Question

Is any economist so dull as to criticize Christmas? At first glance, the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries(奇思遐想)as GDP growth. After all, everyone is spending; in America, retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, economists find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made.

Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others. At the simplest level, giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like--he tries to guess her preferences, as economists say--and then buying the gift and delivering it. Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is enjoyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.

Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts, in 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then an economist at Yale University, sought to estimate the difference in dollar terms. In a study, he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season: first, estimate the total amount paid(by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received; second, apart from the sentimental value of the items, if you did not have them, how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy: on average, a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.

In addition, recipients may not know their own preferences very well. Some of the best gifts, after all, are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying, but which turn out to be especially well picked. And preferences can change. So by giving a jazz CD, for example, the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before. This, a desire to build skills, is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children’s desires for video games and buy them books instead.

Finally, there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase. If someone else buys them, however, they can be enjoyed guilt-free. This might explain the volume of chocolate that changes over the holidays. Thus, the lesson for gift-givers is that you should try hard to guess the preference of each person on your list and then choose a gift that will have high sentimental value.

1.The word “sentimental” in Paragraph 3 is close to “________”.

A. intelligent    B. emotional    C. social    D. practical

2.According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Price is nothing but the factor when you give gifts.

B. Chocolate will be blamed when people receive them as gifts.

C. The receivers often overestimate the values of gifts.

D. Gifts do not always correspond to needs in gift-giving.

3.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the text?

A. The gift-giver tries to neglect the actual needs of the receiver.

B. The best gifts are well picked by the givers.

C. In gift-giving, guessing preferences is often a failure, so it’s the thought that counts.

D. You have to take money into consideration when giving a gift.

4.The text is most likely taken from a ________.

A. users’ handbook    B. medical journal    C. travel magazine    D. consumer-related report

Answer

1. B

2. D

3. C

4. D

【解析】

本文为说明文。文章是关于节日购买礼物送人的一个社会生活调查，研究结果表明你所送的礼物往往并不是接受者所想要的。

1.词义猜测题。此题可根据代入法然后再逐一进行排除送礼物，礼物所具有的价值，前面加上定语，只有B项的“情感的”符合句意，其它三个选项意思不符。故B选项正确。

2.推理判断题。根据第二段Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is enjoyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.可知，当你费尽心思去猜别人想要的礼物时，虽然送了，但想要的人不一定喜欢。故D选项正确。

3.推理判断题。根据文章描述，当你猜测别人的偏好而准备送别人礼物时，实践证明往往你的猜测是错误的，每个人的想法不同，所以人的想法很重要。故C选项正确。

4.推理判断題。本文主要是介绍节日购买礼物的一个社会生活调查，所以很明显是来自于与消费者有关的报道。故D选项正确。