The price of meat is already up ________ from what it was a year ago.
A.sharply
B.highly
C.urgently
D.primarily
A.sharply
B.highly
C.urgently
D.primarily
A scientist who wants to predict the way in which consumers(消费者) will spend their money must study consumer behavior. He must obtain data both on the resources of consumers and on the motives that tend to encourage or discourage money spending.
If an economist were asked which of three groups borrow most—people with rising incomes, stable incomes, or 'decreasing incomes—he would probably answer, those with decreasing incomes. Actually, in the years 1947~1950, the answer was: people with rising incomes. People with decreasing incomes were next and people with stable incomes borrowed the least. This shows us that traditional assumptions(假设) about earning and spending are not always reliable. Another traditional assumption is that if people who have money expect prices to go up they will hasten to buy. If they expect prices to go down, they will postpone buying. But research surveys have shown that this is not always true. The expectations of price increases may not stimulate buying. One typical attitude was expressed by the wife of a mechanic in an interview at a time of rising prices. "In a few months", she said, "we'll have to pay more for meat and milk; we'll have less to spend on other things". Her family had been planning to buy a new car but they postponed this purchase. Furthermore, the rise in prices that has already taken place may be disliked and buyers' resistance may be produced. This is shown by the following typical comment; "I just don't pay these prices; they are too high".
The investigations mentioned above were carried out in America; condition most helpful to spending appears to be price stability. If prices have been stable and people consider that they are reasonable, they are likely to buy. Thus, it appears that the common business policy of maintaining stable prices is based on a correct understanding of consumer psychology(心理学).
According to the passage, if one wants to predict the way people spend their money, he should______.
A.rely on traditional assumptions about earning and spending
B.try to encourage or discourage consumers to spend money
C.carry out investigations on consumer behavior. and get data of consumers incomes and money spending motives
D.do researches in consumer psychology in a laboratory
The recent growth of export surpluses on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great, partly because a strange sequence of two successful grain harvests in North America is now being followed by a third. Most of Britain's overseas suppliers of meat, too, are offering more this year and home production has also risen.
But the effect of all this on the food situation in this country has been made worse by a simultaneous rise in food prices, due chiefly to the gradual cutting down of government support for food. The shops are overstocked with food net only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it.
Moreover, the rise in domestic prices has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall, with the result that imported food, with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home-produced variety. And now grain prices, too, are falling. Consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be enabled to benefit from this trend.
The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers. The older generations have seen it all happen before. Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food imports and a shrinking home market. Present production is running at 51 per cent above pre-war levels, and the government has called for an expansion to 60 per cent by 1956; but repeated Ministerial advice is carrying little weight and the expansion program is not working very well.
Why is there "wide-spread uneasiness and confusion" about the food situation in Britain?
A.Despite the abundance, food prices keep rising.
B.The abundant food supply is not expected to last.
C.Britain will cut back on its production of food.
D.Britain is importing less food.
The meat is not ready ______ and it ______ has to be cooked for another five minutes.
A) still, yet B) yet, still C) yet, already D) already, yet
She cooked the meat for a long time so as to make it ________ enough to eat.
A) mild
B) slight
C) light
D) tender