1 . What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed at the entrance? Or the soft background music?
But have you ever noticed the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop's scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is an increasingly powerful tool in encouraging people to buy.
A brand(品牌) store has become famous for its distinctive（独特的) smell which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, through scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers' intention(意图) to buy increased by 80 percent.
When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand's success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.
Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants‘s (店员) unhappy attitude and don't-touch-what-you-can't-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce(商务)(e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave.
Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut(椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store's windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.
1. According to the passage, what is a more and more powerful tool in the success of some brand stores?| A．Friendly assistants. | B．Distinctive smell. |
| C．Soft background music. | D．Attractive window displays. |
| A．smell | B．window displays |
| C．goods | D．sales assistants |
| A．show the advantages of brick-and-mortar stores |
| B．urge shop assistants to change their attitude. |
| C．push stores to use sights and sounds |
| D．introduce the rise of e-commerce |
| A．compare | B．argue |
| C．persuade | D．inform |
2 . Nowadays, more stores and restaurants are not accepting cash as payment. Instead, customers must pay with a credit card, or by smartphone app.
Many business owners say that being cashless has helped them streamline the way their business runs. Staff members don't have to worry about having enough money in the cash register to make change or about taking bills and coins to the bank.
However, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 8 million households in the United States don't have bank accounts. Also, many people, including kids, don't meet the requirements for a credit card.
“A cashless economy is not an inclusive economy. There are consumers who can't get a credit card, because of low income. When stores refuse to accept cash, they exclude low-income or homeless people,” says Tazra Mitchell, a policy director at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
Plus, people who do have credit cards might prefer to pay in cash. “Cash is used by almost eight in 10 people in the US every month. That's more than any other payment type,” says Nick Bourke, a director at the Pew Charitable Trusts' consumer finance project.
Lawmakers in several places have taken steps to ban cashless stores. A handful of major cities — including New. York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — have already passed laws to address the problem. In San Francisco, California, a law banning cashless stores was passed last May. It says most stores in the city must allow customers to pay with cash. Derek Remski helped write the San Francisco law. Remski says, "It's about understanding that not everyone has equal access to things.”
1. What does the underlined word “streamline” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Record. | B．Understand. | C．Redevelop. | D．Simplify |
| A．It is unfair to some people. | B．It is enjoyed by bank workers. |
| C．It is advantageous to customers. | D．It is the result of the marketplace. |
| A．Cash payment is still very popular with consumers. |
| B．Cashless stores will be driven out of the market. |
| C．Stores should allow more than one payment type. |
| D．Paying with credit cards has its own disadvantages. |
| A．They encouraged it. | B．They fought against it. |
| C．They cared little about it. | D．They were hopeful about it. |
The past years have seen great changes in China. So far, China has reached a stage
Up to now, the Belt and Road
The popularity of the Belt and Road has
