题目内容
E
“How’s the basketball coming on?”
I put down my drink and looked across at the next table. I was curious about that because both the man and the woman were at least 65.
“Oh, I’m not playing much basketball these days,” the woman replied. “But I’m getting much better at golf.”
What’s this, I thought. I opened my packet of crisps, thoughtfully. “I’m still pretty hopeless at chess, I’m afraid,” the man said. “It beat me on level one this morning.”
The penny dropped. These two were the proud owners of computer games.
It’s very likely that one of the results of the development of the silicon chip(硅片) will be that a lot of people will have more exciting ways to spend their leisure time. It already has. Space invader machines are now a familiar sight everywhere. A lot of people play them, and some, particularly school children, get remarkably high scores. How, one wonders, do they find the time (and money) to become so good?
If you have your own computers, the possibilities are endless. You can play any active sports without stepping out of your living room.
You can become an expert at chess or backgammon without ever playing with another human being. Indeed, human beings aren’t needed at all.
So, what of the future? Will we see school children stealing or even robbing to feed space invader machines? Will football grounds lie empty as families sit at home playing video football, or watching the national video football championship? Perhaps, it won’t go that far. But we won’t have to wait long for the Video Olympics. I’m sure of that.
Back in the pub, I stood up, took out 20 pence, and went over to the space invader machine. I may not be much good at beating computers at backgammon, but any space invaders who arrive on Earth anywhere near me had better watch out.
72. The reason why the writer felt curious about the talk between the couple was that ____.
A. he thought they were too old to play basketball
B. they looked young for their age
C. the old seldom went to the bar
D. he didn’t believe they played basketball so well
73. The underlined sentence “The penny dropped.” in the fifth paragraph probably means ____.
A. his wallet was stolen
B. he dropped a penny into the space invader machine
C. he asked for another drink for a penny
D. he’s come to see what they meant
74. The text is mainly written to tell us that ____.
A. computers will make people have a better time in their leisure time
B. the writer was worried about the side effect of computers
C. the old couple were excellent at playing golf
D. school children shouldn’t play space invader machines so much
75. We can infer form the passage that ____.
A. we can do everything without leaving our home in the future
B. the writer was good at playing the space invader game
C. school children will certainly steal or rob to feed the space invader machines
D. the woman is better at playing chess than the man
72-75 ADBB
解析
It is "one of the few bright spots in the Chinese economy," says Zeng Ming. He is talking about e-commerce. Mr Zeng, the chief strategy officer for Alibaba, a giant Chinese Internet firm, predicts that digital transactions on his firm's platforms will top l trillion yuan ($159 billion) this year-more than Amazon's and eBay's combined. That is a bold claim, but consider what happened on Singles Sunday.
Invented a few years ago by students and seized upon by digital marketers, this festival for lonely hearts falls annually on the llth day of the llth month (since l is the loneliest number).It is like St Valentine's Day, only worse. Singletons shower each other with tender gifts: a barrage of pearls; a storm of sweets.
This November llth they spent a surprising 19 billion yuan on Alibaba's online platforms-a fourfold increase on a year ago, and more than double what Americans spent online last Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers urge Americans to shop online). About 100m purchases were logged, accounting for 80% of the packages shipped that day. Couriers(怏递员) were buried in parcels.
So life is good for China's e-tailers, then? Not exactly. The number of digital marketers is increasing and online sales are booming. Consumers are enjoying lower prices, better service and more variety. The problem? The pressure on profits in Chinese e-commerce is worse than in America, reckons Elinor Leung of CLSA, a broker. "Almost no one makes money," she says.
The fiercest battles are being fought between online retailers and their bricks-and-mortar(实体的) rivals.Dangdang, a firm. that resembles Amazon,.and 360buy, another online retailer, have cut prices fiercely. Tencent, a cash-rich online giant known for its instant-messaging software, is splashing out to win market share. 360buy has also just raised $400m from investors to do the same. But it is unclear how much longer such firms can burn through capital.
【小题1】What's the best title of this passage?
A.The Ambition of Alibaba |
B.Fierce Competition between Retailers |
C.A Newly Sprung Festival for the Singles |
D.Chinese Booming and Developing E-commerce |
A.outweigh Amazon and eBay in worldwide influence |
B.rank top among all the Internet firms |
C.have more than 159 billion dollars' sale |
D.create another sales miracle just like the one on Singles Day |
A.About 80 million. | B.About 100 million. |
C.About 125 million. | D.About 180 million. |
A.Optimistic. | B.Concerned. |
C.Sympathetic. | D.Indifferent. |