Internet Explorer, the Microsoft browser that is almost 20 years old, is to be killed off and replaced by a new operating system.

Microsoft has confirmed that its new browser, code-named Project Spartan, which is due to be unveiled later this year, will not use the familiar Internet Explorer name. "We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," the company's marketing chief Chris Capossela told a conference.

Internet Explorer once dominated the market and had more than one billion users but it could not compete when Firefox and Google’s Chrome launched with faster technology and slicker design. 

Microsoft is thought to be dropping the brand in a bid to get rid of “negative point of views" gathered since its 1995 launch. The software is known to be slow and has had various security problems. The company has often talked about changing the browsers’ name to recover its reputation. Nearly a decade ago, Dean Hachamovitch, then-head of the Internet Explorer business, is said to have told an industry conference: “We messed up.”

Tom Bedecarre, chairman of Akqa, a digital advertising agency, said the Internet Explorer brand was past its sell-by date. “In the war of the future, which is mobile, they’re losing,” he told the Financial Times. “Nobody’s going to download Internet Explorer as their mobile browser.”

Jason Liggi, a developer at Ascot-based digital agency Rawnet, said: “Microsoft’s change in direction is a smart, but bold, and a symbolic gesture. Internet Explorer has developed a fairly bad reputation over the years, by and large because of IE6-7, but also because of its practice of web standards. This change in name is going to bring with it a quantity of psychological improvements for users. Internet Explorer, and referring to it as ‘IE’, generally causes complaints across the board, even with people outside of tech communities. It's just got negative indications nowadays, and it will be interesting to see the changes the new name will bring for the brand.”

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1.What is mainly discussed in the passage?

A The Microsoft browser has a history of almost 20 years.

B Microsoft is to replace the Internet Explorer with a new browser.

C The Internet Explorer has developed a fairly bad reputation.

D The new browser is sure to bring good name for the Microsoft.

解析：选B。B 主旨大意题。根据文章第1、2段可知，本文介绍了微软公司将发布新的浏览器以取代IE浏览器的情况。

2.What does the underlined word most probably mean in Paragraph Three?

A Control.

B Research.

C Extend.

D Enter.

解析：选A。A 猜测词义题。根据文章第3段had more than one billion users，结合could not compete等语境可以判断dominate意为“控制，占有”。

3.What problems does Internet Explorer has?

A People held negative points of view at the very beginning.

B The software hasn’t brought the company good reputation.

C It is slow and has had various security problems.

D It was messed up in the industry of explorer business.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据文章第4段The software is known to be slow and has had various security problems可知，IE浏览器存在的问题是系统运行慢，以及各种安全问题。

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A Microsoft is losing the competition of IT.

B Internet Explorer has destroyed the future of Microsoft.

C Microsoft still takes a lead in the development of mobile browsers.

D Microsoft is confident that the new browser will be popular.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据文章最后一段…bring with it a quantity of psychological improvements for users…the new name will bring for the brand可以判断，微软公司对于这款新式浏览器将会受到用户欢迎是很有自信的。

5.Where can you most probably read this passage?

A Science fiction.

B Newspaper.

C Guidebook.

D Health magazine.

解析：选B。B 推理判断题。根据文章第5段he told the Financial Times(《金融时报》)可以判断，本文发表在报纸上，故选B。