Passage three
The market investigation is indispensable to sales promotion. They are closely related as the lips and teeth, so to speak. What you produce is for the sale on the market. It would be impossible to succeed in selling a product without first investigating the market.
In the international market, goods on sale coming from different countries and supplies are always facing keen competition. Under such circumstance, they will try everything possible to familiarize themselves with the market conditions. In making investigations, we ought to get information about what similar items the competitors are offering on the market, what prices they are quoting, what features their products have, who are their regular customers, etc. Then, how can we obtain such information? There are many channels that we can make use of in doing this sort of work. The commercials counselors offices of our embassies stationed abroad can help us in making market investigations. Nowadays, our import and export corporations send their trade groups abroad every now and then. One of their purpose is to make market survey on the spot.
Certainly, face-to-face talks with foreign businessman are also important channels to get market information. The Chinese Export Commodities Fairs and some other fairs of similar nature as well as visits of foreign businessmen provide us with such opportunities. Of course, there are some other ways of making market investigations.
26. In making market investigation, one should _______.
A. get enough information concerned B. advertise his products
C. produce high quality goods D. none of the above
27. The word “indispensable” in the 1st line means ________.
A. impossible B. essential
C. advisable D. available
28. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. The relationship between market investigation and sales promotion is just as that of the lips and teeth.
B. It is impossible to succeed in selling a product without market investigation.
C. There are various ways of making market investigation.
D. Production goes before market investigation.
29. Making market investigation is very important because ______.
A. in market, goods on sale are numerous
B. every producer is facing keen competition
C. it can greatly promote sales
D. all of the above
30. All the following are channels to get market information except ______.
A. to have commercial counselor’s offices of our embassies stationed abroad
B. to promote the quality of our own products
C. to send trade groups abroad every now and then
D. to have face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen
Passage four
In some ways, the U.S. has made great progress in fire prevention. It has been four decades since more than 100 Americans died in a fire.
But even with such success, the U.S. still has one of the worst fire death rates in the world. Safety experts say the problem is neither money nor technology, but the indifference of country that just will not take fires seriously enough.
American fire department are some of the world’s fasted and best-equipped. They have to be because the US has twice Japan’s population, and 40 times as many fires. It spends far less on preventing fires than on fighting them. And American fire-safety lessons are aimed almost entirely at children, who die in disproportionately large numbers in fires but who, contrary to popular myth, start very few of them.
Experts say that the fatal error is an attitude that fires are not really anyone’s fault. That is not so in other countries, where both public education and the law treat fires as either a personal failing or a crime. Japan has many wood houses; of the estimated 48 fires in the world history, that burned more than 10,000 buildings, Japan has had 27. Penalties for causing a severe fire by negligence can be as high as life imprisonment.
In the U.S., most education dollars are spent in primary schools. But the lessons are aimed at a too limited audience; just 9% of all fire death are caused by children playing with fire.
The U.S. continues to rely more on technology than laws or social pressure. There smoke detectors in 85 % of all homes. Some local building code now requires home sprinklers洒水器. New heater and irons shut themselves off if they are overturned.
31. The reason that so many Americans die in a fire is that ______.
A. they took no interest in new technology
B. they did not attach great importance to preventing fires
C. they showed indifference to fighting fires
D. they did not spend enough money on fire facilities
32. Although the fire death rate has declined, the United States _____.
A. still has the worst death rate in the world
B. is still alert to the fire problem
C. is still training a large number of safety experts
D. is still confronted with the serious fire problem
33. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. fire safety lessons should be aimed at American adults
B. American children have not received enough education of fire safety lesson
C. Japan is better equipped with fire facilities than the United States
D. America’s large population accounts for high fire frequency
34. In what aspects should the United States learn from Japan?
A. Architecture and building material
B. Education and technology
C. Laws and attitude
D. All of the above
35. To narrow the gap between the fire death rate in the United States and in other countries, the author suggests ______.
A. developing new technology
B. counting more on laws and social pressure
C. placing a fire extinguisher in every family
D. reinforcing the safeness of household appliance
