阅读理解。
People usually use modern machines to produce things in large numbers. This method lowers the cost of
their products (产品) and the price of these products in the markets is lower, too. Thus they give us better
values. At the same time, new technology and science are always at work, improving the quality of products.
In this way, better quality products at good values are one after the other being brought to the people of all
income groups.
As an example of how this works, when facial tissues, pieces of thin soft paper that you use to blow your
nose, were first put on the market in 1924, they were made in small numbers and sold at 60 cents per box of
200. People liked these facial tissues immediately and began asking for them when they went into different
stores.
Because there was such a market for the product, producers began making tissues in larger and larger
numbers. Because the producers were making tissues in greater numbers, the costs were lowered, so that the
cost of tissues went down. At the same time, the quality of facial tissues was improving, because more
producers went into the business of making tissues, and each producer tried to make his product better than
his competitors (竞争者). Today, instead of costing 60 cents, a box of 200 facial tissues costs around
one-third of that price, and they are both softer and stronger.
When people are free to compete, when they are free to make more things and make them better, we all
feel much better.
1. How do the makers cut the cost of their products?
A. They cut the price of their products in the supermarkets.
B. They have many different machines in their factories.
C. They improve the quality of their products.
D. They produce things in large numbers.
2. How much does a box of 200 tissues cost today?
A. 80 cents.
B. 60 cents.
C. 40 cents.
D. 20 cents.
3. Why does the writer of the passage set facial tissue as an example?
A. To show how the price of tissues becomes lower.
B. To show how the quality of tissues becomes higher.
C. To tell the readers how the tissues are made.
D. To tell the readers how the tissues are sold.
4. Which is true according to the passage?
A. The more products they make, the better quality the products will be.
B. The lower the price of the products is, the more value we can get.
C. The more products they sell, the less money they make.
D. The freer you are, the better you feel.
