阅读理解。
TOKYO-At first glance, Japanese cellphones are the young's dream: ready for Internet
and email, they double as credit cards, and even bodyfat calculators (计算器). However,
despite years of competition in overseas markets, Japan's cellphone makers have little
presence beyond the country's shores. "Japan is years ahead in any innovation. But it hasn't
been able to get business out of it," said Gerhard Fasol, president of the Tokyobased IT
consulting firm, Eurotechnology Japan.
This year, Mr Natsuno, who developed a popular wireless Internet service called iMode,
invited some of the best minds in the field to debate how Japanese cellphones can go global.
Yet Japan's lack of global influence is all the more surprising because its cellphones set the
pace in almost every industry innovation: email capabilities in 1999, camera phones in 2000,
thirdgeneration networks in 2001, full music downloads in 2002, electronic payments in 2004
and digital TV in 2005. "The most amazing thing about Japan is that even the average person
out there will have a superadvanced phone," said Mr Natsuno. "So we're asking, can't Japan
build on that advantage?"
Japan has 100 million users of advanced thirdgeneration smart phones, twice the number
used in the United States, a much larger market. Many Japanese rely on their phones, not a
PC, for Internet access.
Indeed, Japanese makers thought they had positioned themselves to dominate the age of
digital data. But Japanese cellphone makers were a little too clever. In the 1990s, they set a
standard for the secondgeneration network that was refused everywhere else. Then Japan
quickly adopted a thirdgeneration standard in 2001. However, it made Japanese phones too
advanced for most markets.
At a recent meeting of Mr Natsuno's group, the discussion turned to the cellphones
themselves. Despite their advanced hardware, they often have ugly interfaces (界面), some
participants said.
"Because each cellphone model is designed with a customized user interface, development
is timeconsuming and expensive," said Tetsuzo Matsumoto, senior executive vice president.
"Japan's phones are all 'handmade' from scratch," he said. "That's_reaching_the_limit."
1. The first paragraph intends to tell us that Japanese cellphones ________.
A. are popular with the young
B. don't sell well abroad
C. can meet daily needs
D. will go out of the country
2. Why were Japanese cellphone makers a little too clever?
A. Because their technical standards couldn't be accepted in overseas markets.
B. Because they didn't want to improve their products.
C. Because they used secondgeneration network earlier than others.
D. Because their phones couldn't be connected to PC.
3. What's the disadvantage of Japanese cellphones?
A. Their interfaces fall behind the fashion.
B. They are too expensive.
C. They are always out of order.
D. Their hardware can't keep up with the development.
4. What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?
A. Japan's phones have too many functions.
B. Japan's phones can't continue their history any longer.
C. Japan's phones have been developed far enough.
D. Japan's phones have been out of state.