题目内容
Market analysts in the United States have recently been quoted as saying that the biggest threat to the luxury (奢侈品) industry in the US is the tech industry. This is according to an article by fellow journalist Ashley Lutz. Her suggestion is sound. The main idea of her article is that products from Tiffany & Co. find their biggest competition not from other luxury brands but from companies like Apple. Lutz points out that luxury products are often only for “show,” while the attraction behind tech products is functionality.
You find few people in the United States today willing to purchase luxury goods at full price. It didn’t use to be that way. Luxury goods used to be actually exclusive. That meant you needed to travel to the right store to purchase them, and you didn’t even have the option of getting a deal.
Today, no one wants to pay full price for luxury goods. People have the unfortunate belief that fakes (赝品) somehow are equal to originals, and if you can’t get a deal on eBay, Amazon, or in an outlet store, purchasing a luxury product probably isn’t worth it. Luxury brands struggle to remain high-end (高档的) images despite the reality that the American consumer is motivated much more by discounts than they are by brand names or image.
Yet people stand in line to pay full price for a new product from Apple and crowds gather to hear about a new smart phone. While electronics are updating every day, people are purchasing technology at full prices much more than they are purchasing luxury goods. What are high-tech makers doing right that luxury makers are pitifully failing at?
Carefully looking at the situation, it would appear as if the Internet didn’t hurt the luxury industry, expectation from the consumers did. What people want these days more than anything is stuff that does something. They want cars that drive, shoes that are comfortable, games that are fun to play, screens that are beautiful to look at, tools that are useful, and entertainment that is entertaining. Little of that fits into what the luxury industry has typically offered with its status, image, and fine materials. The sad reality is that luxury products aren’t that luxury any more.
1.What does this passage mainly talk about?
A. Nobody likes luxury goods any more.
B. Luxury goods are of poor quality nowadays.
C. Tech products become the new “luxury goods”.
D. Iphones have taken the place of luxury products.
2.The underlined word “exclusive” in paragraph 2 means _______.
A. unique and with no bargain B. low in price
C. hard to find D. easy to sell
3.From paragraph 3 we can know that _______.
A. people have found that some luxury goods are fakes
B. people can buy luxury goods at a low price on eBay
C. luxury brands will give up high-end images
D. consumers prefer brand names to discounts
1.C
2.A
3.B
【解析】
试题分析：本文介绍了美国奢侈品行业所面临的威胁。其最大威胁来自美国的高科技行业。并分析了个中原因。
1.主旨题：根据第一段内容可知美国奢侈品行业面临的最大威胁来自美国的高科技行业。奢侈品经常仅用于炫耀而科技产品背后的吸引力在于它的功能性，由此可以判断出现在高科技产品是奢侈品。故选C。
2.推理题：第二段第一句“You find few people in the United States today willing to purchase luxury goods at full price.”在美国你会发现很少有人愿意出全价购买奢侈品了，说明“奢侈品在过去是一种独特的不打折的商品”。故选A。
3.推理题：根据第三段中“if you can’t get a deal on eBay, Amazon, or in an outlet store, purchasing a luxury product probably isn’t worth it”如果你不能在eBay、亚马逊或一家打折店里买到折价商品而去购买奢侈品，这可能会被认为是非常不值的，可以推断人们可以在eBay以打折的价格即低价买到奢侈品。故选B。
考点：考查议论文类阅读
Being able to multitask---doing several things at the same time---is considered a welcome skill by most people. But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen, we should think again.
What we often see nowadays is that young people juggle an ever larger number of electronic devices as they study. While working, they also surf on the Internet, send out emails, answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods. In a sense, they are spending a significant amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.
Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members. As young people give so much attention to their own worlds, they seem to have no time to spend with the other people around them. They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house, nor can they eat at the family table.
Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace. When asked about their opinion of the effect of modern gadgets on their performance of tasks, many young people gave a positive response. However, the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive.
Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills. They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills. Similarly, employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again, as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “juggle” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?
| A．Want to buy. |
| B．Take the place of. |
| C．Use at the same time. |
| D．Seek for information from. |
| A．family members do not eat at the family table. |
| B．family members do not greet each other. |
| C．young people live happily in their families |
| D．young people seldom talk with their family members |
| A．multitasking is harmful to young people’s development. |
| B．Young people benefit a lot from modern gadgets. |
| C．Multitasking is an important skill to young people. |
| D．Yong people must learn skills for future jobs. |
| A．providing typical examples |
| B．following the natural time order |
| C．comparing opinions from different fields |
| D．presenting a cause and analyzing its effects |
It may not be news to parents of teenage girls, but researchers have confirmed that no one can stop their 16-year-old daughter from deciding how the family spends its money.
