Question

Questions are based on the following passage.

1.

A.Goods are scarce and hard to get for ordinary consumers.

B.People aim for social distinction through what they own.

C.Manufacturers make more money by mass production.

D.Growth of consumerism is restricted by artificial products.

2.

A.To cut down on labour costs by reducing working hours.

B.To make customers feel they own something rare.

C.To increase their coffee price without losing customers.

D.To focus more on quality and customer satisfaction.

3.

A.Consumer awareness. B.Social distinction.

C.Artificial scarcity. D.Mass production.

Answer

1.B

2.B

3.C

【解析】

【原文】

Once upon a time, goods were scarce, and hard to get for all but the extremely wealthy. But industrial mass production has changed all of that. Factories all over the world are pumping out bright and beautiful objects. When everyone has to wait and save up for new things, owning them feels exciting and special. But when lovely things are available every day, they stop being a treat.

One of the features of consumer society is that we aim for social distinction through what we own. But if everyone has lots of stuff, how can we impress anyone with our purchases? All of this takes the fun out of shopping and means there’s a limit to how much consumerism can grow.

This is deeply worrying to companies, and some of them have started to fight it, by creating artificial scarcity. For example, in Singapore, a small cafe only opens on random days. It sometimes stays closed for over a week at a time. This trend means we can again own something rare. But the risk for these companies is that in a world of so much stuff, if they make their products too hard to get, we’ll just buy from someone else instead.

Questions:

What is one of the features of consumer society according to the passage?

Why does the small cafe in Singapore stay closed sometimes?

What is the passage mainly about?