A day after lawmakers grilled the chief executives of the biggest tech companies about their size and power, Amazon, Apple, Alph

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问题     A day after lawmakers grilled the chief executives of the biggest tech companies about their size and power, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook reported surprisingly healthy quarterly financial results, defying one of the worst economic downturns on record. Even though the companies felt some sting from the spending slowdown, they demonstrated, as critics have argued, that they are operating on a different playing field from the rest of the economy.
    Amazon’s sales were up 40 percent from a year ago and its profit doubled. Facebook’s profit jumped 98 percent. Even though the pandemic shuttered many of its stores, Apple increased sales of all its products in every part of the world and posted $11.25 billion in profit. Advertising revenue dropped for Alphabet, the laggard of the bunch, but it still did better than Wall Street had expected. "The strong continue to get stronger," said Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities. "As many companies are falling by the wayside, the tech giants continue to gain muscle and power in this environment." The tech companies’ financial performance was a remarkable contrast to
    the overall health of the U.S. economy. The Commerce Department said on Thursday that the country’s gross domestic product fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year as consumers cut back spending. It was the steepest drop on record.
    Combined, the companies reported $28.6 billion in quarterly net profit, underscoring how regulatory scrutiny remains more background noise and a distraction for them rather than an imminent threat to their businesses. The pandemic has reinforced the advantages held by the big tech companies.
    As consumers stay home, demand for Amazon’s shopping site surged, while companies are turning to its cloud computing products to keep their services up and running. Apple said the shift to working and learning from home had led more people to splurge on Apple’s devices and use its services. Facebook and Google continue to be important to marketers and they are weathering the downturn in advertising better than rivals. Facebook shrugged off a spending slowdown, hailing record levels of engagement with its products. Alphabet said revenue from Google search ads fell 10 percent—pushing the company’s overall revenue lower for the first time in the company’s history—but that still was better than rivals. Last week, Microsoft reported an 18 percent slide in search advertising revenue.
    Since the beginning of March, the companies’ stock prices have risen by an average of 35 percent, compared with a 10 percent rise in the S.&P. 500.
According to Dan Ives, the tech giants are__________.

选项 A、hurt by the downturn in advertising revenue
B、the fittest to survive in the tough environment
C、gaining the competitive edge over other firms
D、under potential threats in their development

答案 C

解析 根据题干中Dan Ives和the tech giants定位至文章第二段第四、五句,丹.艾维斯表示:“在许多公司被淘汰的同时,这些科技巨头在这种环境下继续壮大。”(As many companies are falling by the wayside,the tech giants continue to gain muscle and power in this environment.)由此句可推知这些科技巨头在疫情之下能够占据竞争优势,并且能够继续扩大规模和提升影响力,选项[C]“在与其他公司的竞争中占据优势”符合句意,故为正确答案。
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