Question

It’s hard not to feel cheated and over-charged when you receive unexpected roaming (漫游) charges while traveling abroad—whether they come from making phone calls or checking e-mails.

Jeff Gardner received an $ 11,000 bill from Verizon after spending four days in Jamaica. Before the trip, Mr. Gardner, who runs a fly-fishing business in Grayling, Michigan, said he called Verizon to find out what it would cost to use his cellphone for calls and his wireless card to check e-mails while in Jamaica. He said he was told that calls would be about $ 2 a minute and that there would be no extra charges for data as he was on an unlimited plan. The latter part turned out to be wrong.

“I don’t mind paying a fair amount for fair service, but $11,000 for four days is ridiculous,” said Mr. Gardner, who used his phone carefully and economically on the trip. He also tried to check and send e-mails using his wireless card, but quickly gave up after the e-mails didn’t go through. Still, his Verizon bill said more than 500,000 kilobytes (千字節) of data was delivered while he was in Jamaica, an amount Mr. Gardner said is 100 times what he normally uses in a month.

As travelers increasingly use smart phones abroad in the same way they do at home—to check e-mails, update Facebook and Twitter and pull up online maps—many are facing costly roaming fees, which providers charge when customers use their phones outside their service area. In fact, roaming charges have gotten so out of hand that the Federal Communications Commission has proposed a plan that would require wireless companies to send their customers a voice or text message when they are approaching their plan’s limit, when they have reached that limit and when they are starting to result in roaming fees.

1.Why did Jeff Gardner call Verizon before his trip to Jamaica?

A. To hand over his business.    

B. To check his cellphone bill

C. To find out information about Jamaica.

D．To find out information about roaming charges.

2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. Extra charges were made for Jeff Gardner’s data delivery.

B. Jeff Gardner’s calls were charged over $2 per minute.

C. Jeff Gardner’s plan turned out to be limited.

D. Jeff Gardner had difficulty delivering data abroad.

3.During the trip, Jeff Gardner______.

A. was careless with phone use

B. delivered no more data than at home

C. received quite poor e-mail services

D. frequently used his wireless card to send e-mails

4.What should wireless companies do according to the Federal Communications Commission?

A. Make customers know when they’re outside their service area.

B. Get customers informed when they’re near the limit of their plan.

C. Stop serving customers when they’ve reached their plan’s limit.

D. Limit some services to reduce the amount of roaming charges abroad.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.D

2.A

3.C

4.B

【解析】

試題分析：你有過高昂的手機漫游費的經歷嗎？你認為這合理嗎？Jeff Gardner在去牙買加旅游前咨詢時，運營商說費用很低，結果四天的旅游讓他收到了一萬一千美元的漫游費。而他連一個電子郵件都沒查到和寄出。很多人有過類似的經歷。運營商應該事先告知用戶要收取漫游費。

1.細節理解題。根據第二段he called Verizon to find out what it would cost to use his cellphone for calls and his wireless card to check e-mails while in Jamaica.可知。他打電話是要咨詢關于手機漫游的問題。故選D。

2.句意猜測題。根據下一段的單據花費是四天$11,000可知，咨詢說的每分鐘$ 2是錯的。故選A。

3.細節理解題。根據第三段介紹，他發電子郵件沒成功很快就放棄了，說明電子郵件服務差，所以選C。

4.細節理解題。根據文章最后一句話可知，通訊公司應該在消費者將要超過其計劃消費時提前告知手機用戶。故選B。

考點：日常生活類閱讀。