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  3. As a giant of the stock market, Apple is unusual. For much of the past 20 years, three companies have alternated in the role of

As a giant of the stock market, Apple is unusual. For much of the past 20 years, three companies have alternated in the role of

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问题     As a giant of the stock market, Apple is unusual. For much of the past 20 years, three companies have alternated in the role of the largest on the American stock market: Exxon Mobil, General Electric and Microsoft. The first two are very big companies by Apple standards. But Apple offers the kind of growth prospects that the shareholders of Exxon Mobil and GE can only dream of. Its sales in the latest quarter were almost double those of the previous year, and forecasts for 2013 revenues are nearly treble those recorded in 2010. It is the epitome of the modern company: short on physical capital but long on brainpower.
    So what does Apple’s dominance reveal about the economy and the stock market? First, it is a powerful reminder that the free market can still be remarkably innovative. In the past 11 years Apple has launched three products—the iPod, iPhone and iPad—that have created brand new markets, fulfilling desires that consumers did not even know they had. It is impossible to imagine any of those designs being dreamed up by a bureaucrat.
    Second, it shows that the internet industry has come of age. The dotcom bubble of the late 1990s featured companies that were heavy on ideas but light on revenues or profits. When the bubble burst a decade ago, it was feared that the internet would savage margins by " commoditizing" devices like phones and personal computers. Apple has so far proved that it is possible to earn high margins with brilliant design and by offering consumers ways to access the internet effortlessly wherever they go. It has made the mobile era its own.
    Third, Apple’s rise shows that, even in a period of austerity, consumers are willing to pay for the must-have gadget. The company is a huge beneficiary of globalization: able not only to source its products at low cost in Asia but to sell the finished goods there as well. A global elite is now willing to pay for the most desirable products, from luxury luggage to premium Scotch. And America’s soft power is still so strong that it can create aspiring brands for that elite.
    But does Apple’s surge to preeminence indicate that the stock market is back to the insane days of the late 1990s? There are certainly warning signs. Brokers are competing to come up with the highest potential price target for Apple’s shares, and the announcement of a share buy-back should remind investors that companies have a tendency to purchase their own equity at market peaks. But when Cisco, a technology giant, was briefly worth more than $500 billion in 2000, its price-earnings ratio was above 100; Apple trades on only 22 times its 2011 profits. Its new dividend yield will be almost as generous as that of the overall market. Even if its shares turn out to be overvalued, this would be more like a pimple than a bubble.
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
选项 A、Economic recession has no effect on the purchasing power of consumers.
B、Most of Apple’s clients are Asian elites who are equipped with huge consuming power and obsessed with luxury goods.
C、Apple is substantially the same with those dotcome bubble companies as they are both heavy on ideas but light on revenues.
D、Internet industry is still a booming industry despite the burst of dotcom bubble in the 1990s.
答案D
解析 文章第四段第一句话指出，虽然处于经济萧条期，但是人们还是愿意为一些必须购买的小物件买单，例如iPhone、iPad。但是这并不意味着经济衰退对于消费者的购买力没有任何影响，[A]错误。[B]利用第四段中的信息设置干扰，第四段提到苹果公司在亚洲拥有很多的拥趸，这些亚洲新贵们有购买力又对奢侈品着迷，但是我们并不能据此推断苹果公司的大多数客户都是亚洲精英。[C]错误，第一段最后一句话曾经提到苹果公司和美孚等传统公司的重要区别就在于，苹果公司固定资产不多，主要依靠创新型观点创造价值。文章第三段也提到了互联网泡沫中的公司特点，是重创意而轻资产，这是互联网技术公司的共同特征。但是并不能因为这个共同点就推断苹果公司本质上和互联网泡沫中的公司一样。[D]正确，文中多次提到了20世纪90年代互联网公司发生的泡沫崩裂，但是文章第三段提到苹果公司的成功昭示着the intemet industry has come of age，“互联网时代真正来临”。
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