Chris Stevens has literally written a book. It’s called Appillionaires: Secrets from Developers Who Struck It Rich on the App St

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问题     Chris Stevens has literally written a book. It’s called Appillionaires: Secrets from Developers Who Struck It Rich on the App Store, and is based on interviews with the developers of Doodle Jump, Harbor Master, Stick Wars and, yes, Angry Birds.
    Success can’t be guaranteed. But when it does strike, how has it changed app developers? Are they all buying speedboats and counting their loot on desert islands? In a word, no.
    "This was the question they answered with the least fluency," says Stevens. "They seemed to have no idea if it had; they were just really focused on creating more apps that they loved. Maybe that’s just a common consequence of having a creative spirit: it’s less about the cash, and more about the effect your work is having on the world."
    He points to the developer of Stick Wars as a particularly interesting case study. His game took off, yet he stuck to his original plan of joining the Navy. "He’s now the pilot of a nuclear submarine," says Stevens. "That was his initial plan, and it was completely unchanged by his success on the App Store. He jokes that he updates the app when his submarine surfaces."
    Stevens also points to a notably different culture from independent app developers when it comes to sharing information, whether that be lessons from making their own apps, or sales figures and usage stats once they’ve been released.
    "That willingness to share seems to exist in most indie developers," he says. "They realise that sharing ideas and information doesn’t necessarily deplete your own stock. A lot of bigger companies are incredibly materialistic and cagey. Although also, if people aren’t talking about their revenues, it’s because they’re incredibly small."
    For that reason, Stevens is optimistic about the future for small, independent app developers armed with creativity, enthusiasm and low overheads, even as big brands and publishers invest more in this market.
    "It’s reassuring that there is still this meritocracy on the App Store where good-quality work can shine through," he says. "There will still be a place for the indie developer."
    In the meantime, Stevens is also keen to see whether Apple’s next move is a democratisation of e-books as well as apps. He’d like to see the company make part of its Xcode development tools accessible to authors and designers with no coding skills, so they can self-publish on its iBooks store.
    "The biggest problem I see is accessibility. Authors cannot program Xcode. Solve that problem and you put content creation in the hands of the creatives, not the digital strategy managers," he says.
    "The question is not how to save the publishers, but how to kill them, and let storytellers get on with the storytelling. Where is the Apple Garageband equivalent for writers? The Xcode wall is too high to climb at the moment."
                                                From The Guardian, January 17, 2012
Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word "deplete" (Para 6)?

选项 A、deprive
B、expand
C、surge
D、diminish

答案D

解析 本题为词汇题。根据第六段中“They realise that sharing ideas and information doesn’t necessarily deplete your own stock.A lot of bigger companies are incredibly materialistic and cagey.”后面一句提到的是,许多大一点的公司比较精明的做法,而作为对比,可推断前面所说的这些独立开发者们认为,这并不会影响他们的销量。所以选项D最为接近该意。
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