The market investigation is indispensable to sales promotion. They are as closely related as the lips and teeth, so to speak. What you produce is for sale on the market. It would be impossible to succeed in selling a product without first investigating the market.

    In the international market, goods on sale coming from different countries and suppliers are always facing keen competition. Under such circumstances, they will try everything possible to familiarize themselves with the market conditions. In making investigations, we ought to get information about what similar items the competitors are offering on the market, what prices they are quoting（报价）, what features their products have, who are their regular customers, etc. Then, how can we obtain such information? There are many channels that we can make use of in doing this sort of work. The commercial counselor's offices of our embassies stationed abroad can help us in making market investigations. Nowadays, our import and export corporations send their trade groups abroad every now and then. One of their purposes is to make market surveys on the spot.

     Certainly, face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen are also important channels to get market information. The Chinese Export Commodities Fairs and some other fairs of similar nature as well as visits of foreign businessmen provide us with such opportunities. Of course, there are some other ways of making market investigations.

In making market investigations, one should ______.

   A. get enough information concerned             B. advertise his products

   C. produce high quality goods                   D. none of the above

The word "indispensable" in the first line means ______.

   A. impossible                                B. necessary

   C. advisable                                 D. available

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

   A. The relationship between market investigation and sales promotion is just as that of the lips and   

      teeth.

   B. It is impossible to succeed in selling a product without market investigation.

   C. There are various ways of making market investigation.

   D. Production goes before market investigation.

All the following are channels to get market information except ________.

  A. to have commercial counsellor' s office of our embassies stationed abroad

  B. to promote the quality of our own products

  C. to send trade groups abroad every now and then

  D. to have face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen

— What do you think of your new neighbor?

— There are some things that are not easy to ______ and his coldness is one. He always behaves himself too proudly.

A. put aside????????????? ????? B. put up with?????? C. think of????????????? ??????? D. get along with

There are some health problems that, when _____ in time, can become bigger ones later on.

A. not treated            B. not being treated           C. not to be treated                   D. not having been treated

You are careful with your money: you collect all kinds of coupons; look for group-buy deals if you eat out; you don't buy clothes unless in a sale. Does all this make you a wise consumer?

Let's do the math first: you walk into a coffee shop and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33 percent extra coffee. The second takes 33 percent off the  regular price. What's the better deal? Well, they are about the same, you'd think. And you'd be wrong. The deals appear to be equal, but in fact, they are different. Here's the math: Let's say the standard coffee is 10 yuan and let's divide the amount of coffee into three portions(部分). That makes about 3.3 yuan per portion, The first deal gets you 4 portions for 10 yuan (2.5 yuan per portion) and the second gets you 3 portions of coffee for 6.6 yuan (2.2 yuan per portion) and is therefore a better deal.

In a new study published by the Journal of Marketing, participants were asked the same question, and most of them chose the first deal, the Atlantic website reported. Why? Because getting something extra for free feels better than getting the same for less. The applications of this view into consumer psychology(心理) are huge. Instead of offering direct discounts, shops offer larger sizes or free samples.

According to the study, the reason why these marketing tricks work is that consumers don't really know how much anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that  aren't strictly quantitative.

There are some traps we should be aware of when shopping. First of all, we are heavily influenced by the first number. Suppose you are shopping in Hong Kong. You walk into Hermes, and you see a 100,000 yuan bag. "That's crazy." You shake your head and leave. The next shop is Gucci, a handbag here costs 25,000 yuan. The price is still high, but compared to the 100,000 yuan price tag you just committed to your memory, this is a steal. Stores often use the price difference to set consumers' expectation. zxxk

Another trap we often fall to Is that we are not really sure what things are worth. And so we use clues(暗示) to tell us what we ought to pay for them. US economist Dan Ariely has done an experiment to prove this. According to the Atlantic, Ariely pretended he was giving a lecture on poetry. He told one group of students that the tickets cost money and another group that they would be paid to attend. Then he informed both groups that thelecture was free. The first group was anxious to attend, believing they were getting something of value for free. The second group mostly declined, believing they were being forced to volunteer for the same event without reward.

