Question

【題目】 Microsoft PowerPoint is the world’s most common presentation tool. It emerged from software company Forethought Inc in the 1980s. Bob Gaskins was the man behind it.

“I knew in the early 80s that there were as many as a billion, a thousand million presentation slides being made per year just in America,” Gaskins says，“ but they were all made by hand and almost nobody was using computers to do them.

“It was clear to me that here was a huge application worth billions and billions of dollars a year that could be done on computers as soon as there was a revolution in the kinds of computers that we had.”

Gaskins was onto something, but it was a hard sell at the time. The software wouldn’t run on any existing personal computers. Anyone wanting to use it had to buy a new machine. Even so, people bought personal computers for the first time in order to be able to use PowerPoint, says Wired magazine journalist Russell Davies.

Davies explains that before PowerPoint, people used slides to convey information to groups --- but anyone creating a presentation had to send away to get their materials made. It took a long time to do, was difficult to make changes and because it was so expensive, only the most senior people in an organisation got to do it.

“ PowerPoint，” Davies says，“made it possible for everyone in an organisation to stand up and say their piece.”

PowerPoint has helped turn us all into presenters --- but it’ s also been accused of over-simplifying ideas and distracting (干擾)us from clear thinking.

Sarah Kaplan is a management professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She has noticed that, rather than people asking for new analysis or insights in meetings, they were asking for more PowerPoint slides.

Kaplan says that some CEOS, such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, have banned its use. “He felt, and I think many people feel, that PowerPoint became such an object of the process that they lost the ideas inside of it and that is the risk.”

【1】What drove Bob Gaskins to develop PowerPoint?

A. His personal needs at the office.

B. The support from Forethought Inc.

C. The great potential market demand.

D. His interest in science and technology.

【2】What was the problem with Bob Gaskin’s PowerPoint in the 1980s?

A. It was very expensive.

B. It was very difficult to use.

C. It couldn’t t be used on old computers.

D. It couldn’t satisfy young people’s needs.

【3】What might be Russell Davies’s attitude to PowerPoint?

A. Critical.B. Appreciative.C. Cautious.D. Contradictory.

【4】Why does Jeff Bezos ban the use of PowerPoint?

A. It fails to solve practical problems.

B. It fails to convey messages effectively.

C. It makes something valuable unavailable.

D. It results in creative thinking getting ignored.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】C

【3】B

【4】D

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。主要說明了Microsoft PowerPoint是世界上最常用的演示工具，文章說明了其歷史演變，以及不同的人對(duì)Microsoft PowerPoint的看法。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第二段“I knew in the early 80s that there were as many as a billion, a thousand million presentation slides being made per year just in America,” Gaskins says，“ but they were all made by hand and almost nobody was using computers to do them.（Gaskins說:“我知道在80年代早期，僅在美國每年就有多達(dá)10億張幻燈片、10億張幻燈片被制作出來，但它們都是手工制作的，幾乎沒有人用電腦來做。）以及第三段“It was clear to me that here was a huge application worth billions and billions of dollars a year that could be done on computers as soon as there was a revolution in the kinds of computers that we had.”（“我很清楚，這是一個(gè)每年價(jià)值數(shù)十億美元的巨大應(yīng)用程序，只要我們擁有的計(jì)算機(jī)類型發(fā)生革命，就可以在計(jì)算機(jī)上完成。”）可知巨大的潛在市場需求促使Bob Gaskins開發(fā)PowerPoint。故選C。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段中The software wouldn’t run on any existing personal computers. Anyone wanting to use it had to buy a new machine.（該軟件不能在任何現(xiàn)有的個(gè)人電腦上運(yùn)行。任何想要使用它的人必須買一臺(tái)新機(jī)器。）可知在20世紀(jì)80年代，Bob Gaskin的PowerPoint出現(xiàn)的問題是無法在舊電腦上使用。故選C。

【3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第四段“ PowerPoint，” Davies says，“made it possible for everyone in an organization to stand up and say their piece.”（“ppt，”Davies說，“讓組織里的每個(gè)人都能站起來表達(dá)自己的觀點(diǎn)�！保┛芍�Russell Davies對(duì)ppt的態(tài)度是贊賞的。故選B。

【4】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章最后一句“He felt, and I think many people feel, that PowerPoint became such an object of the process that they lost the ideas inside of it and that is the risk.”（“他覺得，我想很多人也覺得，ppt成為了流程的一個(gè)目標(biāo)，以至于他們失去了其中的思想，這就是風(fēng)險(xiǎn)�！保┛芍�Jeff Bezos禁止使用PowerPoint，因?yàn)樗鼤?huì)導(dǎo)致創(chuàng)造性思維被忽視。故選D。