Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
Retailers(零售商) closed more than 9,000stores in 2019. Some people call what has happened to the shopping landscape “the retail ______ .” It is easy to chalk it up to the rise of e-commerce, which has thrived while physical stores struggle. But this can be ______. Online sales have grown tremendously in the last 20 years, but Internet shopping still represents only 11 percent of the entire retail sales total. Collectively, three major ______ forces have had an even bigger impact on brick-and-mortar retail than the Internet has.
To begin with,we have changed______ we shop - away from smaller stores like those in malls and toward stand-alone “Big Box” stores,which is a greater problem for most physical stores.
Also, Rising income______ has left less of the nation’s money in the hands of the middle class, and the traditional retail stores that ______ them have suffered. It is estimates that since 1970, the share of the nation’s income earned by families in the middle class has fallen from almost two-thirds to around 40 percent. As the ______ of income at the top rises, overall retail suffers simply because high-income people save a much larger share of their money. The government reports ______ for different income levels in the official Consumer Expenditure Survey. In the latest data, people in the top 10 percent of income ______ almost a third of their income after taxes. People in the middle of the income distribution spent 100 percent of their income. ______, as the middle class has been squeezed and more has gone to the top, it has meant higher saving rates overall.
Lastly, We have spent ______ less of income on things and more on services. Since 1960, we went from spending 5 percent of our income on health to almost 18 percent, government statistics show. We spend more on education, entertainment, business services and all sorts of other products that aren’t ______ in traditional retail stores. Economists debate theories of why we have ______ to services and away from goods but no one questions that it has happened. It means that over time, retailers selling ______ will have to run harder and harder just to stay in place.
In short, the broad forces hitting retail are more a lesson in economics than in the power of ______. It’s a lesson all retailers will have to learn someday.
1.A.business B.disaster C.investment D.strategy
2.A.advanced B.confirmed C.overstated D.undervalued
3.A.economic B.legal C.physical D.political
4.A.how B.what C.where D.why
5.A.distribution B.inequality C.level D.tax
6.A.aim at B.approve of C.compete with D.stem from
7.A.concentration B.influence C.security D.source
8.A.education B.employment C.housing D.spending
9.A.concealed B.donated C.earned D.saved
10.A.Instead B.However C.Moreover D.Therefore
11.A.cautiously B.intelligently C.proportionately D.prospectively
12.A.available B.insufficient C.popular D.uncommon
13.A.applied B.committed C.shifted D.tied
14.A.ideas B.patents C.services D.things
15.A.consumption B.habit C.income D.technology
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Lego wants your old Legos back
If you have a box of old Lego bricks sitting unused in a garage, Lego now wants them back. In a new program, consumers in the U.S. can dump old bricks in a box, print a free shipping label, and send them off to Give Back Box, a social enterprise1. will clean the toys and repackage them for Teach for America and the Boys and Girls Club of Boston.
“The classic Lego brick is made from a tough material2. (call) ABS, and the toys can be played with for decades without breaking. It’s already fairly common, of course, that Legos 3. (hand) down from one child to another.” says Tim Brooks, vice president of corporate responsibility at Lego Group.
The company looked for a partner that could process the used toys while4. (maintain) Lego’s standard of quality. “We want to make sure that all kids are getting a great experience,” he says. “You shouldn’t get a really inferior experience 5. the bricks are donated. If the program goes well,” Brooks says, it 6. expand.
He sees it7. one version of the circular economy, a system of keeping materials in use-and argues that the toys themselves illustrate the idea of the circular economy. “You can build a rocket and then you can take 8. apart and build a ship, or a car, or a house, or 9. you like,” Brooks says. As toys are reused, that’s another circular system. We intend10. (show) that great quality toys like Lego can be used in lots of repeating circles-used, reused, donated, used, reused, donated.”
A.He often goes back home late for dinner.
B.He shares some of the household duties.
C.He dines out with friends from time to time.
D.He cooks dinner for the family occasionally.
A.Students prefer living out of town.
B.It's impossible to find an ideally located town.
C.They have the flat that will satisfy the woman.
D.He will make sure where the vacancies are.
A.Work with her colleagues.
B.Make coffee for others.
C.Stay alone in the office.
D.Socialize with her co-workers.
A.He will hand it in tomorrow.
B.It's a difficult job for him.
C.It's about a strike.
D.He'll consult his friend about it.
