Long Journey
The majority of the world’s clothes, bags and shoes are manufactured in Asia. But the region’s brands have made little headway in the West. Of the ten most valuable global apparel (服装) labels ranked by Millward Brown, a market-research firm, only Uniqlo is Asian. Li-Ning, one of China’s best-selling sportswear brands, tried to enter America in 2010. It opened a flagship store in Portland, Oregon and later launched an English-language online store. Both failed.
What makes the journey so hard? Adjusting to Western tastes takes time. Although Uniqlo became the largest Japanese apparel brand by selling US-style clothing, it still encountered cultural barriers in America itself. For example, vests (背心) are one of Uniqlo’s most popular products at home, but relatively few Americans and Europeans wear an additional layer beneath their shirts, says Dairo Murata, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, a bank. It was only two years ago the firm also realized that XL was not big enough in America; it now duly provides XXXL.
Another problem, at least outside the big cities, is price. Uniqlo takes pride in the use of high-tech, comfortable fabrics (布料),an attempt to differentiate itself from other basic clothing brands like Gap and Old Navy. But at Danbury Fair, a Connecticut shopping mall that is a barometer for retail trends in the suburbs, people prefer Primark, a super-cheap Irish retailer (零售商) which recently opened, to Uniqlo, which shut up shop in June. Mall visitors are conservative about fashion and about spending, explains F.K. Grunert, its manager.
What still seems to work better is concentrating on urban centres, even though that means a smaller potential market. This month Uniqlo opened a stand-alone store in Manhattan’s Soho; such shops tend to do well. In 2002 it had 21 stores in Britain, dotted around the north-west, Midlands and south-east; now eight of the ten it still has are in London.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2 . Gyms that profit most from the January rush
Every year, like clockwork, many people go through the same routine. On December 26th and January 1st, as the fog of cheese, chocolate oranges and champagne lifts, regret creeps(悄悄出现)in. Online searches for “get fit” and “lose weight” increase.
Many gym recruits(新成员)will have their new sportswear on for high-intensity interval training. In the basement of Another Space, a club near London’s Leicester Square, music pumps and light flash as a trainer shouts instructions to a group of mostly young women. They are pushed through bursts of burpees, handclap push-ups and various kick and punches at boxing bags. The training is murderous.
They are at one end of a fitness market.
Pure Gym expects soon to reach 1 million members. Part of its appeal is that, unlike traditional gyms, members are not bound by a long contract. “We have taken a £500 decision and turned it into a £20 decision,” says Mr Cobbold.
A.There will be other ripple effects(连锁反应), too. |
B.That will be good news for some gym goers because many will soon suffer a second round of regret. |
C.However, the club’s luxurious changing rooms and bars relieve some of the pain. |
D.Health clubs of all shapes and sizes stand ready to respond. |
E.Spending on fashion items also increases around the time of joining a gym. |
F.At the other are budget gyms, which have accounted for the big part of gym growth in recent years. |
3 . On the pristine coast of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a small fishing village called Mahabalipuram is home to Mumu Surf School, one of the most popular surfing schools in India. It is run by Mukesh Panjanathan, also known as Mumu, who lives two minutes from the school on the beach.
Every morning, he watches the sunlight sparkle on the seawater, and palm leaves sway with the breeze. Along the shore are kattumarams, which he used to sneak into the sea as a child to ride the waves. But as beautiful as it looks, the beach town has a dark side.
Mumu was only 12–the youngest of six siblings–when his father, who suffered from alcoholism-related health problems, died by suicide.
“Alcohol addiction is an immense challenge for fishing communities.” Vincent Jain, the deputy chief of the South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies, told VICE. “Most of them start drinking when they reach their teens and start earning some money.”
It is common for fishermen to drink up to three times a day, and paying for their addiction uses up much of the money they make. As things stand, their income has been decreasing because of large-scale commercial fishing activities and the climate crisis.
Mumu, now 36, said fishermen use alcohol as a “painkiller” because of the exhausting nature of their jobs. They paddle(用桨划)their boats into the sea as early as three in the morning, sometimes in very harsh conditions, and return with a batch of fish at sunrise. That is, if they’re in luck, the rest of the day leaves them with nothing to do.