What's a lecture on poetry by an economist worth? The students had no idea. That's  the point. Do we really know what a shirt is worth ? What about a cup of coffee? What's the worth of a life insurance.policy? Who knows? Most of us don't. As a result, our shopping  brain uses only what is knowable:  visual(祝觉的) clues, invited emotions, comparisons, and  a sense of bargain. We are not stupid. We are just easily influenced.

1.The first paragraph of the passage is intended to      

A．ask a question                          B．introduce a topic

C．give some examples                     D．describe a phenomenon

2.The writer takes the math for example in Paragraph 2 to show      .          _.

A．consumers usually fall into marketing traps

B．consumers' expectation is difficult to predict

C．consumers' purchasing power is always changing

D．consumers rely on their own judgment when shopping

3.What consumer psychology is mentioned in the passage?

A．The first number has little influence on which item should be bought.

B．Consumers never use visual clues to decide how much should be paid.

C．Getting something extra for free is better than getting the same for less.

D．Consumers never rely on parts of the brains that aren't strictly quantitative.

4.According to the passage, shops use the following tricks to make more profits EXCEPT         .  

A．showing price differences                 B．offering larger sizes

C．providing free samples                   D．giving direct discounts

5.What can we know from US economist Dan Ariely's experiment?

A．Ariely's free lecture enjoyed popularity among students.

B．The students actually didn't know what the lecture was worth.

C．The second group was willing to be volunteers without reward.

D．The first group was eager to find out the value of Ariely's lecture.

When the lazy days of summer arrive and the schedule is filled with swimming，camp，and family vacations，it can be a challenge to find time for learning. But kids’ reading skills don’t have to grow cold once school’s out. Here are some ways to make reading a natural part of their summer fun：

Explore your library. Visit your local library to borrow books and magazines that your kids haven’t seen before. Many libraries have summer reading programs, book clubs, and reading contests(比赛) for even the youngest borrowers. With a new library card，a child will feel extra grown­up by borrowing books.

Read on the road. Going on a long car trip？Make sure there are some books at the back seat. When you stop driving，read the books aloud. Get some audio books in libraries and listen to them together during driving time.

Make your own books. Pick one of your family’s favorite parts of summer—whether it’s baseball，ice cream, or the pool—and have your child draw pictures of it or cut out pictures from magazines. Stick(粘贴) the pictures onto paper to make a booklet(小册子)and write text for it. When you’re done，read the book together. Reread it whenever you like!

Keep in touch. Kids don’t have to go away to write about summer vacation. Even if your family stays home，they can send postcards to tell friends and relatives about their adventures(冒险经历). Ask a relative to be your child’s pen pal and encourage them to write each week.

Keep up the reading habits. Even if everything else changes during the summer，keep up the reading habits around your house. Read with your kids every day—whether it’s just before bedtime or under a shady tree on a lazy afternoon. And don’t forget to take a book to the beach！Just brush the sand off the pages — it’s no sweat!

1. The purpose of the passage is to________.

A. encourage parents to read

B. give advice on raising kids

C. raise a good summer reader

D. suggest places for vacations

2.If you drive on a long trip in summer，you can________.

A. visit the local library and join book clubs

B. borrow some audio books to listen to

C. keep in touch with friends by sending postcards

D. read your own picture books with your son

3.By saying “Just brush the sand off the pages—it’s no sweat”，the author means________.

A. taking away the sand on the book is very difficult

B. a special book is needed when you’re reading on the beach

C. one can remove the sand on the book with a brush easily

D. there’s no trouble reading even on the beach

4.Who are the possible readers of the passage?

A. Parents.                         B. Students.                                 C. Teachers.                       D. Editors.

5.Which statement(阐述) is true according to the text?

A. During summer vocation, kids’ reading skills must grow cold.

B. Kids have to go away to write about summer vacation.

C. With a library card，a child will feel extra grown­up by borrowing books.

D. Because everything else changes during the summer，it is hard to keep up the reading habits.