专业八级624.docx

1、专业八级624专业八级 -624（ 总分： 100.10 ，做题时间： 90 分钟 ）一、READING COMPREHENS（总题数：3,分数：100.00）Section A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSIn this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choo

2、sethe one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.Passage OneAs video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted their new gizmos at the Tokyo Game Show this week, industry executives had more than the coming holiday sales season on their minds.Apples recent foray

3、 into video games with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and its ever-expandingonline App Store is causing as much hand-wringing among old industry players as the globaleconomic slump, which threatens to take the steam out of year-end shopping for the secondconsecutive year. Among the questions voiced by v

4、ideo game executives: How can Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft keep consumers hooked on game-only consoles, like the Wii or even the PlayStation Portable, when Apple offers games on popular, everyday devices that double as cellphones and music players? And how can game developers and the makers of big c

5、onsoles persuade consumers to buy the latest shootem-ups for $30 or more, when Apples App store is full of games, created by developers around the world and approved by Apple, that cost as little as 99 cents or even arefree? The concerns highlight an accelerating shift away from hard-core games, whi

6、ch have traditionally driven console sales, to more casual ones played on cellphones. Of the 758 new game titles shown at the Tokyo Game Show, 168 were for cellphone platforms more than twice as manyas in the previous year.Apple did not participate in the Tokyo Game Show, which ends Sunday. But the

7、company introduced a beefed-up version of the iPod Touch this month, explicitly comparing it as a gaming platform with the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable. Apples assault could even eat into salesof home consoles like Nintendos Wii, Sonys PlayStation 3 or Microsofts XBox, as game- playingq

8、uickly becomes centered on cellphones. Many in the industry say that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft need to explore more radical changes to their businesses, including an emphasis on software rather than hardware and a better way for users to download games.For game makers like Konami, the iPhone coul

9、d be an attractive platform because it is cheap and easy to develop games for, with potentially large returns. Developing games for sophisticated machines like PlayStation 3 and XBox, on the other hand, is time-consuming and expensive. Decreasing interest from game makers could further hurt Sony, Ni

10、ntendo and Microsoft, because they rely on solid game lineups to drive console sales. And in turn, lower console sales would mean fewer developers interested in making new games. To bolster sales of its Wii, Nintendo said Thursday that it would cut its price by a fifth in major markets, following si

11、milar cuts by Sony and Microsoft for their own consoles. Nintendo is trying to stem a recent slide in popularity of the Wii. The console was a hit with consumers, thanks to its motion-sensitive controller , but sales have stalled, dropping to 2.23 million units in the April-to-June quarter from 5.17

12、 million a year earlier.A year ago, Nintendo also introduced a new version of its DS handheld device that lets users download digital content, including music, photos, videos and games, via a Wi-Fi connection aclear imitation of Apples App Store. Microsoft, meanwhile, is developing technology that l

13、ets people play video games using natural body movements instead of hand-held controllers. In June, the company introduced a prototype of a project code-named Natal, a motion system that combines cameras with voice and face-recognition software. Sony has promised even more hardware wizardry:3-D vide

14、o games and a new controller much like the Wii that is shaped like a lollipop and senses motion. Its PlayStation Go portable console, due next month, does away with memory discs and instead relies on downloads from a virtual store. But analysts say hardware is fast losing center stage to software in

15、 the game-playing world. What will draw consumers, said Hirokazu Hanamura, president of the Tokyo market research company, Enterbrain, is software prowess, like Apples App Store, which already has 21,100 games far more than Nintendo and Sony combined.Many within the industry are wary of change. Stil

16、l, Japan has experience in developing games for cellphones. According to an industry group, Japans cellphone gamemarket reached 16.25 billion in 2007. Japanese companies have been especially successful in combining mobile phone games with social networking. Gree, a fast-growing site with about 12.6 million users, gets visitors hookedon its social networking service, then offers cellphone games on its mobile version. The company