2022年自考《综合英语（一）》练习试题9.7

Passage Two

You’ve just got a new computer and you are delighted with it.It is doing everything you want it to do.But what are you going to do with your old computer?

In the past consumers often paid high prices for their computers,but how much do you think these computers are worth now?Few people want to buy a computer which has become out-of-date or has been replaced by a newer mode.Unfortunately,the only thing you can do with a computer which you have had for five or six years is to throw it away with your other garbage

What do many people do when they try to sell their old computers?Foolishly,they take into account its original cost and then reduce the price according to the age of the computer rather like a second-hand car.They forget that new computers are becoming cheaper every day,making old computers almost worthless.In 1985,for example,a good computer cost over$4,000.Then years later its owner would be lucky to get$400.

One well-known computer magazine recently compiled a list of 10 things to do with an old computer.One suggestion was to donate it to charity or give it as one of the small prizes in a competition.The final suggestion was to keep it in a safe place and hope that it would become a collector’s item in 15 or 20 years-though the article in the magazine admitted that in 15 or 20 years,there may be so many old computers that they will all be worthless.