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1、雅思阅读实战16篇（附答案）（word下载版）How to increase salesPublished online:Nov 9th 2006From The Economist print editionHow shops can exploit peopled herd mentality to increase sales1.A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut itis.Shopkeepers know that filling a store with
2、 the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feelhungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended.Stocking the most expensiveproducts at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.Nowresearchers are investigating how“swarm intelligence（that is,how a
3、nts,bees or any socialanimal,including humans,behave in a crowd）can be used to influence what people buy.2.At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome,Zeeshan-ul-hassanUsmani,a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology,described a new way toincrease impul
4、se buying using this phenomenon.Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buythings they did not realise they wanted:for instance,by placing everyday items such as milk andeggs at the back of the store,forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes,al
5、so of the Florida Institute of Technology,set out to enhancethis tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct.The idea is that,if a certain product isseen to be popular,shoppers are likely to choose it too.The challenge is to keep customersinformed about what others are buying.3.Enter smart-
6、cart technology.In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radiofrequency identification tag,a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information,andevery trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer.As acustomer walks past a shelf of goods,a sc
7、reen on the shelf tells him how many people currently inthe shop have chosen that particular product.If the number is high,he is more likely to select ittoo.4.Mr Usmanis uswarm-movesv model appeals to supermarkets because it increases saleswithout the need to give people discounts.And it gives shopp
8、ers the satisfaction of knowing thatthey bought the“right“productthat is,the one everyone else bought.The model has not yetbeen tested widely in the real world,mainly because radio frequency identification technology isnew and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets.But Mr Usmani
9、 says thatboth Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work,and testing will getunder way in the spring.5.Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could,indeed,beboosted in this way.Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his c
10、olleagueshave described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloadedpreviously unknown songs.The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked byhow many times they had been downloaded,they followed the crowd.When the songs were notordered by rank,but th
11、e number of times they had been downloaded was displayed,the effect ofsocial influence was still there but was less pronounced.People thus follow the herd when it iseasy fbr them to do so.6.In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering itsproducts according to sales
12、 data from department stores and research companies.The shops sellonly the most popular items in each product category,and the rankings are updated weekly.Icosystem,a company in Cambridge,Massachusetts,also aims to exploit knowledge of socialnetworking to improve sales.7.And the psychology that work
13、s in physical stores is just as potent on the internet.Onlineretailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular withlike-minded consumers.Even in the privacy of your home,you can still be part of the swarm.(644 words)Questions 1-6Complete the sentences below with words
14、 taken from the reading passage.Use NO MORE THANTHREE WORDS for each answer.Shopowners realize that the smell of can increase sales of foodproducts.2.In shops,products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more3.According to Mr.Usmani,with the use of“swarm intelligence phenome
15、non,a newmethod can be applied to encour age.4.On the way to everyday items at the back of the store,shoppers might be tempted to buy5.If the number of buyers shown on the is high,other customers tend tofollow them.6.Using the“swarm-moves“model,shopowners do not have to give customers_ to increase s
16、ales.Questions 7-12Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?Forquestions 7-12 writeYES if the statement agrees with the informationNO if the statement contraicts the informationNOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage7.Radio frequency ide
17、ntification technology has been installed experimentally in bigsupermarkets like Wal-Mart.8.People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.9.Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers.10.People follow the others to the same extent
18、 whether it is convenient or not.11.Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of othershops.12.Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life.Answer keys:1.答案：(freshly baked)b re a d.(第 1 段第 2 行：Shoppers know that filling a store withthe aroma of fres
19、hly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more foodthan they intended.)2.答案：expensive.(第 1 段第 4 行：Stocking the most expensive products at eye levelmakes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.)3.答案：impulse b u y in g.(第 2 段第 1 句：At a recent conference on
