Question

    The old-fashioned general store is fast disappearing, This is, perhaps, a pity, because shopping today seems to lack that personal element which existed when the shopkeeper knew all his regular customers personally. He could, for instance, remember which brand of tea Mrs. Smith usually bought or what sort of washing-powder Mrs. Jones preferred. Not only was the shop a center of buying and selling, but also a social meeting place.

A prosperous general store might have employed four or five assistants, and so there were very few problems in management as far as the staff was concerned. But now that the supermarket has replaced the general store, the job of the manager has changed completely. The modern supermarket manager has to cope with a staff as many as a hundred, apart from all the other everyday problems of running a large business.

Every morning, the manager must, like the commander of an army division, carry out an inspection of his store to make sure that everything is ready for the business of the day. He must see that everything is running smoothly. He will have to give advice and make decisions as problems arise, and he must know how to get his huge staff to work efficiently with their respective responsibilities.

No matter what he has to do throughout the day, however, the supermarket manager must be ready for any emergency that may arise. People in the trade say that you are not really an experienced supermarket manager until you have dealt with a flood, a fire, a birth and a death in your store.

 

41．In the author's opinion, it is a pity that there are fewer old general stores now because ______.

       A．there is less trading business

       B．there used to be more social activities in the old days

       C．the supermarket manager has more problems than before

       D．there is less personal contact between manager and customer.

42．In what way has the job of the store manager changed?

       A．He doesn't sell tea and washing-powder any more.

       B．He has a much larger staff to take care of , to say nothing of all the other daily problems of running the store.

       C．He must try hard to remember the names of his regular customers.

       D．He has to give advice and make decisions when problems arise.

43．Who are Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones mentioned in the first paragraph?

       A．They are friends of the store manager’s

       B．They are shop assistants.

       C．They are both regular customers of the store.

       D．They represent any of the regular customers of the old general store.

44．The supermarket manager is compared to ______ by the author.

       A．an orchestra conductor                        B．a traffic supervisor

       C．a military leader                                  D．a school inspector

Answer 1

DBDC