“Drinking makes them feel better. Slowly, it becomes a habit,” he said. “But things are changing.”
Over the last 15 years, the rise of surf culture in Mahabalipuram has not only transformed it into one of India’s top water sports destinations, but also opened doors for the young to pursue alternative careers. “The coming generations have much more freedom to choose what they want to do, instead of sitting around and getting drunk.” said Mumu, who is among the first surfers to emerge from the local fishing community.
1. According to paragraph 2, the underline word “kattumaarams” probably refers to .A.the alternative for the word “wave” in Mahabalipuram |
B.a kind of boat used in Mahabalipuram |
C.the animals living along the shore |
D.the friends of Mumu with whom he went to the sea |
A.The drinking culture here causes a lot of trouble. |
B.Many people died young in this place. |
C.The people here are too addicted to surfing. |
D.The night here is longer than other places. |
A.They have nothing to do after finishing their job. |
B.Drinking reduces their physical pain caused by their job. |
C.They are so used to drinking that they can’t quit it. |
D.Drinking relieves them of the tiredness caused by their job. |
A.how Mumu became a surfer in the village and started Mumu Surf School |
B.the new alternative careers the young can choose in the village |
C.how surfing culture helps fishermen in the village get rid of drinking |
D.other water sports destinations in India |
A. disorder B. influencing C. escalates D. reset E. satisfaction F. fruitless G. refreshed H. coincidence I. functions J. powerful K. recommended |
The best thing you can do for your health: sleep well
Do you think you got enough sleep this past week? Can you remember the last time you woke up without an alarm clock, feeling
Insufficient sleep is now one of the most significant lifestyle factors
Perhaps you have also noticed a desire to eat more when you’re tired? This is no
Worse, should you try to diet but don’t get enough sleep while doing so, it is
Put simply: sleep – a consistent seven- to nine-hour opportunity each night – is the single most effective thing we can do to
Barry Jenkins: ‘When you climb the ladder, you send it back down’
“So, you saw the film?” Barry Jenkins is eager to ask the minute we are introduced. He gives good eye contact through those stylish thick-rimmed glasses – not the big-time, Oscar-winning writer-director speaking, but a nervous artist, anxious
Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, Beale Street tells the story in which the personal experiences of a young black couple
Baldwin has been dead for 30 years, but his depiction of the fight against a country’s powerful prejudice is a sad reminder
Beale Street
6 . For years, studies have found that first-generation college students — those who do not have a parent with a college degree — lag behind other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created a ‘paradox’ in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has ‘continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close’ the achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper set to be published in the journal Psychological Science.
But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and other students.
The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the first-generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial needs, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.
Their thesis — that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact — was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students. They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.
Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education, learn the rules of the game, and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges don’t talk about the class advantage and disadvantages of different groups of students. Because U.S. colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students’ educational experience, many first-generation students lack sight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students like them can improve.
1. The authors of the research article are optimistic because _____________.A.the problem is solvable |
B.their approach is costless |
C.the recruiting rate has increased |
D.their findings appeal to students |
A.study at private universities |
B.are from single-parent families |
C.are in need of financial support |
D.have failed their college education |
A.are actually indifferent to the achievement gap |
B.are inexperienced in handling their issues at college |
C.may lack opportunities to apply for research projects |
D.can have a potential influence on other students |
A.universities often reject the culture of the middle-class |
B.students are usually to blame for their lack of resources |
C.social class greatly helps enrich one’s educational experience |
D.colleges are partly responsible for the problem in question |
Norway is Teaching Travelers to Travel
After 15 people died during Easter in 1967, the Norwegian Trekking Association and the Red Cross announced their campaign ‘Welcome to the mountains, but be responsible’. Fjellvettreglene, the ‘mountain code’
Nationally, Norway
1.
