Lego in China
Engineers gather around a table-sized model of the China Art Museum, a landmark of Shanghai, adding airports for helicopters, car parks and other improvements with colorful bricks.
Lego’s rise in China has been shiningly attractive. In 2017 it overlook Alpha Group, a local giant, to become the country’s leading toy company (not including video games). In the past two years it has opened 89 stores and wants 50 more by December, which will bring it to 30 cities. Its first Chinese factory started making bricks in 2016. The toy industry is growing by 9% annually in the country, but the Danish firm’s Chinese section has won “very strong double digits(两位数)”, says Paul Huang, its boss.
Newly wealthy parents in China have helped Lego recover. “We have not reached the extreme out there, by far,” says Niels Christiansen, whom Lego brought in as chief executive two years ago.
Lego has also sensibly managed to meet the demands of local tastes.
| A．It has done so even though the brick-maker’s global business has looked shakier. |
| B．It has been sold in great volumes with various kinds of sets and earned the fame as the most suitable toys for children to play with. |
| C．Removing a child from Lego’s vast shop near People’s Square can be like unsticking two stubborn bits of Lego. |
| D．Over the past decades, Lego’s sales volume in China is not as satisfying as it expected. |
| E．As in the West, the educational merits of bricks appeal to Chinese parents. |
| F．This year the firm launched several sets specifically for China, the first time it has done so for any country. |
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【推荐1】Shop prices in the United Kingdom accelerated at their fastest rate in more than 10 years last month, according to a closely watched measure. The British Retail (零售) Consortium, or BRC and NielsenIQ Index showed retail price annual inflation (通货膨胀) rose sharply to 1.8 percent in February, up from 1.5 percent in January. This is the highest rate recorded by the indicator since November 2011, the BRC said in a news release.
Fresh food price rises as well as health, beauty, and furniture prices contributed to the inflationary increase, said the BRC. Helen Dickinson, the BRC’s chief executive, said retailers were also being impacted by higher shipping rates, as well as labor shortages, commodity price increases and rising energy prices. “Food inflation remained the key driver behind higher prices, particularly for fresh food, which has been impacted by poor harvests, both in the UK and globally,” Dickinson said. “There is little sign of change, with the Bank of England predicting price rises to continue until at least the spring.”
The rise in shop prices adds to the cost of living pressure faced by British households already ready for a major increase in energy bills next month. Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at research company NielsenIQ, said retail prices would likely continue to rise throughout the next few months.
“Inflation has increased since the start of the year and the potential trend in shop prices will be upwards over the next few months,” he said. “With falling income for most households, retailers will need to keep encouraging customers to spend by offering choice and value and, for some, discounts as well as added benefits for loyal shoppers.” Dickinson added, “Price rises will be unwelcome news for households who already face falling income because of the rise in national insurance and energy price caps.”
The Bank of England is trying to deal with inflation with higher interest rates, and is predicted to raise borrowing costs for the third time in a row this month, noted the BBC. In a response to a Treasury committee report into last year’s budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday that Britain’s economy and public finances were “vulnerable (易受伤害的)” to higher inflation and interest rates.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．How price rises influenced British households. | B．What factors resulted in the high inflation. |
| C．Price rises would continue until at least the spring. | D．Food inflation remained the key driver behind higher prices. |
| A．All the people in a family. | B．All the possessions in a family. |
| C．All the savings members of a family have. | D．All the occupations members of a family have. |
| A．By investing in more fields. | B．By decreasing borrowing costs. |
| C．By supplying more money. | D．By raising interest rates. |
| A．UK retail prices rise fastest for decade |
| B．Households in UK face falling income |
| C．Rise in shop prices adds to living pressure in UK |
| D．UK retail price annual inflation rises to 1.5 percent in January |
TinyDwelling homes are very small, yet comfortable houses at affordable prices. Each TinyDwelling home has a contemporary design and included a living room, kitchen, bathroom, upstairs sleeping area, and convenient storage space. TinyDwelling homes are cheap to run and ecologically-friendly, too. All you need is a small heater to keep your house warm in cold weather, and solar panels (太阳能电池板) in order to provide light and electricity.
