题目列表(包括答案和解析)
In the United States ,the biggest change in spending has been in the amount（数目）spent on food ,which has decreased（减少）from 46% of the total family budget（预算）in 1901 to 19% of present day totals .This is due to the fact that people are now able to buy more and better foods at lower prices. As a result of the growth in fast-food restaurants (for example, McDonad’s or KFC), more people are also eating out. Thus about 30% of today’s food budget goes on meals eaten outside the home while a hundred years ago it was only 3%.
At the beginning of the 20th century, few people owned their homes (only around 19% of working families )and cars (at $ 1,000 per car this was well above the average family income of $ 650 per year) , as most people were unable to borrow money. But there was a rapid rise in both home and car ownership during the mid-1900s.
Free time increased considerably following the shortening of the working week, i. e. from six days to five ,and from ten hours to eight hours a day. In fact, the working day couldn’t be too long, otherwise people wouldn’t have the time to spend their money. The amount of a family’s budget spent on outside entertainment ,such as parties, films and concerts has increased from just under 6% in Ford’s day to about 9% today. On the other hand, we spend only a quarter of what our great-grandparents paid for reading materials.
It is difficult to see how our spending patterns may change in the future. We already know that our population is aging and this will have an effect on the amount of money we spend on medical care.
56. What is the subject discussed in the text?
A. Changing patterns in spending. B. Changes in family planning.
C. Decrease in food demand. D. Increase in family income.
57. What is the immediate cause for people to have more time to enjoy life?
A. The development of the fast food industry. B. The improvement of living conditions.
C. The reduction in working time. D. The rapid rise in income.
58. On which of the following did people spend less money than before?
A. Shopping. B. Reading. C. Traveling. D. Family gatherings.
59. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that people will .
A. spend less money on entertainment B. spend more money on the health of the old
C. spend less money eating out D. spend more money on books
You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:
"I can't believe it--a Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome."
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation----consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to "perform" in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice deceptive, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. "Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing."
However, one might ask what exactly is "real" about of young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater? Adverting executives would say it's no less real than an ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don' t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
56. The two attractive young women were talking so that they could ________.
A. get the sweater at a lower price B. be heard by people around
C. be admired by other shoppers D. decide on buying the sweater
57. Lorenzo Bertolla is __________.
A. a very popular male singer B. an advertising agency
C. a clothing company in Rome D. the brand name of a sweater
58. The underlined word "real" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to _________.
A. honest B. true C. false D. artificial
59. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. The two girls are in fact employed by the Lorenzo Bertolla Company.
B. The MTV generation tend to be more easily influenced by ads.
C. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective because it's too direct.
D. Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government.
60. Which of the following would be the best rifle for the text?
A. Two Attractive Shoppers B. Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters
C. Ways of Advertising D. Undercover Marketing
You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:
"I can't believe it--a Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo BertoHa clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation----consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to "perform" in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice deceptive, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. "Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing."
However, one might ask what exactly is "real" about two young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater? Adverting executives would say it's no less real than an ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don' t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
56．The two attractive young women were talking so that they could ________.
A．get the sweater at a lower price B．be heard by people around
C．be admired by other shoppers D．decide on buying the sweater
57．Lorenzo Bertolla is __________.
A．a very popular male singer B．an advertising agency
C．a clothing company in Rome D．the brand name of a sweater
58．The underlined word "real" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to _________.
A．honest B．true C．false D．artificial
59．Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A．The two girls are in fact employed by the Lorenzo Bertolla Company.
B．The MTV generation tend to be more easily influenced by ads.
C．Traditional advertising is becoming less effective because it's too direct.
D．Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government.
60．Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A．Two Attractive Shoppers B．Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters
C．Ways of Advertising D．Undercover Marketing
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Gadgets (小装置) can be wildly expensive and quickly out-of-date, but Steven Poole is still the
first to buy them. Technological innovations (创新) are often quite stupid. The idea that you might
want to walk down the street holding a mobile phone in front of your face, just to experience the
wonders of video calling, is clearly ridiculous. Luckily for the tech companies, however, there are
some people who jump at the chance to buy into new gadgets before they are fully ready and cheap
enough for the mass-market. They are called early adopters, and their fate is a terrible one. I should
know, since I am one myself.
Early adopters have a Mecca: it’s Tokyo’s Akihabara district, also known as “Electric City”.
There, in 1999, I bought a digital camera, a gizmo that few people in Britain had heard of. Over the
next few years I watched in great sadness as digital cameras became more popular, cheaper and more
powerful, until better models could be had for a quarter of the price I had paid. Did I feel stupid? What
I actually did was this: I splashed out more money last year for a new one, one that let me feel pleasantly
ahead of the curve once again. But I know that cannot last, and I’ll probably have to buy another in a
few years.
Thus early adopters are betting on other people eventually feeling the same desires. And it’s worse
if that future never arrives. Early adopters of the Betamax home-video format in the 1970s could only
look on in sadness when their investment was nullified（使无效）by the success of VHS. All sorts of
apparently splendid inventions, such as videogame consoles like the Atari Jaguar have been abandoned
to the dustbin of history right after a few early adopters bought in. Those who invested thousands in a
Segway motorized scooter on the wave of ridiculous advertising campaigns that accompanied its launch
a couple of years ago can join the club.
You might think we should just stop being so silly, save our money, and wait to see what really
catches on. But the logic of the industry is such that, if everyone did that, no innovation would become
popular. Imagine the third person to buy an ordinary telephone soon after Alexander Graham Bell had
invented it. Who was he going to call? Maybe he simply bought two phones, one for a special friend.
But still, the usefulness and eventual popularity of the device wasn’t clear at the time. Nobody dreamed
of the possibility of being able to speak to any one of millions of people. And yet if he, and the hundreds
and thousands of early adopters after him, had not bought into the idea, the vast communication networks
that we all take for granted today would never have been built.
The same goes, indeed, for all new technologies. Those guys holding bricks to their ears that we
laughed at in the 1980s made the current mobile phone possible. People who bought DVD players
when they still cost a fortune, instead of today’s cheap one at the local supermarket, made sure that
the new format succeeded. Early adopters’ desire for desires supported the future financially. And
what did they get for their pains? They got a hole in their bank accounts and inferior, unperfected
technology. But still, they got it first. And today they are still at work, buying overpriced digital radios,
DVD recorders and LCD televisions, and even 3G phones, so that you will be eventually be able to
buy better and less expensive ones.
So next time you see a gadget-festooned geek (满身新潮玩意的土包子) and feel tempted to
sneer (讥笑), think for a minute. Without early adopters, there would be no cheap mobile phones or
DVD players; there would be no telephone or television either. We are the tragic, unsung foot soldiers
of the technology revolution. We’re the desire-addicted pioneers, pure in heart, dreaming of a better
future. We make expensive mistakes so you don’t have to. Really, we are heroes.
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