A.It comes from the heart. | B.It’s something you have to think about. |
C.It never gets boring. | D.It’s not a feeling or an emotion. |
A.She had long black hair. | B.She wore leather clothes. |
C.She never wore pants. | D.She wore blue jeans. |
A.Up Your Alley. | B.The Blackhearts. |
C.Gary Glitter | D.Sly and the Family Stone. |
A.She didn’t actually have much influence. | B.People still don’ understand her. |
C.She still wants to perform. | D.She is a star on the stage. |
A.revealed B.display C.doubles D.contrary E.suggestions F.raw G.advance H.dramatic I.functions J.connected K.developed |
Your new smart TV might be your pride and joy today but they will pale into insignificance compared with the technology expected to fill homes by 2030.
And now experts at Rightmove have
In just two years’ time, a temperature-changing mattress(床垫) will come into being that warms up in the winter and stays cool in the summer.Self-cleaning fabrics(布), truly waterproof materials and personal climate control are all being
Fast forward to 2023, a “smart window” appears in the bedroom that
A smart mirror, which is actually a screen with an integrated computer, could even make polite outfit (服装)
And by 2025 the experts predict there will be self-heating towels.
While in 2030 the home will seem like an incredibly hi-tech space, with
Perhaps most excitingly, there’s a 3D printer that could be used to print everything from tools and electronics to food and clothing using just
And the experts predict that by 2030, the machines will be as popular as televisions.Pocket-lint’s Stuart Miles said that every single electronic device in the home will be
Tim Danton, Editor of PC Pro magazine thinks smart phones will
Wolves have a certain undeserved reputation: fierce, dangerous, good for hunting down deer and farmers’ livestock. However, wolves have a softer, more social side, one that has been embraced by a heart-warming new initiative.
In a bid to save some of Europe’s last wolves, scientists have explored the willingness of these supposedly fierce creatures to help others of their kind. Female wolves, the scientists have discovered, make excellent foster parents to wolf cubs that are not their own. The study, published in Zoo Biology, suggests that captive-bred wolf cubs(幼兽) could be placed with wild wolf families, boosting the wild population.
The gray wolf was once the world’s most widely distributed mammal, but it became extinct as a result of widespread habitat destruction and the deliberate killing of wolves suspected of preying on livestock. Fear and hatred of the wolf have since become culturally rooted, fuelled by myths, fables and stories.
In Scandinavia, the gray wolf is endangered, the remaining population found by just five animals. As a result, European wolves are severely inbred and have little genetic variability(变异性), making them vulnerable to threats, such as outbreaks of disease that they can’t adapt to quickly. So Inger Scharis and Mats Amundin of Linkoping University, in Sweden, started Europe’s first gray wolf-fostering program. They worked with wolves kept at seven zoos across Scandinavia. Eight wolf cubs between four and six days old were removed from their natural parents and placed with other wolf packs in other zoos. The foster mothers accepted the new cubs placed in their midst.
The welfare of the foster cubs and the wolves’ natural behavior were monitored using a system of surveillance cameras. The foster cubs had a similar growth rate as their step siblings in the recipient litter, as well as their biological siblings in the source litter. The foster cubs had a better overall survival rate, with 73% surviving until 33 weeks, than their biological siblings left behind, of which 63% survived. That rate of survival is similar to that seen in wild wolf cubs. Scientists believe that wolves can recognize their young, but this study suggests they can only do so once cubs are somewhere between three to seven weeks of age.
If captive-bred cubs can be placed with wild-living families, which already have cubs of a similar age, not only will they have a good chance of survival, but they could help dramatically increase the diversity of the wild population, say the researchers. Just like the wild wolves they would join, these foster cubs would need protection from hunting. Their arrival could help preserve the future of one of nature’s most iconic and polarizing animals.
1. What’s the theme of the passage?A.Giving wolf cubs a new life | B.Foster wolf parents and foster cubs |
C.The fate of wild wolves | D.Changing diversity of wild wolves |
A. | B. |
C. | D. |
A.Female wolves are willing to raise wolf cubs of 3 to 7 weeks old. |
B.Foster cubs are accepted by foster parents and are well bred. |
C.Man’s hostile attitude towards wolves roots in myths, fables and stories. |
D.Foster cubs and their biological siblings have similar growth rate and survival rate. |
A.To help wolves survive various threats |
B.To improve wolves’ habitat and stop deliberate killing |
C.To save endangered wolves by increasing their population |
D.To raise man’s awareness of protecting wolves |