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  3. Steven P. Jobs, whose insistent vision that he knew what consumers wanted made Apple one of the world’s most valuable and influe

Steven P. Jobs, whose insistent vision that he knew what consumers wanted made Apple one of the world’s most valuable and influe

admin2015-02-12  31
问题     Steven P. Jobs, whose insistent vision that he knew what consumers wanted made Apple one of the world’s most valuable and influential companies, is stepping down as chief executive, the company announced late Wednesday.
    Mr. Jobs, 56, has been on medical leave since January, his third such absence. He underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and received a liver transplant in 2009. But as recently as a few weeks ago, Mr. Jobs was negotiating business issues with another Silicon Valley executive.
Mr. Jobs will become chairman, a position that did not exist before. Apple named Tim Cook, its chief operating officer, to succeed Mr. Jobs as chief executive.
    Rarely has a major company and industry been so dominated by a single individual, and so successful. His influence has gone far beyond the iconic personal computers that were Apple’s principal product for its first 20 years. In the last decade, Apple has redefined the music business through the iPod, the cellphone business through the iPhone and the entertainment and media world through the iPad. Again and again, Mr. Jobs has gambled that he knew what the customer would want, and again and again he has been right.
    "The big thing about Steve Jobs is not his genius or his charisma but his extraordinary risk-taking," said Alan Deutschman, who wrote a biography of Mr. Jobs. "Apple has been so innovative because Jobs takes major risks, which is rare in corporate America. He doesn’t market-test anything. It’s all his own judgment and perfectionism and gut."
    Mr. Cook, an expert in logistics, has been instrumental in locking up contracts in advance for critical parts in the company’s devices. It has had the effect of securing favorable prices, keeping Apple’s profit margins high. But it also has prevented rival companies from producing competing products at significantly lower prices.
    While Mr. Cook is well respected in the industry, he is little known outside of it. Analysts and Silicon Valley experts said new Apple products were in the pipeline for the next few years, but the company’s success beyond that was already being debated.
    "Steve has built a very deep bench of managers, including the leadership of Tim Cook, who clearly understands Steve’s vision, goals and direction," said Mr. Bajarin, president of the technology research firm Creative Strategies, who has followed Apple for 30 years.
    "You could make the case that Steve has injected so much of his DNA into Apple that Apple will continue," said Guy Kawasaki, who was an Apple executive in the late 1980s. "Or you can make the case that without Steve, Apple will struggle. But you cannot make the case that Apple without Steve Jobs will be better. Hard to conceive of that."
    The company and Mr. Jobs had been criticized in the past for revealing little information about his health to investors. The news of Mr. Jobs’s resignation came after the market closed Wednesday. In after-hours trading, the stock fell 5 percent.
According to a former Apple executive, which of the following is likely to happen to Apple without Steve Jobs?
选项 A、The empire will tumble for losing innovation and strong leadership.
B、The company will go backwards and struggle for reviving.
C、The company will become much stronger because of new thought and management.
D、The company will lose the competition with other rivals.
答案B
解析 属事实细节题。题目中提到了former executive，因此可定位到第九段(Guy Kawasaki是苹果公司20世纪80年代的执行官)。G．K．认为乔布斯离开后有两种可能，一是保持现有的地位，另一个是struggle，即在困难中挣扎，故选项B正确。选项A中的tumble(倒塌)过于严重，不符合原文。选项C则与原文恰好相反，G．K．认为苹果不可能变得更好更强。选项D属于无中生有，文中并未提及。
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