Rice wine has a history of more than 2,000 years as China’s favorite liquor and has been credited with having enhanced the health, among others, of the late Deng Xiaoping. But now native rice wine finds itself competing for market share with western style fruit wine. Both foreign traders and local producers have in recent months observed a spectacular rise in the popularity of grape wine in China, at least in the country’s more prosperous and cosmopolitan cities and coastal regions. There are several reasons for this. One has been a sustained effort by the Chinese government to limit the use of staple grains for things as frivolous as spirits or beer. Another has been a lot of reports filtering out via Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan Province, citing scientific findings about red wine’s good effects on health in general and manliness in particular. Mr. St. Pierre, who imports western wines to China, says that his red wines outsell his whites by 20 to 1, leading him to conclude that Chinese drinkers are indeed choosing their beverages with good health in mind. Mr. St. Pierre is toasting increases in sales of 25% a month. Carl Crook, another importer, recalls that, when he began selling wine in China four years ago, his clients were mainly "well-heeled and desperate expatriates". His company, Montrose, now sells more than 1,000 cases a month and expects sales to double this year, despite taxes and duties which add 121% to the price of imported wines. Its catalogue ranges from cheap Californian wines selling wholesale for 69yuan per bottle, to Chteau Lafitte Rothschild. Domestic producers are also cottoning on to the joys of the grape. A few Chinese wineries are increasingly successful, in both international competitions and the domestic market. China’s largest wine producer, Dynasty, has overcome quality control problems to produce a well-received 1995 chardonnay. The Huadong Winery in Qingdao (a city still more famous for its beer) has also yielded a successful chardonnay. Local bottling of foreign wines, local production, and if they materialize, long rumored cuts in tariff duties may soon help bring the joys of wine to greater numbers of Chinese. For the country’s growing class of the newly rich, however, a ridiculously high price tag is all part of the package. In recent years, China’s conspicuous consumers have made the purchase of overpriced wines one of their favorite ways of showing off wealth, in some cases buying bottles priced at several hundred dollars only to smash them on the floor. There is now a new trend that may strike the world’s wine merchants as an even greater outrage. Some Chinese wine drinkers have decided that a good claret or chardonnay goes down more smoothly when mixed with Sprite. The author sounds ______ in the last paragraph.
A. tolerant
B. indignant
C. impatient
D. conspicuous
The term "mass-production" conjures up visions of some enormous factory, with innumerable conveyor belts, each attended by an army of ant-like workers. We see various parts being fed to those belts and hastily fitted together by breathless operators. The article grows in size and complexity. Finally, it rolls off the belt a completely finished object. This is the sort of thing that was so effectively satirized by Charlie Chaplin in his film Modern Times. It’s true, indeed, that mass-production can only take place in large factories. It divides up into small stages all the various operations that a complete object requires. Conveyor belts are necessary and operators must work to a strict timetable. But, if the whole process is designed and timed carefully and good materials are used, the finished object can certainly be adequate and reliable. It may even be rare and exquisite. The advantages of mass-production are thus obvious. It can produce articles in enormous quantities. In these days oflarge populations and rising standards ofliving, this in itselfis a far from contemptible achievement. By producing articles in large numbers, both cost and time are greatly reduced. One hand-made article may cost fifty dollars and require a man’s labor for ten hours. A thousand similar articles, mass-produced, may be sold at five dollars each. They may be made from start to finish an hour each and may require the labor of fifty men for a minute each. On the other hand, there are inescapable disadvantages. Though a mass-produced article may be quite good and may even have a certain aesthetic value, it’s unlikely to reach the highest levels of craftsmanship and of beauty. All articles so produced will be identical; there will be standardization. There will also be a lack of variety and individuality. In short, a world full of mass-produced articles would be very monotonous. There’s no desire to keep or cherish such articles. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of mass-production is its effect upon the worker himself. In modern factories, the worker merely does one tiny part of a total process, such as screwing on a nut, or punching a hole. The unspeakable monotony of repeating this operation a thousand times a day has grave psychological consequences. The workman loses sight of the whole process. He misses the sense of achievement that comes from carrying out a plan from beginning to end. He feels himself a cog in a vast machine. His work becomes a torment rather than a pleasure. And all this, applied to millions of workers over a generation or two, leads to social unrest and to moral deterioration. These effects must certainly be included in the drawbacks of mass-production. The main purpose of this passage is to
A. state the advantages and disadvantages of mass-production.
B. suggest ways of solving the present problems with mass-production.
C. show dissatisfaction towards the low efficiency of the modern factories.
D. compare the advantages and disadvantages of mass-produced and man-made articles.