2. 外语
  3. (1)The exasperated helpline caller said she couldn’t get her new Dell Computer to turn on. A Dell Computer Corp technician made

(1)The exasperated helpline caller said she couldn’t get her new Dell Computer to turn on. A Dell Computer Corp technician made

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问题     (1)The exasperated helpline caller said she couldn’t get her new Dell Computer to turn on. A Dell Computer Corp technician made sure the computer was plugged in and then asked the woman what happened when she pushed the power button. "I’ve pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens," the woman replied. "Foot pedal?" the technician asked. "Yes," the woman said, "this little white foot pedal with the on switch." The "foot pedal", it turned out, was the computer’s mouse, a hand-operated device that helps to control the computer’s operations.
    (2)Personal computer makers are discovering that it’s still a low-tech world out there. While they are finally having great success selling PCs to households, they now have to deal with people to whom monitors and disk drivers are as foreign as another language.
    (3)"It is rather mystifying to get this nice, beautiful machine and not know anything about it," says a technician who helps field consumer calls at Dell’s headquarters here. "It’s going into unfamiliar territory. People are looking for a comfort level."     (4)Only two years ago, most calls to PC helplines came from techniques needing help on complex problems. But now, with computer sales to homes exploding as new "multimedia" functions gain mass appeal, PC makers say that as many as 70% of their calls come from rank novices. Partly because of the volume of calls, some computer companies have started charging helpline users.
    (5)The questions are often so basic that they could have been asked by opening the manual that comes with every machine. One woman called Dell’s toll-free line to ask how to install batteries in her laptop. When told that the directions were on the first page of the manual, the woman replied angrily. "I just spent $2,000 for this damn thing, and I’m not going to read a book."
    (6)Indeed, it seems that these buyers barely refer to a manual when a phone is at hand. If there is a book and a phone and they’re side by side, the phone wins time after time. It’s a phenomenon of people wanting to talk to people.
    (7)And so they ever. Compaq’s help center in Houston, Texas, is inundated by some 8,000 consumer calls a day, with unbelievable inquiries like this one: A frustrated customer called, who said her brand new Compaq would not work. She had unpacked the unit, plugged it in, opened it up and, sat there for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked, "What power switch?"
    (8)Seemingly simple computer features baffle some users. So many people have called to ask where the "any" key is when "Press Any Key" flashes on the screen that Compaq is considering changing the command to "Press Return Key".
    (9)Some people can’t figure out the mouse. One consumer complained that her mouse was hard to control with the "dust" cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in. Another consumer held the mouse and pointed it at the screen, all the while clicking madly. He got no response because the mouse works if it’s moved over a flat surface. Disk drivers are another bugaboo.
    (10)A customer dutifully complied with a technician’s request that she send in a copy of defective floppy disk. A letter from the customer arrived a few days later, along with a Xerox copy of the floppy.
    (11)And at Dell, a technician advised his customer to put his troubled floppy back in the drive and "close the door". Asking the technician to "hold on", me customer put the phone down and was heard walking over to shut the door to his room. The technician meant the door to his floppy drive.
    (12)The software inside the computer can be equally befuddling. A Dell customer called to say he couldn’t get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "send" key.
    (13)Not realizing how fragile computers can be, some people end up damaging parts beyond repair. A Dell customer called to complain mat his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it, he said, filling up his tub with soap and water and soaking his keyboard for a day, and then removing all the keys and washing them individually.
    (14)Computers make some people paranoid. A Dell technician, Morgan Vergara, says he once calmed a man who became enraged because "his computer had told him he was bad and an invalid"; Mr. Vergara patiently explained mat the computer’s "bad" and "invalid" responses shouldn’t be taken personally.
What made some computer companies start charging helpline users?
选项
答案The volume of calls from helpline users．
解析 第4段末句指出，电脑公司对热线电话收费的部分原因是由于接入量的缘故；第5段又具体阐明了理由：用户不愿意查用户手册去解决一些基本问题。所以，答案可以直接表述为The volume of calls fromhelpline users，也可以将第5段讲的具体理由进行归纳，表述为Many users’reluctance to refer to the manual。
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