1.Section B
Directions:Complete the following passage by using the words in the box.Each word can only be used once.Note that there is one word more than you need.
A.accounted B.limited C.commercials D.popular E.overnight F.helped G.increased H.symbols I.though J.talented K.fashion |
The next time you watch NBA playoff action on TV,take a close look at the shoes that many players are wearing.Gone,for the most part,are the ankle-hugging high-tops that supposedly (41)F to protect players from injury.
The change over the last few years to low-top sneakers(運動鞋) seems to go against conventional wisdom.Strangely,(42)I,Steven Nash and Kobe Bryant,two of the most (43)Jplayers with the Los Angeles Lakers,aren't worried.
According to the US market-research firm NPD Group,high-tops once (44)A for about 20percent of the US basketball shoe market.Now,the number has sunk to about 8percent.Low-tops,the kind that Nash and Bryant wear,have grown to 29percent,from just 11percent in 2002.
High-top sneakers are one of the most celebrated (45)H in modern basketball.After the 1985Air Jordans so transformed the market,shoe companies began battling one another.They put air pumps in the tongues of their shoes and made carefully prepared and organized (46)C.
"All of a sudden it became a (47)K business,"Marshal Cohen,an analyst with NPD group,told The Wall Street Journal.The Jordans were excellent.The market went from being nothing to a million-dollar business (48)E."
One of the reasons high-tops are not so (49)D anymore is that they were never really very good at protecting the feet.
In an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2008,University of Newcastle researcher Craig Richards found no evidence that sneakers (50)B injuries.His research actually found that high-top basketball sneakers could even cause players to run slower and jump lower.Now,the contest has become a war.Companies like Adidas,Nike,Converse and Reebok are all fighting to create the next"Air Jordan,"and with the next market battle.