阅读理解
Old stereotypes die hard. Picture a video-game player and you will likely imagine a teenage boy, by himself, compulsively hammering away at a game involving rayguns and aliens that splatter when blasted. Ten years ago that might have borne some relation to reality. But today a gamer is as likely to be a middle-aged commuter playing "Angry Birds" on her smartphone. In America, the biggest market, the average game-player is 37 years old. Two-fifths are female.
Over the past ten years the video-game industry has grown from a small business to a huge, mainstream one. With global sales of $56 billion in 2010, it is more than twice the size of the recorded-music industry. Despite the downturn, it is growing by almost 9% a year.
Is this success due to luck or skill? The answer matters, because the rest of the entertainment industry has tended to treat gaming as being a lucky beneficiary of broader technological changes. Video gaming, unlike music, film or television, had the luck to be born digital. In fact, there is plenty for old media to learn.
Video games have certainly been swept along by two forces: demography and technology. The first gaming generation—the children of the 1970s and early 1980s—is now over 30. Many still love gaming, and can afford to spend far more on it now. Meanwhile rapid improvements in computing power have allowed game designers to offer experiences that are now often more cinematic than the cinema.
But even granted this good fortune, the game-makers have been clever. They have reached out to new customers with new methods. They have branched out into education, corporate training and even warfare, and have embraced digital downloads and mobile devices with enthusiasm. Though big-budget games are still popular, much of the growth now comes from "casual" games that are simple, cheap and playable in short bursts on mobile phones or in web browsers.
The industry has excelled in a particular area—pricing. In an era when people are disinclined to pay for content on the web, games publishers were quick to develop "freemium" models, where you rely on non-paying customers to build an audience and then extract cash only from a fanatical few.
As gaming comes to be seen as just another medium, its tech-savvy approach could provide a welcome shot in the arm for existing media groups.
Over the past ten years the video-game industry has grown from a small business to a huge, mainstream one. With global sales of $56 billion in 2010, it is more than twice the size of the recorded-music industry. Despite the downturn, it is growing by almost 9% a year.
Is this success due to luck or skill? The answer matters, because the rest of the entertainment industry has tended to treat gaming as being a lucky beneficiary of broader technological changes. Video gaming, unlike music, film or television, had the luck to be born digital. In fact, there is plenty for old media to learn.
Video games have certainly been swept along by two forces: demography and technology. The first gaming generation—the children of the 1970s and early 1980s—is now over 30. Many still love gaming, and can afford to spend far more on it now. Meanwhile rapid improvements in computing power have allowed game designers to offer experiences that are now often more cinematic than the cinema.
But even granted this good fortune, the game-makers have been clever. They have reached out to new customers with new methods. They have branched out into education, corporate training and even warfare, and have embraced digital downloads and mobile devices with enthusiasm. Though big-budget games are still popular, much of the growth now comes from "casual" games that are simple, cheap and playable in short bursts on mobile phones or in web browsers.
The industry has excelled in a particular area—pricing. In an era when people are disinclined to pay for content on the web, games publishers were quick to develop "freemium" models, where you rely on non-paying customers to build an audience and then extract cash only from a fanatical few.
As gaming comes to be seen as just another medium, its tech-savvy approach could provide a welcome shot in the arm for existing media groups.
单选题
11.The two examples in Paragraph 1 are used to illustrate that_____.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干关键词定位到第一段。本段第一句说“老成见总是难以改变的”。接下来做了解释：谈到电子游戏玩家，你可能会想到一个小男孩独自人迷地玩游戏，在十年前这可能是现实；但十年后的今天可能是个中年的上班族在玩游戏。最后一句提到美国是最大的电子游戏市场，玩家的平均年龄和女性的人数。第二段开头紧接着讲“过去十年中，电子游戏行业已经从一个微不足道的小行业发展为一个庞大的主流产业”。可见第一段的两个例子作对比是用来说明十年中电子游戏行业由弱到强的变化。因此D项正确。
单选题
12.All of the following methods are employed to attract new customers EXCEPT_____.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第五段。根据Though big-budget games are still popular，much of the growth now comes from“casual”games…可知C项不正确。因此C项符合题意。
单选题
13.One special factor of the success of video games is that_____.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干关键词special factor定位到第六段。开头提到The industry has excelled in a particular area一pricing，题干是对原文的同义复现。四个选项都是造成电子游戏行业成功的原因，但特殊的因素之一就是pricing了，这是音乐、电影和电视等传统媒体尤其需要学习的。根据下文解释也可知道正确答案为B项“灵活的定价”。
单选题
14.What can you learn from "freemium" model?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到第六段。根据…“freemium”models，where you rely on non-paying customers to build an audience and then extract cash only from a fanatical few可知“免费增值”模式依赖不付费的顾客来扩大客户群，然后从少量痴迷的顾客身上赚钱。C项It makes money only from a few fascinated customers是对原文extract cash only from a fanatical few的同义复现，为正确答案。
单选题
15.The phrase "tech-savvy approach" in the last paragraph probably means_____.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】含义题。这是一个形容词短语，意为“……的途径(方法、策略)”。本文主要讲电子游戏行业发展壮大的原因。文中提到了科技进步的因素。最后一段提到“电子游戏行业——技术的运营策略对其他各种现有的媒体应当有很大的启示作用”，那么只能是“利用技术”，故选B项。