阅读理解

　　——Picture this: You are driving down the highway, trading stocks, getting news and sports scores, emailing the office and listening to U2, while the kids play “Tomb Raider” on back-seat video screens.

　　Welcome to telemetric——the brave new world of technical wonder in automobiles.

　　Advances in computers, wireless and satellite communications and entertainment are making 20th century breakthroughs such as high compression engines and microprocessors seem antique (古老).

　　The car is being transformed into a computerized disco on wheels.

　　For the 21st century driver, voice-activated gadgets will do everything from finding a petrol station to dialing for help if your air bags deploy.

　　On-board computers will make the car a mobile extension of the office, connected to the Internet and email. It also will be a moving entertainment center with 100 channels of crystal-clear radio and videos on demand.

　　Telemetric leapt into the future this month when General Motors' OnStar service joined with Fidelity Investments to provide drivers with financial (金融) information and allow them to trade stocks and mutual funds (投资公司) from their cars.

　　Telemetric in seen as a rich source of possible income by several automakers. UBS Warburg analyst Saul Rubin estimates (估计) the market for telemetric hardware and services will grow from US ＄4.2 billion this year to US ＄47.2 billion 2010.

　　GM has settled its OnStar service in a million vehicles and has made deals to offer it in cars built by Toyota and Honda. Ford has set up a joint venture (联合股份公司) with Qualcomm called Wingcast to sell telemetric in Ford vehicles.

　　But the Chrysler unit of Daimler Chrysler, which once offered a talking car, says it has no plans to rush in. Chrysler officials says they will wait until technology advances further and a set of industry standards for telemetric is set up.

　　Price is another factor. GM offers two OnStar packages, one for US ＄200 a year and one for US ＄400. The company offers it free for the first 12 months.

1．“Telematics” is a ________.

[　　]

A．name for a new type of car

B．company name which produces hardware for cars

C．name for a set of industry standards

D．High-tech product used for cars

2．“Tomb Raider” is most likely to be ________.

[　　]

A．a film popular with children

B．a textbook for children

C．radio propram for children

D．video game provided to children

3．Which vehicle in the following is/will not be equipped with telemetric?

[　　]

　　At a computer exhibition Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated.“If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon（加仑）.”

　　In response to Bill's comments, General Motors announced a news release stating:

　　If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would be driving cars with the following characteristics:

　　1．For no reason your car would crash twice a day.

　　2．Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.

　　3．Sometimes your car would die on the freeway for no reason and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

　　4．Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought“Car95”or“CarNT”.But then you would have to buy more seats.

　　5．If you tried to get your car to a mechanic（技工）, you'd make a long distance call, be put on hold for three or four hours, when you finally got the mechanic, you'd be told how to fix it yourself, and the mechanic would hang up before you even tried his or her suggestions.

　　6．People would get excited about the“new”features（性能）in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely they had been available in other cars for many years.

　　7．The airbag system would say:“Are you sure?”before going off.

　　8．Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

　　9．Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes.

　　10．If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friend's and then copy it.

　　11．You'd press the“start”button to shut off the engine.

(1) The purpose of writing this article is ________.

[　　]

A．to state the advantages of Microsoft in making cars

B．to inform that Microsoft will make cars in the future

C．to compare cars made by GM with those made by Microsoft

D．to make fun of the disadvantages of Microsoft's products

(2) It can be inferred from the passage that the airbag system of the new car ________.

[　　]

A．would be more safe than the old one

B．would become useless in case of an accident

C．would not surprise the driver by going off suddenly

D．would remind the driver of the danger ahead of time

(3) What does the writer really mean by saying“You'd press the 'start' button to shut off the engine”?

[　　]

A．The design of Microsoft is very funny and strange.

B．It is better to control the engine like a computer.

C．The engine control system requires to be improved.

D．It is impossible to shut off the engine by pressing the“start”button.

(4) The best title of this passage would be ________.

[　　]

A．Characteristics of the New Cars

B．GM Should Learn from Microsoft

C．If Microsoft Built Cars

D．New Cars to be Made in the Future

(5) Which of the following statements is true ac-cording to the passage?

[　　]

A．It is easy to get your Microsoft car re-paired.

B．The car mentioned in the passage will never be made.

C．You would not have to buy new cars and learn how to drive very often.

D．It is impossible to copy a new car if such cars existed.