byRituparna Nath Content Writer at Study Abroad Exams
Reading Passage Question
This year was horrible for many technology firms, but the last one was particularly dismal for Microsoft, the world’s largest software company. In April, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that the firm had used “anti-competitive means” to preserve its monopoly in PC operating-system software, and in June, he ordered it to be split in two. Microsoft appealed against this ruling—the case goes back to court next month—but its share price plummeted.
The firm’s woes are not confined to the courtroom. Adoption of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system has been slower than expected, as has take-up of its Office 2000 applications suite—particularly bad news, as applications account for half of Microsoft’s revenues. In addition, a slowdown in the PC industry, combined with the shift from PC-based to Internet-based computing, has further dented the firm’s prospects, prompting it to issue its first profit warning in over a decade. To cap it all, Microsoft was this week hit with one of the biggest race-discrimination lawsuits in American history—to be heard, ironically, before Judge Jackson.
Microsoft faces three main challenges: the rise of the Internet, slowing applications revenues, and break-up threat. But it has a plan in the form of a new blueprint for the future of software. This plan, called .NET and unveiled last summer, is nebulous in some parts and non-existent in others, but it should come into focus over the next year. And it might just be able to solve all three of Microsoft’s problems simultaneously.
“This year was horrible for many technology firms, but the last one was particularly dismal for Microsoft, the world’s largest software company” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 6 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.
Solution and Explanation
Question 1
According to the passage, which of the following cannot be inferred about Microsoft?
- Microsoft is the world’s largest software company
- According to the court ruling, Microsoft has used some unfair means to hold its monopoly in the PC industry
- The share price of Microsoft has fallen in the aftermath of the court ruling.
- This year must not be as terrible as the last one for Microsoft.
- A few technology firms other than Microsoft also faced a decline this year.
Answer: D
Explanation: In the given passage, it cannot be inferred if this year is not as terrible as last. But we see 'must' as we don't know. Option D is the correct answer.
Question 2
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
- Although this year was unfavorable for many technology firms, a few ones have enjoyed full profits.
- Usually when a firm use anti-competitive means it faces a verdict of being split into two.
- The primary concern for Microsoft is the case being heard under the court of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.
- The sale of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 is not up to the mark.
- Half of the revenues of Microsoft comes from the sale of Windows 2000 and Office 2000
Answer: D
Explanation: In the given passage, it states the adoption of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system has been slower than expected. Hence this is the correct answer.
Question 3
Which of the following are the problems for Microsoft
- The case in the courtroom
- The company’s below-par performing products
- The decline in the industry
- I only
- II only
- I and III only
- I and II only
- I, II, and III
Answer: E
Explanation: In the given passage, the option I support as it states that the courtroom is one of the first problems mentioned. Option II lacks sales of Windows 2000 and the Office 2000 Suite which has been a concern for Microsoft. Option III states about the declining industry coupled with the rise in internet-based computing became a major cause for concern for Microsoft. Hence, option E is the correct answer.
Question 4
According to the passage which of the following is correct?
- The popularity of Internet-based computing has declined in recent years.
- Microsoft has never faced profit issues ever.
- NET product of Microsoft can solve all of the company's problems
- The rise of internet-based computing is not a bigger problem than low-performing products for Microsoft.
- The profit of Microsoft declined because of its splitting into two companies.
Answer: C
Explanation: In the given passage, it states that a slowdown in the PC industry has been noticed. Along with this, a shift from PC-based to Internet-based computing also dented the firm’s prospects. So, this option C shows the right answer.
Question 5
The primary purpose of the author to write this passage is:
- to introduce a problem and discuss it in detail
- to list down the problems of a firm and its possible solution
- to show a decline in an industry by an example
- to introduce a legal problem of a firm and detail its solution
- to show how a firm can overcome its problems
Answer: B
Explanation: In the given passage, it states addressing Microsoft's issue and presents the plan. He also suggested NET as a possible solution. Hence option B is the correct answer.
Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions
- Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War
- Comparable Worth, as a Standard Applied to Eliminate Inequities in Pay
- The United States Government has a Long-Standing Policy of Using Federal Funds to Keep Small Business Viable.
- A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era.
- Even More Than Mountainside Slides of Mud or Snow, Naturally Occurring Forest Fires Promote the Survival of Aspen Trees.
- The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe
- The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies
- Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women
- Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth
- Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status
- Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise.
- Most Farmers Attempting to Control Slugs and Snails Turn to Baited Slug Poison, or Molluscicide.
- In a New Book About the Antiparty Feeling of the Early Political Leaders of the United States
- Colonial Historian David Allen's Intensive Study of Five Communities in Seventeenth-Century
- In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy
- The General Density Dependence Model can be Applied to Explain the Founding of Specialist Firms
- Many People Believe that Wages are Lower in Developing Countries than in Developed Countries
- More Selective than Most Chemical Pesticides in that they Ordinarily Destroy only Unwanted Species
- Citing the Fact that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was Higher in 1997
- Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement of the Late Tsarist Period.
Comments