第 46 題至第50 題為題組
Are you a Mac user? For many, home computers have become synonymous with Windows and Bill Gates, but there has always been a loyal band of Apple and Macintosh users whose devotion to the Apple brand and its co-founder Steven Jobs is almost religious.
Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak dropped out of college and got jobs in Silicon Valley, where they founded the Apple Computer company in 1976, the name based on Jobs’s favorite fruit. They designed the Apple I computer in Jobs’s bedroom, having raised the capital by selling their most valued possessions—an old Volkswagen bus and a scientific calculator. The later model, the Apple Macintosh, introduced the public to point and click graphics. It was the first home computer to be truly user friendly, or as their advertisements put it, "the computer for the rest of us." When IBM released its first PC in 1981, Jobs realized that Apple would have to become a more grown-up company to compete effectively. He brought in John Sculley, the president of Pepsi-Cola, to do the job, asking him, "Do you want to just sell sugared water, or do you want to change the world?" Sculley and Jobs began to argue bitterly, however, and after a power struggle, Jobs was reluctantly forced to resign.
By 1996 Apple was in trouble due to the dominance of Windows software and the increasing number of PC clones that used it. Jobs, having had great success with his animation studio Pixar, was brought back to the ailing firm for an annual salary of $1, and the company gradually returned to profitability.
Apple’s computers cost more than most PCs and have a more limited range of software available for them, but their great appeal has been the attention to design, making Apple the cool computer company. The launch of the stunning multicolored iMac in 1997, followed by the sleek new iMac in 2002, marked the end of the computer as an ugly, utilitarian machine and brought the home computer out of the study and into the lounge. As Steve Jobs put it, "Other companies don’t care about design. We think it’s vitally important."
Apple’s fortunes were transformed again with the development of the iPod in 2003 and the iPhone in 2007, which soon became must-have gadgets that brought about a boom in Internet music sales and transformed the cell phone industry. And, of course, they were beautifully stylish. 【題組】
50.According to the article, which statement best describes Jobs’s return to the company?
(A) It was welcome by Pepsi-Cola. (B) He came back to save the ailing company.
(C) He came back to found Pixar. (D) It was irresponsible and damaging to his career.
寫作批改
VIP與詳解卡管理
私人筆記( 1 )