TinyDwelling is part of the small-living movement that began in the late 1990s. Back then, a growing number of people began to live in very small homes. They wanted to reduce their possessions, living space, and energy costs, so as to lead more ecologically-friendly lives. But the small-living movement really took off after the economic crisis of 2008, when many people realized that they couldn’t afford to keep large homes.
Lizzy Morriaon, a small-living enthusiast, started TinyDwelling homes in 2008 to meet the needs of these people. Since then, Lizzy has been designing and building homes nonstop, and TinyDwelling homes have become so popular that thousands of people have bought one. And Lizzy hasn’t only designing and building houses. She has also been teaching people how to build them. Simply buy the plans and materials so that you can build your own home, and save even more money!
1. It is implied in Paragraph 1 that __________.
| A．rich people are very unsatisfied |
| B．people are damaging the environment |
| C．there are more poor people than before |
| D．people spend much money in saving the planet |
| A．It aimed to handle the economic crisis. |
| B．It was started by people without houses. |
| C．It was well received by house designers. |
| D．It did not become quite popular until 2008. |
| A．They are affordable. |
| B．They provide storage space. |
| C．They have upstairs sleeping area. |
| D．They are equipped with solar panels. |
| A．urged people to buy them. |
| B．helped people to build them. |
| C．taught people to save money. |
| D．offered courses to train designers. |
【推荐3】In many aspects, nowadays business environment has changed greatly since the late 1980s. The end of the Cold War completely altered the very nature of the world’s politics and economics. In just a few short years, globalization has started a variety of trends with profound consequences: the opening of markets, true global competition, widespread deregulation (解除政府对……的控制) of industry, and an abundance of accessible capital. We have experienced both the benefits and risks of a truly global economy, with both Wall street and Main street (平民百姓) feeling the pains of economic disorder half a world away.
At the same time, we have fully entered the information age, starting breakthroughs in information technology, which have irreversibly altered the ability to conduct business unconstrained by the traditional limitations of time or space. Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without intranets(内联网), e-mail, and portable computers. With amazing speed, the Internet is profoundly changing the way we work, shop, do business, and communicate.
As a consequence, we have truly entered the post-industrial economy. We are rapidly shifting from an economy based on manufacturing and commodities to one that places the greatest value on information, services, support, and distribution. That shift, in turn, attaches great importance to “knowledge workers”, a new class of wealthy, educated, and mobile people who view themselves as free agents in a seller’s market.
Beyond the field of information technology, the increasing pace of technological change in virtually every industry has created entirely new business, wiped out others, and produced a great demand for continuous innovation (创新). New product, process, and distribution technologies provide powerful levers for creating competitive value. More companies are learning the importance of destructive technologies—innovations that hold the potential to make a product line, or even an entire business segment, virtually outdated.
Another major trend has been the consumer and business markets. There’s a growing appreciation that superficially similar groups of customers may have very different preferences in terms of what they want to buy and how they want to buy it. Now, new technology makes it easier, faster, and cheaper to identify and serve targeted micro-markets in ways that were physically impossible or prohibitively expensive in the past. Moreover, the trend feeds on itself—a business’s ability to serve sub-markets fuels customers’ appetites for more and more specialized offerings.
1. According to the first paragraph, the changes in the business environment in the past decades can be due to .| A．technological advances |
| B．worldwide economic disorder |
| C．the fierce competition in industry |
| D．the globalization of economy |
| A．The rapid development of information technology has taken businessmen by surprise. |
| B．The internet,intranets,e-mail,and portable computers have entered every corner of the world. |
| C．Information technology has removed the restrictions of time and space in business transactions. |
| D．The way we do business today has brought about startling breakthroughs in information technology. |
| A．it has to invest more capital in the training of free agents to operate in a seller’s market |
| B．it should try its best to satisfy the increasing demands of mobile knowledgeable people |
| C．it should not overlook the importance of information,services,support,and distribution |
| D．it has to provide each of its employees with the latest information about the changing market |
| A．demand a radical change in providing services |
| B．can eliminate an entire business |
| C．may destroy the potential of a company to make any profit |
| D．call for continuous improvement in ways of doing business |
