单选题 Austerity is a word much found on the lips of politicians and economists at the moment; but it is seldom heard from technologists. And although the idea that "less is more" has many adherents in architecture, design and fashion, the technology industry has historically held the opposite view. Products should have as many features as possible; and next year's version should have even more. As prices fall, what starts off as a fancy new feature quickly becomes commonplace prompting companies to add new features in an effort to outdo their rivals. Never mind if nobody uses most of these new features. In an arms race, more is always more.
But now there are signs that technologists are waking up to the benefits of minimalism, thanks to two things: feature fatigue among consumers who simply want things to work, and strong demand from less affluent consumers in the developing world. It is telling that the market value of Apple, the company most closely associated with simple, elegant high-tech products, recently overtook that of Microsoft, the company with the most notorious case of new-featuritis. Gadgets are no longer just for geeks, and if technology is to appeal to a broad audience, simplicity trumps fancy specifications.
Another strand of techno-austerity can be found in software that keeps things simple in order to reduce distractions and ensure that computer-users remain focused and productive. Many word processors now have special full-screen modes, so that all unnecessary and distracting menus are disabled or hidden; rather than fiddling with font sizes or checking e-mail, you are encouraged to get on with your writing. A computer on which some features are not present, or have been deliberately disabled, may in fact be more useful if you are trying to get things done. There are no distracting hyperlinks on a typewriter.
And then there is the phenomenon of "frugal" innovation--the new ideas that emerge when trying to reduce the cost of something in order to make it affordable to consumers in places like China, India and Brazil. The resulting products often turn out to have huge appeal in the rich world too, especially in an era of belt-tighten- ing. The netbook, or low-cost laptop, was inspired by a scheme to produce cheap laptops for children in poor countries, but has since proved popular with consumers around the world.
All this offers grounds for hope. If the feature--obsessed technology industry can change its tune, perhaps there is a chance that governments--which have also tended to be habitual believers in the idea that more is more--might also come to appreciate the merits of minimalism.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】事实细节题。在第3段中，我们定位到techno-austerity这个词，继续读下去，发现第3段讲的是软件中的技术简约(techno—austerity)能帮助减少工作中的分心(reduce distractions)、提高工作效率(ensure thatcomputer—users remain focused and productive)，文中随后给出了一些例子，如special full-screen modes能隐藏menus等功能。因此A项(提高工作效率)正确。B和D意思与文意刚好相反；从文中so that…orhidden看出，techno-austerity是使一些distracting menus变得disabled，而不是去disable software，所以C项错误。