阅读理解。 Gadgets (小装置) can be wildly expen

题目：

阅读理解。

      Gadgets (小装置) can be wildly expensive and quickly out-of-date, but Steven Poole is still the

first to buy them. Technological innovations (创新) are often quite stupid. The idea that you might

want to walk down the street holding a mobile phone in front of your face, just to experience the

wonders of video calling, is clearly ridiculous. Luckily for the tech companies, however, there are

some people who jump at the chance to buy into new gadgets before they are fully ready and cheap

enough for the mass-market. They are called early adopters, and their fate is a terrible one. I should

know, since I am one myself.

      Early adopters have a Mecca: it’s Tokyo’s Akihabara district, also known as “Electric City”.

There, in 1999, I bought a digital camera, a gizmo that few people in Britain had heard of. Over the

next few years I watched in great sadness as digital cameras became more popular, cheaper and more

powerful, until better models could be had for a quarter of the price I had paid. Did I feel stupid? What

I actually did was this: I splashed out more money last year for a new one, one that let me feel pleasantly

ahead of the curve once again. But I know that cannot last, and I’ll probably have to buy another in a

few years.

      Thus early adopters are betting on other people eventually feeling the same desires. And it’s worse

if that future never arrives. Early adopters of the Betamax home-video format in the 1970s could only

look on in sadness when their investment was nullified（使无效）by the success of VHS. All sorts of

apparently splendid inventions, such as videogame consoles like the Atari Jaguar have been abandoned

to the dustbin of history right after a few early adopters bought in. Those who invested thousands in a

Segway motorized scooter on the wave of ridiculous advertising campaigns that accompanied its launch

a couple of years ago can join the club.

      You might think we should just stop being so silly, save our money, and wait to see what really

catches on. But the logic of the industry is such that, if everyone did that, no innovation would become

popular. Imagine the third person to buy an ordinary telephone soon after Alexander Graham Bell had

invented it. Who was he going to call? Maybe he simply bought two phones, one for a special friend.

But still, the usefulness and eventual popularity of the device wasn’t clear at the time. Nobody dreamed

of the possibility of being able to speak to any one of millions of people. And yet if he, and the hundreds

and thousands of early adopters after him, had not bought into the idea, the vast communication networks

that we all take for granted today would never have been built.

     The same goes, indeed, for all new technologies. Those guys holding bricks to their ears that we

laughed at in the 1980s made the current mobile phone possible. People who bought DVD players

when they still cost a fortune, instead of today’s cheap one at the local supermarket, made sure that

the new format succeeded. Early adopters’ desire for desires supported the future financially. And

what did they get for their pains? They got a hole in their bank accounts and inferior, unperfected

technology. But still, they got it first. And today they are still at work, buying overpriced digital radios,

DVD recorders and LCD televisions, and even 3G phones, so that you will be eventually be able to

buy better and less expensive ones.

      So next time you see a gadget-festooned geek (满身新潮玩意的土包子) and feel tempted to

sneer (讥笑), think for a minute. Without early adopters, there would be no cheap mobile phones or

DVD players; there would be no telephone or television either. We are the tragic, unsung foot soldiers

of the technology revolution. We’re the desire-addicted pioneers, pure in heart, dreaming of a better

future. We make expensive mistakes so you don’t have to. Really, we are heroes.

1. Steven Poole is mentioned in the first paragraph to ________.

A. introduce the topic of the passage

B. present the main idea of the passage

C. prove the content of the passage is true

D. explain why modern technology is stupid

2. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. the Segway motorized scooter (para. 3) was once quite popular

B. early adopters are probably welcomed by the tech companies

C. Mecca (para. 2) is a place where new digital cameras are designed

D. all the early adopters are very rich and enjoying buying anything new

3. According to the passage, what’s probably the worst result for an early adopter?

A. He is laughed at by his family and friends.

B. What he buys proves useless and expensive.

C. He finds himself no longer the most fashionable.

D. What he buys doesn’t eventually become popular.

4. Why did the writer buy a new digital camera last year?

A. Because he didn’t want to miss the cheap but better cameras.

B. Because he had to buy another new camera in several years anyway.

C. Because the old camera made him feel upset and out of fashion.

D. Because early digital cameras were of poor quality and couldn’t last long.

5. Which of the following best describe the writer’s attitude towards the early adopters?

A. Approving.

B. Doubtful.

C. Critical.

D. Ashamed.

6. By saying the last sentence “Really, we are heroes.” the writer wants to express that ________.

A. early adopters are likely to get addicted to modern technology

B. early adopters bravely spend much money buying new technology

C. early adopters are as a matter of fact clever investors of technology

D. early adopters help promote the development of technology