Question

【题目】 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 (干扰)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】

这是一篇说明文。主要说明了Microsoft PowerPoint是世界上最常用的演示工具，文章说明了其历史演变，以及不同的人对Microsoft PowerPoint的看法。

【1】推理判断题。根据第二段“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说:“我知道在80年代早期，仅在美国每年就有多达10亿张幻灯片、10亿张幻灯片被制作出来，但它们都是手工制作的，几乎没有人用电脑来做。）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，这是一个每年价值数十亿美元的巨大应用程序，只要我们拥有的计算机类型发生革命，就可以在计算机上完成。”）可知巨大的潜在市场需求促使Bob Gaskins开发PowerPoint。故选C。

【2】细节理解题。根据第四段中The software wouldn’t run on any existing personal computers. Anyone wanting to use it had to buy a new machine.（该软件不能在任何现有的个人电脑上运行。任何想要使用它的人必须买一台新机器。）可知在20世纪80年代，Bob Gaskin的PowerPoint出现的问题是无法在旧电脑上使用。故选C。

【3】推理判断题。根据倒数第四段“ PowerPoint，” Davies says，“made it possible for everyone in an organization to stand up and say their piece.”（“ppt，”Davies说，“让组织里的每个人都能站起来表达自己的观点。”）可知Russell Davies对ppt的态度是赞赏的。故选B。

【4】细节理解题。根据文章最后一句“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.”（“他觉得，我想很多人也觉得，ppt成为了流程的一个目标，以至于他们失去了其中的思想，这就是风险。”）可知Jeff Bezos禁止使用PowerPoint，因为它会导致创造性思维被忽视。故选D。