09雅思阅读实战训练(一)

　　How to increase sales

　　Published online: Nov 9th 2006

　　From The Economist print edition

　　How shops can exploit people‘s herd mentality to increase sales

　　1.A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” can be used to influence what people buy.

　　2.At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome， Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani， a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology， described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance， by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store， forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes， also of the Florida Institute of Technology， set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that， if a certain product is seen to be popular， shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.

　　3.Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani‘s supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag， a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information， and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods， a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high， he is more likely to select it too.

　　4.Mr Usmani‘s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right” product—that is， the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world， mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work， and testing will get under way in the spring.

　　5.Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could， indeed， be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14，000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded， they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank， but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed， the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.

　　6.In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category， and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem， a company in Cambridge， Massachusetts， also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.

　　7.And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home， you can still be part of the swarm. Questions 1-6

　　Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

　　1.Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.

　　2.In shops， products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more _______________.

　　3.According to Mr. Usmani， with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon， a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.

　　4.On the way to everyday items at the back of the store， shoppers might be tempted to buy _______________.

　　5.If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high， other customers tend to follow them.

　　6.Using the “swarm-moves” model， shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.

　　Questions 7-12

　　Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? For questions 7-12 write

　　YES

　　if the statement agrees with the information

　　NO

　　if the statement contraicts the information

　　NOT GIVEN

　　if there is no information on this in the passage

　　7.Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart.

　　8.People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.

　　9.Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers.

　　10.People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not.

　　11.Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops.

　　12.Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life

　　1.答案： bread. (第1段第2行：Shoppers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they intended.)

　　2.答案：expensive. (第1段第4行： Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.)

　　3.答案：impulse buying. (第2段第1句：At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome， Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani， a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology， described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.)

　　4.答案：other goods/things/products. (第2段第2句：Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance， by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store， forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.)

　　5.答案：screen. (第3段第4行：As a customer walks past a shelf of goods， a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high， he is more likely to select it too.)

　　6.答案：discounts. (第4段第第1句：Mr Usmani’s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.)

　　7.答案：NO.

　　8.答案：NOT GIVEN. (在文中没有提及该)

　　9.答案：YES。 (第5段第3句：The reseachers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they have been downloaded， they followed the crowd.)

　　10.答案：NO。 (第5段最后两句：When the songs are not ordered by rank， but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed， the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. pronounced的词义是“显著的、明显的”)

　　11.答案：YES。 (第6段第1句：In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies.)

　　12.答案：YES。 (最后一段最后一句：Even in the privacy of your home， you can still be part of the swarm. home应该算是everyday life的一部分

　　雅思阅读的题型一直是考生比较关注的问题，分析认为主要有以下两个原因：

　　1. 有相对简单和相对费时的题型;

　　2.每个考生都有自己擅长的和较害怕的题型。具体来说：对于词汇不足的考生可能最害怕段落标题匹配题及摘要归纳填空题;对于词汇量较大的考生来说，是非无判断题，段落标题匹配题和摘要归纳填空题可能是比较简单的。选择题和其它匹配题是相对来说比较费时的，所以大部分考生都很害怕这类题型。

　　那么，面对上面所提到的这些情况，考生应该在题型方面怎样备考呢?

　　首先，专家认为考生必须从心理上准备迎接所有的题型，在备考中要尽可能喜欢所有题型。有的考生会一次次地祈祷：“希望这次考试不要有选择题或段落细节信息定位题!”这样做，其实是无形中给自己制造了负面的影响。考试题型不是我们所能预料和控制的，一旦有了上述心理，很有可能一看到题型就慌了，一开始就没有一个好的状态。还有一部份考生喜欢跟着考题回忆和机经走，看到上次考了什么题就在备考中只关注那些题型。考题回忆和机经可以看看，但只能做参考，考生千万不要被它们所左右。否则就是自己给自己制造障碍。

　　其次，考生必须对各类题型的题型特点和答题注意事项了如指掌。雅思阅读考试时间之短，文章之学术性，题量之大，题型之多等特点决定了考生势必会感觉时间不够。考生要在有限的时间内答完所有的题并尽可能地保证较高的正确率确实不是一件容易的事情。考生除了要有一定的词汇量和阅读速度之外，常见的雅思阅读技巧和解题策略是必须的。而解题策略很多时候是建立在考生熟悉题型特点的基础之上的。比如说，考生拿到一篇文章绝不是从第1题接到13题，而是应该分析各组题型的特点和难易，由易到难。同样，考生也可以根据3篇各自的题型来初步判断哪一篇的题型可能对自己比较有利，那篇可能较难，以便能灵活地采取合适的策略。

　　最后，专家建议考生在考前进行练习时，不要光做套题，而应该偶尔穿插一些专题的练习，重点练习自己没什么把握的题型。注意练习时时间的掌控是很重要的，不要给自己30分钟完成6道是非无，那样不能达到训练的目的，不能保证良好的效果。