2016年12月大學英語六級閱讀練習(5)
It would be all too easy to say that Facebook's market meltdown is coming to an end. Afterall, Mark Zuckerberg's social network burned as much as $ 50 billion of shareholders' wealth injust a couple months. To put that in context, since its debut(初次登臺) on NASDAQ in May,Facebook has lost value nearly equal to Yahoo, AOL, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, OpenTable,Groupon, LinkedIn, and Angie's List combined, plus that of the bulk of the publicly tradednewspaper industry:
As shocking as this utter failure may be to the nearly 1 billion faithful Facebook usersaround the world, it's no surprise to anyone who read the initial public offering (IPO)prospectus (首次公開募股說明書). Worse still, all the crises that emerged when the companydebuted-overpriced shares, poor corporate governance, huge challenges to the core business,and a damaged brand-remain today. Facebook looks like a prime example of what Wall Streetcalls a falling knife-that is, one that can cost investors their fingers if they try to catch it.
Start with the valuation(估值). To justify a stock price close to the lower end of theprojected range in the IPO, say $ 28 a share, Facebook's future growth would have needed tomatch that of Google seven years earlier. That would have required increasing revenue by some80 percent annually and maintaining high profit margins all the while.
That's not happening. In the first half of 2012, Facebook reported revenue of $ 2.24 billion, up38 percent from the same period in 2011. At the same time, the company's costs surged to $ 2.6 billion in the six-month period.
This so-so performance reflects the Achilles' heel of Facebook's business model, which thecompany clearly stated in a list of risk factors associated with its IPO: it hasn't yet figured outhow to advertise effectively on mobile devices, The number of Facebook users accessing thesite on their phones surged by67 percent to 543 million in the last quarter, or more than half itscustomer base.
Numbers are only part of the problem. The mounting pile of failure creates a negativefeedback loop that threatens Facebook's future in other ways. Indeed, the more Facebook'sdisappointment in the market is catalogued, the worse Facebook's image becomes. Not onlydoes that threaten to rub off on users, it's bad for recruitment and retention of talentedhackers, who are the lifeblood of Zuckerberg's creation.
Yet the brilliant CEO can ignore the sadness and complaints of his shareholders thanks tothe super- voting stock he holds. This arrangement also was fully disclosed at the time of theoffering. It's a pity so few investors apparently bothered to do their homework.
61. What can be inferred about Facebook from the first paragraph?
A.Its market meltdown has been easily halted.
B.It has increased trade with the newspaper industry.
C.It has encountered utter failure since its stock debut.
D.Its shareholders have invested $ 50 billion in a social network.
62. The crises Facebook is facing_____
A.have been disclosed in the IPO prospectus
B.are the universal risks Wall Street confronts
C.disappoint its faithful users
D.have existed for a long time
63. To make its stock price reasonable, Facebook has to____
A.narrow the IPO price range
B.cooperate with Google
C.keep enormously profitable
D.invest additional $ 2.6 billion
64. It can be inferred from the context that the "Achilles' heel" (Line 1, Para. 5) refersto____
A.deadly weakness
B.problem unsolved
C.indisputable fact
D.potential risk
65. What effect will Facebook's failure in the market have?
A.Its users' benefits will be threatened.
B.Talented hackers will take down the website.
C.The CEO will hold the super-voting stock.
D.The company's innovation strength will be damaged.
參考答案
61.C)。本題考查第一段的主旨大意。此種題型可以使用排除法，將各選項代入原文來驗證對錯。A)“臉譜網(wǎng)的市場崩潰已被輕而易舉地制止了”，原文開篇指出，說臉譜網(wǎng)的市場崩潰將要結束未免太簡單了.A)與原文不符，故排除;B)“臉譜網(wǎng)增加了與報紙業(yè)之間的商務往來”，原文首段末句plus that of… 中的that指的是value，意指臉譜網(wǎng)自登陸納斯達克以來，損失的價值等同于幾個大型互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)加上大部分報業(yè)價值的總和，B)與原文不符，故排除;C)“臉譜網(wǎng)自股票上市以來遭遇了巨大失敗”，由第一段中的burned，lost等詞可以推斷臉譜網(wǎng)上市后遭遇了巨大失敗，故為答案。
62.D)。事實細節(jié)題。D)‘‘已經(jīng)存在很長時間了”，與定位句中remain today的意思相同，故為答案。
63.C)。本題考查臉譜網(wǎng)如何才能使其制定的股價合理，題干中的reasonable對應原文中的justify。定位句提到，要實現(xiàn)接近其公開募股說明書上的較低股價，比如每股28美元，這就要求臉譜網(wǎng)年收益增長要高達80%，并始終保持高利潤率，故答案為c)。
64.A)。本段提到，臉譜網(wǎng)現(xiàn)在還未解決如何有效地在移動設備上做廣告這一問題，而用手機登錄其網(wǎng)站的用戶數(shù)量卻不斷飆升，且文章通篇語義色彩都是消極的，故可推出此處應指臉譜網(wǎng)商業(yè)模式中的致命軟肋，故答案為A)。
65.D)。由定位句可知，臉譜網(wǎng)在市場上的失意不僅會影響到用戶，還會影響招募和挽留天才 黑客，而這些人正是扎克伯格創(chuàng)造力的命脈。由此推知，臉譜網(wǎng)的創(chuàng)新力會因其市場失意而受到損害，故答案為D)。
