Passage Three If women are mercilessly exploited (剥削) year after year, they are only themselves to blame. Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe (衣柜) packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear. Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste. Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way, waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Skirts are lengthened or shortened; necklines are lowered or raised, and so on. No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion desihners are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth, comfort and durability (耐用). They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look fight. There can hardly be a man who hasn’t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, delicately picking her way through deep snow in high-heeled shoes. When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashion of women’s clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability Men are too clever to let themselves be treated by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualifies of stabililty and feasibility That’s for you to decide. The writer would be less critical if fashion designers placed more stress on the()of clothing.
A. cost
B. appearance
C. comfort
D. suitability
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Passage Five To understand the marketing concept, it is only necessary to understand the difference between marketing and selling. Not too many years ago, most industries concentrated primarily on the efficient production of goods, and then relied on "Persuasive salesmanship" to move as much of these goods as possible. Such production and selling focuses on the needs of the seller to produce goods and then convert them into money. Marketing, on the other hand, focuses on the wants of consumers. It begins with first analyzing the preferences and demands of consumers and then producing goods that will satisfy them. This eye on the consumer approach is known as the marketing concept, which simply means that instead of trying to sell whatever is easiest to produce or buy for resale, the makers and dealers first try to find out what the consumer wants to buy and then go about making it according to consumer demand. This concept does not imply that consumer satisfaction is given priority over profit in a company. There are always two sides to every business activity—the firm and the customer—and each must be satisfied before trade occurs. Successful merchants and producers, however, recognize that the surest route to profit is through understanding customers. This concept has been recognized in such slogans as "Have It Your Way." And "You’re the Boss." A good example of the importance of satisfying the consumer presented it self in mid-1985, when Coca Cola changed the flavor of its drink. The non-acceptance of the new flavor by a significant portion of the public brought about a quick restoration of the Classic Coke, which was then marketed alongside the new King Customer ruled! The very core of marketing lies in ().
A. an understanding of consumer needs
B. the efficient movement of goods
C. developing new wants for consumer goods
D. making goods readily available to customers
Passage Two Sporting activities are essentially modified forms of hunting behaviour. Viewed biologically, the modern footballer is in reality a member of a hunting group. His killing weapon has turned into a harmless football and his prey into a goal-mouth. If his aim is accurate and he scores a goal, he enjoys the hunter’s triumph of killing his prey. To understand how this transformation has taken place we must briefly look back at our forefathers. They spent over a million years evolving as cooperative hunters. Their very survival depended on success in tie hunting-field. Under this pressure their whole way of life, even their bodies, became greatly changed. They became chasers, runners, jumpers, aimers, throwers and prey-killers. They cooperated as skillful male-group attackers. Then about ten thousand years ago, after this immensely long period of hunting their food, they became farmers. Their improved intelligence, so vital to their old hunting life, was put to a new use—that of controlling and domesticating their prey. The hunting became suddenly out of date. The food was there on the farms, awaiting their needs. The risks and uncertainties of the hunting were no longer essential for survival. The skills and thirst for hunting remained, however, and demanded new outlets. Hunting for sport replaced hunting for necessity. This new activity involved all the original hunting sequences but the aim of the operation was no longer to avoid starvation. Instead the sportsmen set off to test their skill against prey that were no longer essential to their survival. To be sure, the kill may have been eaten but there were other much simpler ways of obtaining a meaty meal. For over a million years, our forefathers were basically, ().
A. successful farmers
B. co-operating hunters
C. runners and jumpers
D. skillful sportsmen
Passage Five To understand the marketing concept, it is only necessary to understand the difference between marketing and selling. Not too many years ago, most industries concentrated primarily on the efficient production of goods, and then relied on "Persuasive salesmanship" to move as much of these goods as possible. Such production and selling focuses on the needs of the seller to produce goods and then convert them into money. Marketing, on the other hand, focuses on the wants of consumers. It begins with first analyzing the preferences and demands of consumers and then producing goods that will satisfy them. This eye on the consumer approach is known as the marketing concept, which simply means that instead of trying to sell whatever is easiest to produce or buy for resale, the makers and dealers first try to find out what the consumer wants to buy and then go about making it according to consumer demand. This concept does not imply that consumer satisfaction is given priority over profit in a company. There are always two sides to every business activity—the firm and the customer—and each must be satisfied before trade occurs. Successful merchants and producers, however, recognize that the surest route to profit is through understanding customers. This concept has been recognized in such slogans as "Have It Your Way." And "You’re the Boss." A good example of the importance of satisfying the consumer presented it self in mid-1985, when Coca Cola changed the flavor of its drink. The non-acceptance of the new flavor by a significant portion of the public brought about a quick restoration of the Classic Coke, which was then marketed alongside the new King Customer ruled! Not too long ago, industries focused on ().
A. producing and selling goods
B. the needs and wants of customers
C. the selling of new products
D. moving goods to the market
Passage Four Climate, more than any other single factor, determines the distribution of life on earth. Climatic boundaries establish the limits which organisms can survive. Plants, even more than animals, must be well adapted to climate in order to survive. They cannot move about or take shelter but must be equipped to endure whatever weather conditions are likely to occur. In the harsh conditions of the tundra, for example, low growing mosses, lichens, and a few flowering plants all hug the ground for shelter from icy winds. Animals, despite their ability to move about and find shelter, are just as much influenced by climate as plants are. Creatures such as the camel and the penguin are so highly specialized that they have an extremely limited distribution. Others, such as bears are flexible enough to adapt to a broad range of climates. Oceandwelling organisms are just as sensitive to climatic changes—in this case temperature and salinity—as land animals. Reef corals can survive only in clear warm seawater. Certain foraminifers are so sensitive to changes in their environment that their presence can be taken as an index of sea temperature. Human beings are among the least specialized of all animals and can live almost anywhere. Their clothes and their homes act as a sort of "miniature climate" that can be taken with them everywhere. According to the passage, plants on the tundra grow in the ground ______.
A. to avoid being eaten by arctic animals
B. because fertilizer is not readily available
C. to minimize exposure to the cold
D. because unfrozen water supplies are very scarce