The willpower and determination of teenage girls give them a big say in how a family’s money is spent on everything from food and meals to mobile phones, and, of course, clothes. Teenage boys did not show up at all in the analysis, which was designed to find out the influence of young people on household spending.
The findings on the spending power of teenage girls were calculated from Office for National Statistics records of family spending during the 1980s and 1990s. Researchers examined how much money went on services and leisure goods in different kinds of homes. They checked spending on food, restaurant meals, alcohol, tobacco, services, heating, transport, clothes and sports in 2,745 British families.
They found that teenage girls in the UK typically played an active role in family decisions about the allocation（分配）of household resources. But older children— those over the age of 21 who are still living with their parents—appear to have no say in household decisions.
They also tried to calculate to what extent the bargaining power of a teenager affected family budgets. “Every parent knows that children, even at a very early age, have their own preferences with regard to consumption, researchers said. “But children are only interested in a limited range of goods—mainly sweets and toys—and parents are able to use punishment to reduce their children’s bargaining power or remove it.” When they become teenagers, however, girls are much more independent and they are capable of earning their own money, which improves their bargaining power in family decisions.
The researchers could not explain why girls have more influence over spending while the evidence for boys is much less conclusive. However, this study could be of great significance to market research and how marketers target children.
【小题1】 From the passage we can learn that .
| A．teenage girls have more influence over family budgets than teenage boys |
| B．teenage boys don't want to decide on household spending |
| C．teenage boys have some influence over household |
| D．teenage girls have weaker willpower and determination than teenage boys |
| A．Make them dare to say something. |
| B．Make them want to know. |
| C．Make them say something meaningful. |
| D．Make their influence stronger. |
| A．girls living with parents |
| B．girls over 21 |
| C．girls over 12 |
| D．girls living alone |
| A．By persuading them |
| B．By offering them sweets or toys. |
| C．By threatening to punish them. |
| D．By allocating household resources. |
At 20 year of age F.W. Woolworth found work in exchange for room and board at a local dry goods store , and after his employers held a successful clearance sale he saw the possibilities of a discount store. His key improvements were having the goods on open display instead of behind the counter , and having prices plainly marked instead of bargaining.
With borrowed funds he opened his first F.W. Woolworth store in the suburb of Utica, New York in 1879, but the store closed the following year . Deciding that his problem had been a poor location. He opened a new store in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylyania in 1881. Within months he was opening multiple stores in business partnerships with local retailers,and within a few years Woolworth was a millionaire. In 1909 he opened his first store in England, and in 1913 the company opened its new headquarters in New York’s Woolworth Building—then the tallest building in the world.
Woolworth had a deep fear of dentists , allowing his teeth to rot ,and died of a dental(牙齿)lunch counters in many stores , Woolworth was America’s largest restaurant chain through the 1940s. The company peaked as the world’s largest department store chain in the late 1970s, with more than 4 . 000 stores. By the late 1990s business was sputtering (喷溅), and the company closed all of its American department stores,renamed itself Venator, and sold the Woolworth Building . In 2003 Venator renamed itself after the company’s most successful division, Foot Locker, Inc . Under separate ownership , Woolworth stores are still operated in Austria , Germany , Mexico, South Africa , and the United Kingdom.
【小题1】The first F. W. Woolworth store failed mainly because .
| A．it was located too far away from the city center |
| B．it was a new brand for customers |
| C．its goods are much too expensive |
| D．it was inconvenient for customers to choose goods |
| A．to make a purchase on cash |
| B．to buy something in a very low price |
| C．to bargain with the sellers |
| D．to pick up what you like for free |
a.Woolworth became a millionaire
b.first F. W. Woolworth store opened
c.F.W. Woolworth found work at a local dry goods store
d.The company peaked as the world’s largest department store chain
e.Woolworth died of a dental infection
| A．d-b-c-e-a | B．a-c-b-d-e | C．c-b-a-e-d | D．a-d-e-c-b |
| A．Woolworth built the tallest building in the world in 1913. |
| B．the number of Woolworth reached its peak before the death of F.W. Woolworth |
| C．offering free lunch is one of the characters of Woolworth store store chain |
| D．Woolworth had no chain stores in America for about 20 years |
| A．his hard working and diligent efforts |
| B．his gifted talent in selling |
| C．his new market concept and sales model |
| D．his rich experience in the dry goods store |