Market analysts in the United States have recently been quoted as saying that the biggest threat to the luxury (奢侈品) industry in the US is the tech industry. This is according to an article by fellow journalist Ashley Lutz. Her suggestion is sound. The main idea of her article is that products from Tiffany & Co. find their biggest competition not from other luxury brands but from companies like Apple. Lutz points out that luxury products are often only for “show,” while the attraction behind tech products is functionality.
You find few people in the United States today willing to purchase luxury goods at full price. It didn’t use to be that way. Luxury goods used to be actually exclusive. That meant you needed to travel to the right store to purchase them, and you didn’t even have the option of getting a deal.
Today, no one wants to pay full price for luxury goods. People have the unfortunate belief that fakes (贗品) somehow are equal to originals, and if you can’t get a deal on eBay, Amazon, or in an outlet store, purchasing a luxury product probably isn’t worth it. Luxury brands struggle to remain high-end (高檔的) images despite the reality that the American consumer is motivated much more by discounts than they are by brand names or image.
Yet people stand in line to pay full price for a new product from Apple and crowds gather to hear about a new smart phone. While electronics are updating every day, people are purchasing technology at full prices much more than they are purchasing luxury goods. What are high-tech makers doing right that luxury makers are pitifully failing at?
Carefully looking at the situation, it would appear as if the Internet didn’t hurt the luxury industry, expectation from the consumers did. What people want these days more than anything is stuff that does something. They want cars that drive, shoes that are comfortable, games that are fun to play, screens that are beautiful to look at, tools that are useful, and entertainment that is entertaining. Little of that fits into what the luxury industry has typically offered with its status, image, and fine materials. The sad reality is that luxury products aren’t that luxury any more

  1. 1.

    What does this passage mainly talk about?

    1. A.
      Nobody likes luxury goods any more
    2. B.
      Luxury goods are of poor quality nowadays
    3. C.
      Tech products become the new “l(fā)uxury goods”
    4. D.
      Iphones have taken the place of luxury products
  2. 2.

    The underlined word “exclusive” in paragraph 2 means _______

    1. A.
      unique and with no bargain
    2. B.
      low in price
    3. C.
      hard to find
    4. D.
      easy to sell
  3. 3.

    From paragraph 3 we can know that _______

    1. A.
      people have found that some luxury goods are fakes
    2. B.
      people can buy luxury goods at a low price on eBay
    3. C.
      luxury brands will give up high-end images
    4. D.
      consumers prefer brand names to discounts
  4. 4.

    What do people pay most attention to nowadays?

    1. A.
      The Internet service
    2. B.
      The images of luxuries
    3. C.
      The function of products
    4. D.
      The expectation from the consumers
CABC
試題分析：文章大意：美國(guó)奢侈品行業(yè)所面臨的威脅。其最大威脅來(lái)自美國(guó)的高科技行業(yè)。并分析了個(gè)中原因。
1.C 主旨大意題。根據(jù)第一段的闡述：“據(jù)稱美國(guó)的市場(chǎng)分析人士最近表示美國(guó)奢侈品行業(yè)面臨的最大威脅來(lái)自美國(guó)的高科技行業(yè)。消息來(lái)自一位記者同行阿什麗·魯茲Ashley Lutz的文章她的報(bào)道非�？尚旁撐恼碌囊c(diǎn)在于蒂芙尼公司Tiffany Co發(fā)現(xiàn)其產(chǎn)品的最大競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者并非其他奢侈品牌而是蘋(píng)果這樣的公司。魯茲指出奢侈品經(jīng)常僅用于炫耀而科技產(chǎn)品背后的吸引力在于它的功能性”我們可以得到答案。
2.A 詞義猜測(cè)題。上文說(shuō)“在美國(guó)你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)很少有人愿意出全價(jià)購(gòu)買(mǎi)奢侈品了”說(shuō)明“奢侈品在過(guò)去是一種獨(dú)特的不打折（不討價(jià)還價(jià)）的商品”。
3.B推理判斷題。從本段中“如果你不能在e電子港灣（eBay）、亞馬遜或一家打折店里買(mǎi)到折價(jià)商品而去購(gòu)買(mǎi)奢侈品，這可能會(huì)被認(rèn)為是非常不值的。”可以推斷“人們可以在e電子港灣以打折的價(jià)格即低價(jià)買(mǎi)到奢侈品”。
4.C 推理判斷題。根據(jù)最后一段“審視這一情況時(shí)，看起來(lái)傷害奢侈品行業(yè)的好像不是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，而是消費(fèi)者的預(yù)期。人們眼下最想要的是具有某些功用的東西。他們想要好開(kāi)的汽車、舒適的鞋、有趣的游戲畫(huà)質(zhì)、出眾的屏幕、實(shí)用的工具以及精彩的娛樂(lè)。這些訴求基本上與奢侈品行業(yè)傳統(tǒng)上提供的產(chǎn)品及其看重的身份形象和精良材質(zhì)不搭邊。一個(gè)悲慘的現(xiàn)實(shí)是奢侈品不再那么奢侈了�！蔽覀兛梢酝茢啻鸢浮�
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      3% of drinkable water on the earth is from rivers and lakes
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      97% of the earth is covered with water
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