【分析解答题】

A、serious contest

A、 Like the combatants in a beat-me-up video game, the makers of videogames consoles do battle in orderly rounds, one of which occurs every five or six years. The current round began in 2000, when Sony launched PlayStation 2. In 2001 Nintendo, the firm that once ruled the industry, launched the GameCube, and Microsoft made its first foray into the cut-throat market with the Xbox. Four years on, Sony is the clear winner, with sales of 70 million consoles, followed by Microsoft with 14 million and Nintendo with 13 million.Next week, the industry’’s biggest trade show,E3, which takes place in LosAngeles, will provide the first glimpses of the next roun

D、It is expected to be a brutal two-way fight. For, after a difficult start, Microsoft has now established itself as Sony’’s main rival, and is gaining momentum. Most important, it has won the crucial support of games publishers, says Nick Gibson of Games Investor, a consultancy. That means Microsoft will "pretty much be neck and neck with Sony" in the next roun

D、Nintendo, by contrast, has been less successful at keeping publishers on board, and has survived thanks only to the strength of its in-house software business.B、 Xbox Live, Microsoft’’s subscription-based online-gaming service, has also been well receive

D、It provides features, such as global player rankings, that Sony cannot match.And although online gaming is still a minority sport, it is expected to be far more significant in the next round, as broadband connections and wireless home networks become more widesprea

D、By signing up customers for Xbox Live now, Microsoft hopes to retain their loyalty into the next roun

D、But perhaps cleverest of all is Microsoft’’s new software-development platform for games, called XNA, a set of software tools that can be used to write games for PCs, Xbox and the forthcoming Xbox 2.According to RobbieBach, Microsoft’’s "chief Xbox officer", insulating programmers from the underlying complexity of the console hardware "creates huge cost efficiency and flexibility. " While Microsoft will probably not unveil the Xbox 2 atE3, says P.J. McNealy, an analyst atAmerican Technology Research, the XN

A、tools will enable the firm to demonstrate the kind of things that will be possible on Xbox 2 when it appears.C、 The contrast with Sony is striking. While Microsoft is focusing on software, Sony is emphasizing hardware innovation for its PlayStation 3. Its plan, which it has yet to describe fully, is to use a new kind of chip, calledCell, as the basis for both the PlayStation 3 and its consumer-electronics devices, such asDV

D、players. With multipleCell chips working in parallel, the PlayStation 3 will be a powerful machine.But its radical new architecture will require games programmers to start from scratch. In the meantime, Sony is trying to keep developers focused on the PlayStation 2.

D、 Microsoft senses an opportunity. It is widely expected to steal a march on Sony by launching the Xbox 2 towards the end of next year, kicking off the next round before Sony is ready. "Microsoft has taken the gloves off," says Mr. McNealy. The PlayStation 3 is not expected until early 2006, and even then only in Japan; analysts do not expect the worldwide launch until late 2006. (Nintendo’’s successor to the GameCube is also expected in 2006.) Last time around, Sony’’s 18-month head start and Microsoft’’s status as the industry’’s newcomer meant that the Xbox never had a chance of catching up with PlayStation 2; it was always going to be just a trial run for Microsoft.But now Sony and Microsoft look evenly matched — and the battle can begin in earnest.Questions 17-20 Below is a list of headings, choose the most suitable choices for partsA~D、and write the appropriate numbers (i-v) on your answer sheet.NB、There are more headings than you need so you will not use all of them and you may use any heading more than once.List of Headingi. Sony fo