1 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

A. maximum   B. source   C. bearing   D. recycling   AB. fundamental   AC. excessive AD. simplest   BC. appeal   BD. highlight   CD. streamlining   ABC. core

MUJI products came into being in the early 1980’s as a result of a new mood, calling for a return to simplicity in daily life. Our aim was—and still is—to provide our customers all over the world with the     1     things they need to live a busy, modern, urban lifestyle. These things must be made from good, sound materials, with no unnecessary frills or fancies and must sell at a reasonable price. Our clothes must feel good on, our stationery must be practical and our household goods must be easy to use. This may seem elementary but it has always been a primary goal to ensure that MUJI customers should never pay for what they can’t use—i.e. added extras and fancy packaging. So, at MUJI you’ll find no     2     prices, just simple, sound products you can afford, so simple in fact, they don’t even carry a brand name. This is in direct contrast to the usual marketing ploy of producing heavily branded, expensively designed, over packaged goods.

At MUJI we pride ourselves on being different. Moreover, our products are made from materials which we     3     on a global scale, not because we think an exotic source sounds more exciting than one on our doorstep but because we are committed to using the best available material, wherever it comes from. Using these superior materials, we design our products so that their simplicity brings out their inherent     4    , both of the material they’re made from and the products themselves. Finally, we present our products in the     5     of packaging—if any at all—which neither masks nor makes them look any more than they are. As a result, the quality and credence of each product are self-evident. As life gets more complex, the need for simple lifestyle solutions becomes all the more necessary. To find these, look no further than MUJI.

The Company’s basic principle is to develop new simple products at reasonable prices by making the best use of materials while considering environmental issues.

Through the careful selection of materials,     6     manufacturing processes and simplifying our packaging, we have continually introduced high quality MUJI brand products onto the market, at lower than usual prices. Presently there are more than 5,000 MUJI products sold in Japan. MUJI's natural and simple design complements today’s lifestyles perfectly.

For MUJI the materials we use to make our products are of the utmost importance; consequently, considerable attention is given to their selection. We search worldwide for the most suitable raw materials. We use many industrial materials as well as     7     unused materials where possible. The     8     selection criteria is always quality. These activities underpin our ability to create low-priced, high-quality products.

When packaging products, MUJI seeks not to adorn them but rather to     9     their natural colors and shapes. For this reason, we use bulk packaging and place products in plain, uniform containers. Faithful to our philosophy of simplicity, this approach is also in keeping with our policy of conserving resources and reducing waste. Thus, all MUJI products appear on store shelves in simple packaging     10     only product-related information and a price tag.

2 .

A. physical 　B. brick　 C. revenue 　D. ready-made　 E. generate F. related　 G. capacity　 H. diversifying 　I. innovation　 J. venturing　 K. abandoning

It is getting hard to go anywhere without stepping on a piece of Lego-related hype (大肆宣传). “The Lego Movie” is number two at the American box office, after three weeks at number one. Model kits     1     to the film are piled high in the shops. They will add to the already gigantea of Lego bits: 86 for every person on the planet. The toymaker has enjoyed ten years of spectacular growth, almost quadrupling (四倍) its     2    .

This is remarkable for many reasons. Lego’s home town, Billund in rural Denmark, is so small that the company had to provide it with a hotel-an elegant one, unsurprisingly. The toy business is one of the world’s trickiest: perennially faddish (反复出现地一时流行的事物) (remember Beanie Babies?) and, at the moment, energized by technological innovation. Children are growing up ever faster, and abandoning the     3     world for the virtual. To cap it all, the company almost collapsed in 2003-04, having drifted for years,     4     into too many areas, producing too many products.

Lego’s decade of success began when it appointed Jorgen Vig Knudstorp as chief executive. This was a risky move: Mr. Knudstorp was a mere 35 years old and had cut his teeth as a management consultant with McKinsey rather than running a business. But it proved to be inspired. Mr. Knudstorp decided that the company must go “back to the     5    ”: focusing on its core products, forgetting about brand-stretching, and even selling its theme parks. He also brought in stricter management controls, for example reducing the number of different pieces that the company produced from 12,900 to 7,000.

Under Mr. Knudstorp Lego has struck a successful balance between     6     and tradition. The company has to     7     new ideas to keep its sales growing: customers need a reason to expand their stock of bricks, and to buy them from Lego rather than cheaper rivals. But at the same time, it must resist the sort of undisciplined innovation that almost ruined it. Lego produces a stream of kits with     8     designs, such as forts and spaceships, to provide children with templates (模板). But it also insists that the pieces can be added to the child’s collection of bricks, and reused to make all sorts of other things.

Lego has got better at managing its relationships. “The Lego Movie” demonstrates how it can focus on the brick while     9     into the virtual world: Warner Bros. made the film while Lego provided the models. During its years of drift, it relied too much on other firms’ blockbuster franchises, such as Harry Potter and Star Wars. This time its intellectual property, not someone else’s, is the star of the film. It has also got better at tapping its legion of fans-particularly adult fans of Lego, or AFOLs-for new ideas.

Lego is now at an inflection point (转折点), building its organizational     10     and embracing globalization, to help it find new sources of growth. The aim is twofold: to replicate in the rapidly growing east Lego’s success in the west; and transform a local company that happened to go global into a global company that happens to have its head office in Billund.

3 .

Bathroom Reveals Your Repayment Ability

Banks and other lenders typically look at borrowers’ credit histories, tax forms and other financial information to determine whether they will get paid back. In China,     1    lenders also look at their bathrooms.

As the economy slows, the government wants to nurture a credit culture to get Chinese families spending instead of saving. While the country’s wealth has     2    , the financial system has not kept pace. Some people have had no    3     to credit card or mortgage, so lenders often have little reliable information about potential borrowers.

To fill the gaps, one upstart lender, China Rapid Finance,     4     data analysis with on-the-ground spade work. The company’s investigators, in more than 90 cities, check for the number of toothbrushes or towels to determine how many people are living in a house. They look for dirty dishes in the kitchen. They take photos of a potential borrower at work to confirm employment status.

A growing number of companies are trying to crack the credit code in China. The internet giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are developing credit     5     systems based on users’ online transactions and search histories.

The World Bank estimated that 79 percent of China’s population above the age of 15 have bank accounts, while only 10 percent have ever borrowed from the formal financial system. China’s banks have a(n)     6     consumers lending business. Contrarily, online lenders are     7     as the pioneers, satisfying China’ s rising consumer class. Alibaba’s financial affiliate(隶属机构), Huabei, makes small loans to online shoppers and vendors on its e-commerce platforms.

Peer- to-peer platforms have proved hugely popular in China, but the industry’s reputation has been     8     by scandal, like the collapse of Ezubao.

After that, regulators have stepped up their oversight of online lenders, including setting    9     on the amounts that can be borrowed. The regulators’ tightening grip is “something like a shepherd     10    herding his sheep into an increasingly narrowing pen or chute,” said Mark Natkin, the founder and managing director at Marbridge Consulting, based in Beijing.