content is a bigger and less expected achievement. Why has this happened? Apple has created a
6、n environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. Paying for software, especially games, is not new to Apple customers. So when you see the iPhone manual o
7、r the Frommers Paris guidebook, it feels natural to click.(And of course, your credit card is already on file with Apple.) There are certainly other precedents. Many people who steal songs through Lime-wire nonetheless pay $1.99 to use the same tunes as ringtones. And for avid book readers, Amazons
8、Kindle has found a market willing to pay for electronic books. Apple is also starting to sell subscriptions to bundles of music, video and images from certain bands, like Depeche Mode. This is technically a product of the Music store, not the App store, but it still shows how people may be willing t
9、o pay for various bundles of content online. There is a lot of work to do here. For example, I find the OReilly iPhone book a little hard to use. The text doesnt seem particularly well-formatted for the iPhone page. And I would love to see more interactive features that utilize the phone interface(i
10、ncluding some of Davids videos). Andrew Savikas, OReillys vice president for digital initiatives, agrees with me, saying that the iPhone manual was rushed to get it out before Christmas. The company now has 20 titles in development for the iPhone(and eventually other mobile phones), and it is spendi
11、ng more time weaving in hyperlinks and adding other features. “There is a lot more we can do to take advantage of this as a new medium,“ he said. OReilly, which sells to a lot of early adopters, has a range of digital distribution media. “We try to say all of our writing is writing for the Web, and
12、all of our publishing is digital publishing, so all our focus is building things into the content that make it more friendly to be digital,“ he said. Before media companies rejoice that Apple has found a way to persuade a generation used to getting everything free on the Web to pay for some content,
13、 they should look a bit more closely at OReillys experience with the iPhone manual. The book, which sells for $24.99, was initially offered as an iPhone app for $4.99. When the publisher raised the price to $9.99, sales fell 75 percent. OReilly quickly dropped the price back down to the lower level.
14、 “This audience is very price sensitive,“ Mr. Savikas said. So even if all content doesnt have to be free, it may well have to be cheap. 1 According to the passage, what has surprised the author? （ A） IPhone: The Missing Manual is the best-seller on computer this year. （ B） IPhone is the most popula
15、r cellphone this year. （ C） The downloadable application is the most successful part of iPhone. （ D） The most popular version of iPhone: The Missing Manual is in the form of application. 2 Which of the following is NOT in the sort that you would have bought in the past but now free? （ A） Body-buildi
16、ng videos. （ B） The telephone numbers of government offices. （ C） Shakespeares Merchant of Venice. （ D） Standup comedy shows. 3 Which of the following best explains why iPhone users are willing to pay in ways that web users are not? （ A） The habit of one-click purchases makes it natural to click oth
17、er contents. （ B） The iPhone users want to show off the convenience of their machine. （ C） The iPhone users are more addicted to web resources than web users. （ D） Its far more convenient for iPhone users to download than copy from PC. 4 What does OReillys experience with the iPhone manual tell us?
18、（ A） Apple has found a way to persuade a generation of web users to pay for some contents. （ B） The price of the book now is about 5 times of its initial price. （ C） Media companies should never raise the price of the content. （ D） All contents provided have to be cheap to attract the users. 5 Which
19、 category of writing does the passage belong to? （ A） Narration. （ B） Description. （ C） Persuasion. （ D） Exposition. 5 When a dark-colored S. U. V. raced through the streets of Washington, flipped over and burst into flames on Foxs fast-paced action show 24 last week, viewers probably were not calcu
20、lating how much carbon dioxide the explosion produced. But executives at Fox have been paying close attention. On Monday the network will announce that 24 is going green, becoming the first “carbon neutral“ television series. Among other things, Fox says, it has hired consultants to measure the carb
21、on-dioxide output from the production, started using 20 percent biodiesel fuel in trucks and generators, installed motion monitors in bathrooms and kitchens to make the lights more efficient and paid the higher fees that help California utilities buy wind and solar power. Car crashes posed a bigger
22、problem; even hybrid vehicles emit carbon dioxide when blown up. To achieve true carbon neutrality the scripts would have to avoid shooting on location and staging chase scenes, something likely to disappoint even the greenest viewers. So the producers decided to settle for buying carbon offsets, wh
23、ich in theory make up for emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas linked to global warming, by paying other people to generate enough clean energy to compensate in this case wind-power plants in India. The producers said they bought enough credits to offset 1,291 tons of carbon dioxi
24、de, just over a half-seasons worth of emissions. “If weve needed a car chase, weve had a car chase,“ said Howard Gordon, executive producer of “24. “ “Our obligation is first and foremost to the fans. If we have budget cuts and need to save money, then well have fewer car crashes. “ Rupert Murdoch,
25、spurred by a presentation by former Vice President Al Gore, said last year that he intended to make News Corporation, Foxs parent, carbon neutral by 2010, and the networks campaign, the producers say, is part of that effort. Still, the green fervor is an interesting turn for a show known more for pl
26、aying out terrorist themes pioneered by the Bush administration and for graphic portrayals of torture in prime time. Mr. Gordon said that he knew more skeptical viewers might see the effort as a way to rehabilitate the shows reputation among liberals, but he insisted that there was no connection. “P
27、eople continue to ascribe political agendas to the show, so they may see this cynically, but, no, absolutely, one has nothing to do with the other,“ he said. Fox is not the first network to tout its devotion to the planet. In November NBC Universal committed to “greening“ three shows, including the
28、“Nightly News With Brian Williams“ and “Saturday Night Live“, by using alternative fuels and increasing recycling and composting. Warner Brothers and Disney also have environmental divisions. Still, Fox executives said that they were the first to make a series carbon neutral and that they hoped 24 w
