单选题 Competition breeds excellence. Ask anyone who pays attention to the car industry and they will tell you that the family-sedan segment is just brutal, with manufacturers fighting tooth and nail over every sale. In fact, that market has become more competitive in recent years. It used to just be the Camry and the Accord fighting for supremacy, but now you have new (Hyundai) and old (Ford) competitors, among others, joining the fight, with interesting, well-made, compelling products. It"s a great time to be shopping for a new family sedan.
Compare that with the state of the tablet market today. Hewlett-Packard is in retreat. Research in Motion is in a holding pattern. Motorola has been sold and its tablet is now an afterthought. Samsung fights the good fight, hut it trails Apple"s market share by 50 percentage points.
Apple is not just ahead of the pack, it almost is the pack. Now, some would say that this is also a simple result of economic laws at work: Apple makes a superior product, therefore it gets most of the sales. But what would be really great is that, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and H.P., locked in an epic battle for tablet supremacy, are each releasing new and better products at a furious pace, and each dropping prices substantially at a steady clip.
Apple is driving innovation and creativity with each upgrade of the iPad it releases. But this isn"t about whether you prefer Apple or Android for your tablet. This isn"t about picking sides. As a consumer, I want there to be robust competition across the board. I want Coke and Pepsi, Target and Wal-Mart, Engadget and Gizmodo.
If you"re a fan of Apple, you want there to be a worthy rival push it, to keep its feet to the fire. If you don"t like Apple, you want someone else in the game so that Apple doesn"t suck all the air out of the room. And you want Apple to do the same pushing and foot scorching to its competitor that another company would do to it.
单选题 The phrase "fighting tooth and nail" (Para. 1) means that car makers are ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 词义理解题。第一段的“the family-sedan segment is just brutal, with manufacturers fighting tooth and nail over every sale. 家用小轿车生产的残酷性，每一次与厂家交易都是激烈的争斗。”说明竞争是残酷的，fighting tooth and nail=brutal，故选A。
单选题 Why is it a great time to he shopping for a new family sedan?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段的第四句话“过去只是凯美瑞和雅阁争夺霸权，但是现在又有了新现代和老福特这样的竞争对手，还有其他的一些对手，它们带着有趣、制作精良、令人信服具有竞争力的产品加入竞争。”说明对手不止一个，为了占据市场，生产厂家都在努力生产精良产品占据市场，这样顾客的选择余地就大了。故选C。
单选题 What are the tablet makers strategically doing, facing the brutal competition?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 第三段的第三句话“但真正令人满意的是卷入这场宏大的平板电脑争夺霸权战争中的苹果、谷歌、微软和惠普都在以疯狂的速度向市场投放更新更好的产品，而且每次产品价格降价幅度都很大。”说明只有研发新产品和降低产品价格才会吸引顾客，才能占据市场，故要调整平板电脑生产销售策略。故选A。
单选题 The author brings in the pairs of "Coke and Pepsi, Target and Wal-Mart, Engadget and Gizmodo" (Para. 4) to make ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 第四段的第五句“作为消费者，我希望平板电脑市场竞争强烈。我想可口可乐和百事可乐，塔吉特公司和沃尔玛，瘾科技和Gizmodo都这样。”作者把Coke and Pepsi，Target and Wal-Mart，Engadget and Gizmodo作为范例，说明行业的竞争越来越激烈。故选D。
单选题 What does the phrase "to keep its feet to the fire" in the last paragraph mean?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 第五段第一句话中的to keep its feet to the fire原意为：给某人非肉体的压力，以迫使他同意做他不太愿意做的事，即给某人施加压力与to pressure同义。故选B。
单选题 Why does the author start with the car, industry before he focuses on tablet market?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 由于家用小轿车是令人关注的产业，生产的厂家多，必然造成竞争的残酷性。把它类比做平板电脑的生产厂家，说明其竞争也很残酷。故选C。