Question

You need some bread and milk. But half an hour later, you leave the supermarket with a trolley(手推车) full of food. What games do supermarkets play to make us spend so much money?

The tricks usually start before you walk in. Outside the supermarket entrance, anybody who walks past can smell warm, fresh bread. That makes us hungry and ready to buy lots of food, not just bread.

Now you’re inside and, of course, a small basket would be fine, but all they have are trolleys. And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products inside. So we may fill it with something. In fact, supermarket trolleys are actually getting bigger so that we buy more.

Of course, many people shop in supermarkets because they think everything is cheaper than in other shops. So supermarkets offer very cheap prices on some things but then have higher prices for other products. One new trick is to put red stickers on products. Customers usually connect red stickers with lower prices so the red stickers is easy to be noticed, even when there is no reduction! Interestingly, this trick appears to work more with men than with women.

There is a story behind the position of everything in the supermarket. For example, customers often go only to buy milk. So they put it right at the back, forcing you to go past hundreds of shelves full of other products. The position of products on each shelf is also important. The most expensive products are usually at eye-level so you see these immediately. The exception is anything that children might like. These products are on lower shelves so that kids see them.

Apart from what you see and smell in a supermarket, what about what you listen to? In most supermarkets they have soft, slow music. It’s so relaxing that you slow down and spend more time (and money) in the store. You also move more slowly when the supermarket is busy. Experts suggest it’s better to shop when it’s quieter, on a Monday or a Tuesday for example. And be careful with queues at the checkouts. These are sometimes deliberate(故意), to make you buy something from the checkout shelves while you wait.

So, next time you go into your local supermarket, remember these tricks and see if you can come with just the things you went for.

1.Supermarkets don’t provide baskets because ______.

A. supermarkets don’t usually have many

B. baskets are too small to hold many products

C. it’s easy to go shopping with trolleys

D. a trolley can hold one or two products inside

2.According to the passage, supermarkets put red stickers on products to ______.

A. make them look more beautiful

B. make them different from cheaper ones

C. make people think the stickers are for men

D. make people think they could save money

3.According to the passage, toys for children are usually placed ______.

A. on higher shelves B. on each shelf C. on lower shelves D. on the back shelves

4.It can be learned from Paragraph 6 that supermarkets usually ______.

A. stop people lining up at the checkouts B. close on Monday morning

C. play loud and noisy music inside D. make customers feel relaxed

5.The passage is mainly about _____.

A. several ways supermarkets use to sell more products

B. some advice when people go shopping on the street

C. several rules that every business should follow

D. some advertisements that make people buy more

1.B 2.D 3.C 4.D 5.A 【解析】这篇文章作者主要是通过几个方面来叙述超市通过什么方式来吸引消费者的注意使他们买更多的商品。 1.细节理解题。根据And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products...

Answer 1