29、ould be a model for other shows and inspire a higher level of environmental consciousness in viewers. On Monday the network will begin broadcasting announcements in which the stars of 24 including Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Agent Jack Bauer encourage viewers to take steps themselves. “No one is ki
30、dding themselves that viewers want to see Jack Bauer stop in the middle of an action scene and deliver some line about the environment,“ said Dana Walden, a chairwoman of 20th Century Fox Television, who was the force behind the carbon-neutral scheme. But, she added, Fox hoped that the result would
31、be “a more gratifying viewing experience, even if it is at a more subconscious level. “ Figuring out how to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions on a show that often shoots on location and is known for explosion-enhanced action was not easy. The first step was to evaluate how much of the greenhouse gas w
32、as produced, examining everything from the cars used to ferry scripts across the Los Angeles area to flights taken by actors and executives. Two categories accounted for 95 percent of emissions: fuel for on-site generators, transportation and special effects; and the electricity used for sets and of
33、fices. The cast, crew and contractors all made substantial adjustments. They shared scripts electronically and drove around in hybrid vehicles, eliminating the use of 1,300 gallons of gasoline, according to the network. Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz. com, which advises businesses and ev
34、aluates the effectiveness of environmental measures, said he was impressed with the shows efforts. “These are not just feel-good measures,“ Mr. Makower said. “They did their homework. “ Still, by the shows own accounting, the realities of production often limited what could be done. Although 1,300 g
35、allons of gas represents about 10 cross-country car trips, Fox said, it is not much for a show that goes through at least 1,000 gallons a week. 6 “Carbon neutral“ in this passage refers to_. （ A） involving no use of coal as fuel （ B） producing no carbon dioxide （ C） keeping a neutral attitude toward
36、 carbon dioxide （ D） a new type of substance containing carbon 7 Which of the following scenes contributes the least to the emission of carbon dioxide? （ A） Wild scenes. （ B） Explosion of hybrid vehicles. （ C） Family life in the sitting room. （ D） A policeman running after a thief. 8 What might be t
37、he mechanism of carbon dioxide causing global warming? （ A） Carbon dioxide takes in heat from the sun and heats the air around the earth. （ B） Carbon dioxide makes it easy for the sunlight to go through the air and onto the earth. （ C） Carbon dioxide prevents the heat from heating the air around the
38、 earth. （ D） Carbon dioxide can trap the sunlight and make it cast onto the earth. 9 What can be inferred from this passage? （ A） The show of terrorist themes has been sponsored by Bush administration. （ B） Howard Gordon is reluctant to commit himself to carbon neutral. （ C） The 20th Century Fox TV
39、will not arrange a leading character to spare time for advocating environmental protection. （ D） Special effects generally wont result in emissions of carbon dioxide. 10 What is the tone of this passage? （ A） Cynical. （ B） Indifferent. （ C） Critical. （ D） Objective. 10 Americans are still chuckling
40、about the “pants suit“. A man a judge, no lesssued his dry cleaners for $ 54m for allegedly losing his trousers. A sign at the shop promised “ Satisfaction Guaranteed“. The plaintiff was not satisfied, so he cried fraud. He then used his highly trained legal brain to calculate the damages he was owe
41、d. He started with $1,500, a reasonable fine for consumer fraud. He multiplied it by 12, for the number of his complaints. Then by 1,200, for the number of days he was deprived of his trousers. And then by three, for the three owners of the dry-cleaning shop. After adding a bit more for mental angui
42、sh, the total came to $67m, but he kindly reduced it to $54m. When the case was dismissed in 2007, many felt justice had prevailed. But the defendants had been put through purgatory and saddled with $100,000 in legal costs. They closed the shop and considered moving back to South Korea. The case ill
43、ustrates “ an important truth about human nature that angry people can go nuts,“ observes Philip Howard, a campaigner for legal reform. What was most shocking about the pants suit was not the idiotic claim, he says, “but that the case was allowed to go on for more than two years. “ Some judges think
44、 even the nuttiest plaintiffs deserve their day in court. As the judge who let a woman sue McDonalds for serving her the coffee with which she scalded herself put it: “Who am I to judge?“ The rule of law is a wonderful thing, as anyone who has visited countries ruled by the whims of the powerful can
45、 attest. But you can have too much of a wonderful thing. And America has far too much law, argues Mr. Howard in a new book, Life without Lawyers. For nearly every problem, lawmakers and bureaucrats imagine that more detailed rules are the answer. But people need to exercise their common sense, too.
46、Alas, the proliferation of rules is making that harder. At a school in Florida, for example, a five-year-old girl decided to throw everyones books and pencils on the floor. Sent to the head teachers office, she continued to wreak havoc. Her teachers dared not restrain her physically. Instead, they s
47、ummoned the police, who led her away in handcuffs, howling. The teachers acted as they did for fear of being sued. A teacher at a different school was sued for $20m for putting a hand on a rowdy childs back to guide him out of the classroom. The school ended up settling for $90,000. Understandably,
48、many schools ban teachers from touching pupils under any circumstances. In New York City, where more than 60 bureaucratic steps are required to suspend a pupil for more than five days, teachers are so frightened of violating pupils rights that they cannot keep order. The relentless piling of law upo
49、n law the federal register has 70,000 ever-changing pages-does not make for a more just society. When even the most trivial daily interactions are subject to detailed rules, individual judgment is stifled. When rule-makers seek to eliminate small risks, perverse consequences proliferate. Bureaucrats rip up climbing frames for fear that children may fall off and break a leg. So children stay indoors and get fat. The direct costs of lawsuits are only one of the drawbacks of an over-legalistic society. Too many rules squeeze the joy out of
