Part I Writing
(30minutes)
Directions:
For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic "Plastic Bags: Friend or Foe". You should write at least 120 words following the outline givenbelowinChinese:
2008年6月1日起,中国开始实行"限塑令",对此:
1. 有人认为,塑料袋给人们的生活带来了便利,不应限制使用；
2. 有人认为,塑料袋的使用带来了很多问题,应该被限制；
3. 我认为……
Part II Reading Comprehension
(Skimming and Scanning)
(15minutes)
Directions:
In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly. Forquestions1-7, mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
Bill Gates has retired. He is still only 52, and he is going off to spend more time guiding the world’s richest philanthropic(慈善的) organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will still be Microsoft’s chairman and the largest shareholder, but June 27, 2008 was his last day as a full-time worker at the software giant, marking the unofficial end of his career as a business leader.
What a career it has been! Mr. Gates has been an animating force behind the personal computer revolution, helping to build a huge global industry and design successful products like Windows and Office, used every day in offices and homes around the world.
The Harvard dropout was the wealthiest person on the planet for years —worth more than $100 billion in 1999 —though his fortune is now about half that because of the decline of Microsoft’s shares and his continuing donations to his foundation, which is focused on global health and education.
Despite his success, Mr. Gates is moving on as the company he co-founded in 1975 is struggling to find its way. The focus of technology has shifted from PCs to the Internet, altering the old rules of competition that were so lucratively (获利多地) mastered by Microsoft.
For millions of users, mobile devices like cellphones are beginning to edge out PCs as the tool of choice for many computing tasks. And Google, the front runner in the current wave of Internet computing, has taken away the title of hightech leadership from Microsoft.
Although Mr. Gates will spend one day a week at the company, it will be up to his successors, led by Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive, to overcome the challenges of the Internet or watch Microsoft’s wealth and leadership in the industry steadily eroded (侵蚀). "Bill’s legacy is Windows and Office, and that will be a rich advantage for years to come, but it’s not the future," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. Still, the Gates’legacy is impressive. In addition to the software itself, Mr. Gates and his company have fundamentally shaped how people think about competition in many industries where technology plays a central role. Today, there are more than one billion copies of the Windows operating system on PCs around the world.
Industry experts and economists say that Windows is not necessarily the most satisfying software for running the basic operations of a personal computer —Apple’s Macintosh can claim the most devout fan club. But Mr. Gates grasped and deployed two related concepts on a scale no one ever had in the past: "the network effects" and the creation of "a technology platform".
Put simply, a network effect describes a phenomenon in which the value of a product goes up as more people use it. E-mail messaging and telephones are classic examples.
A technology platform is a set of tools or services that others can use to build their own products or services. The more people using the tools, the more popular the platform can become. Mr. Gates took advantage of both notions and combined them to build Microsoft’s dominance in PCs, spreading their influence with computer makers and software developers.
Today, there are many thousands of software applications that run on the Windows platform, not only word processing and spreadsheets but also the specialized programs in doctors’ offices, factory floors and retail stores —a very broad network on a technology platform.
"Gates saw software as a separate market from hardware before anyone else, but his great insight was recognizing the power of the network effects surrounding the software," said Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. That, Professor Cusumano added, was the essential difference in the paths of Microsoft and Apple, the early leaders in personal computing. Apple, he said, focused on making outstanding products alone, while Microsoft nurtured a growing ecosystem of outside software developers who used and were dependent on Microsoft’s technology. The result, he added, was that, while Apple continued to make outstanding products, more than 90% of personal computers ran on Microsoft software.
In the early years, it was unclear how much Mr. Gates was pursuing each opportunity as it came, as opposed to carrying out a grand strategy. He certainly had large ambitions. When he was a Harvard undergraduate, Mr. Gates lamented (为……遗憾) that so many of his fellow students pursued a "narrow track for success" instead of being willing to "take big risks to do big things". In A Harvard Business School Case Study, published in 1994, Mr. Gates spoke of Microsoft’s strategy in terms of network effects and technology standards which enabled the company to command markets. "We look for businesses where we can garner (取得,获得) large market shares, not just 30% or 35%,"he said.
In the past, Microsoft has beaten back challenges and vanquished (击败) rivals, even when it came late to markets, as it did in the first wave of Internet technology. Mr. Gates’wise 1995 decision to embrace Internet browsing technology and attack the early leader, Netscape Communications, started a pitched antitrust battle (激烈的反垄断战)with the government. "But he extended Microsoft’s hegemony (霸权) for a decade,"said Mitchell Kapor, a long-time rival.
However, Microsoft is lagging badly in the current round of Internet competition, and analysts say it is facing more formidable (可怕的,难以克服的) challenges this time —notably Google. Microsoft’s share of Internet search in the United States is less than 10%, while Google holds more than 60% and Yahoo has about 20%. And searching is only part of the new platform on the Web, which includes social networks like Facebook and MySpace and Internet-based alternatives to traditional desktop software, including e-mail messaging, word processors and spreadsheets. |
