1 . From various competition gears (用具) that accompanied athletes from Team China winning medals to the huge traffic and exposure brought by Chinese 18-year-old skier star Gu Ailing who wore Anta items in her room on social media, Chinese domestic sports brands have emerged (显露) on one of the world’s largest sporting stages, and Anta has turned out to be the clear winner.
Anta has been the sportswear partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee since 2009. As the official sportswear provider of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Anta used its smart technology to equip 12 event teams of Team China in events including short track speed skating, skeleton and curling. Some of Anta’s Olympic licensed products have also become targets of Chinese social media users to snap up, especially the hats and shoulder bags in the shape of Bing Dwen Dwen, with the strong recommendation from foreign athletes, which sold out quickly on Anta’s online flagship store.
The Chinese sports equipment maker also owns brands such as Fila, Salomon and Descente. According to a ranking by sports new media sportsmoney, Fila and Descente held the first two positions in terms of the number of individual or team medal winners wearing the brand’s clothes when competing and receiving the awards as of February 18.
Phenix, a long established technical Alpine skiwear brand that has been acquired by China Dongxiang Group, enjoyed an outstanding performance as the sponsor of Team Norway uniforms, which won its 16th gold medal of the Beijing Games on Sunday, a record for a single country at a Winter Olympics.
The Winter Olympic Games has promoted many home-grown brands like Anta, Li Ning and Peak to global star brands and they emerge more strongly in competing with foreign sports competitors, industry analysts told the Global Times. With advanced technology and a promising future after the Beijing Winter Olympics, domestic sports brands are set to see huge growth opportunities on global markets with stronger brand awareness, they said.
1. What can we learn about Anta from the passage?| A．Chinese athletes are all fans of the brand. |
| B．Some of its licensed products have been a hit online. |
| C．It owns brands such as Fila, Phenix, and Descente. |
| D．It has sponsored the Chinese Olympic Committee for a decade. |
| A．The foreign sportswear competitors remains competitive. |
| B．The homegrown brands need to grow stronger brand awareness. |
| C．Anta, LiNing and Peak are long established global star brands. |
| D．There will be a great potential for national sports brands to realize. |
| A．National sportswear brand Anta has turned out to be the winner. |
| B．Domestic sports brands gain great popularity home and abroad. |
| C．Winter Olympics pored to have promoted domestic sports bands. |
| D．Winter Olympics witnessed fierce competition between different brands. |
| A．Culture | B．Entertainment | C．Science | D．Business |
2 . China’ s booming coffee business has made it the second most important market for global giant Starbucks, behind only its home U.S. market. But it’s also providing fertile ground for new and innovative (勇于创新的) players catering to local preferences. One of the latest in that group is Shanghai-based chain Manner Coffee, which, together with other similar homegrown names, are reshaping the country’s coffee drinking landscape.
This year alone has seen 16 financing events in China’s coffee sector, with more than 5 billion yuan ($784 million ) pouring into the space. Even the infamous Luckin Coffee, which was removed from the Nasdaq last year after being exposed for massive fraud (欺诈), is once again attracting investors’ attention.
Dubbed (被称作) as a seller of “street coffee” priced between 10 yuan and 20 yuan per cup, equal to $ 3 or less, Manner quickly became popular among young office workers for its less expensive price and high quality.
Manner and the other up-and-comers are thriving on a China coffee market that is growing at a healthy 15% per year. After expanding slowly in its first three years, Manner’s store count rose from just eight at the end of 2018 to 194 this year, with 165 in Shanghai and the rest in Beijng, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other cities. It plans to keep expanding outside of Shanghai by opening up to 100 new stores a year.
Meanwhile, Starbucks reported its same-store sales in the Chinese market grew by just 19% in its financial third quarter, down sharply from 91% growth in the previous quarter, due in part to weak year-ago figures from stores affected during early stages of the pandemic in 2020. The company forecast that growth would slow further still in the following years.
1. What does the underlined phrase “fertile ground” in paragraph 1 probably mean here?| A．Limited space. | B．Fat chance. |
| C．Rich soil. | D．Necessary conditions. |
| A．Starbucks is creating the country’s coffee-drinking landscape. |
| B．Starbucks was removed from the Nasdaq last year due to fraud. |
| C．Manner Coffee has a cheaper price and superior quality. |
| D．Manner Coffee plans to expand is overseas market. |
| A．To show that new players are starting to bite into Starbucks’ lunch. |
| B．To prove that Luckin Coffee is an unusually successful hit. |
| C．To explain the fast increase of Starbucks in the Chinese market. |
| D．To present the promising future of the U.S. coffee market. |
| A．Manner Coffee becomes fashionable worldwide “street coffee”. |
| B．Manner Coffee joins hand with Starbucks to develop business. |
| C．Manner Coffee replaces Starbucks both at home and abroad. |
| D．Manner Coffee takes on Starbucks in China with “street coffee”. |