20、the simulation ofadaptive behaviour in Rome,Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani,a computer scientist from the FloridaInstitute of Technology,described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.)4.答案：other(tempting)goods/things/products.(第 2 段第 2 句：Supermarkets alreadyencourage shoppers to buy
21、things they did not realise they wanted:for instance,by placingeveryday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store,forcing shoppers to walk past othertempting goods to reach them.)5.答案：screen.(第 3 段第 4 行：As a customer walks past a shelf of goods,a screen onthe shelf tells him how many peop
22、le currently in the shop have chosen that particular product.Ifthe number is high,he is more likely to select it too.)6.答案：discounts.(第 4 段第第 1 句：Mr Usmani,s swarm-moves”model appealsto supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.)7.答案：N O.(第 4 段第 3、4 句：The mode
23、l has not yet been tested widely in the realworld,mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only beeninstalled experimentally in some supermarkets.But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart inAmerica an Tesco in Britain are interestd in his workd,and testing will get under w
24、ay in the spring.短 语“get under way”的意思是“开始进行，在 Wal-Mart的试验要等到春天才开始)8.答案：NOT G IV E N.(在文中没有提及该信息)9.答案：YES o (第 5 段第 3 句：The reseachers found that when people could see the songsranked by how many times they have been downloaded,they followed the crowd.)1 0.答案：NOo(第 5 段最后两句：When the songs are not ord
25、ered by rank,but the numberof times they had been downloaded was displayed,the effect of social influence was still there butwas less pronounced.People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.pronounced 的词义是“显著的、明显的”)1 1.答案：YESo(第 6 段第 1 句：In Japan a chain of convenience shops called
26、RanKingRanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores andresearch companies.)1 2.答案：YESo(最后一段最后一句：Even in the privacy of your home,you can still be partof the swarm,home 应该算是 everyday life 的一部分)Rogue theory of smell gets a boostPublished online:6 December 2006
27、Rogue theory of smell gets a boost1.A controversial theory of how we smell,which claims that our fine sense of odour dependson quantum mechanics,has been given the thumbs up by a team of physicists.2.Calculations by researchers at University College London(UCL)show that the idea that wesmell odour m
28、olecules by sensing their molecular vibrations makes sense in terms of the physicsinvolved.3.Thats still some way from proving that the theory,proposed in the mid-1990s bybiophysicist Luca Turin,is correct.But it should make other scientists take the idea moreseriously.4.This is a big step forward,s
29、ays Turin,who has now set up his own perfume companyFlexitral in Virginia.He says that since he published his theory,it has been ignored rather thancriticized.5.Most scientists have assumed that our sense of smell depends on receptors in the nosedetecting the shape of incoming molecules,which trigge
30、rs a signal to the brain.This molecularlock and key*process is thought to lie behind a wide range of the bodys detection systems:it ishow some parts of the immune system recognise invaders,for example,and how the tonguerecognizes some tastes.6.But Turin argued that smell doesnt seem to fit this pict
31、ure very well.Molecules that lookalmost identical can smell very different such as alcohols,which smell like spirits,and thiols,which smell like rotten eggs.And molecules with very different structures can smell similar.Moststrikingly,some molecules can smell different-to animals,if not necessarily
32、to humans 一simply because they contain different isotopes(atoms that are chemically identical but have adifferent mass).7.Turins explanation for these smelly facts invokes the idea that the smell signal in olfactoryreceptor proteins is triggered not by an odour molecules shape,but by its vibrations,
33、which canenourage an electron to jump between two parts of the receptor in a quantum-mechanical processcalled tunnelling.This electron movement could initiate the smell signal being sent to the brain.8.This would explain why isotopes can smell different:their vibration frequencies arechanged if the
34、atoms are heavier.Turins mechanism,says Marshall Stoneham of the UCL team,ismore like swipe-card identification than a key fitting a lock.9.Vibration-assisted electron tunnelling can undoubtedly occur-it is used in anexperimental technique fbr measuring molecular vibrations.The question is whether t
35、his ispossible in the nose,says Stonehams colleague,Andrew Horsfield.10.Stoneham says that when he first heard about Turins idea,while Turin was himself based atUCL,nI didnt believe it.But,he adds,*because it was an interesting idea,I thought I shouldprove it couldnt work.I did some simple calculati
36、ons,and only then began to feel Luca could beright.Now Stoneham and his co-workers have done the job more thoroughly,in a paper soon tobe published in Physical Review Letters.11.The UCL team calculated the rates of electron hopping in a nose receptor that has an odorantmolecule bound to it.This rate
37、 depends on various properties of the biomolecular system that arenot known,but the researchers could estimate these parameters based on typical values formolecules of this sort.12.The key issue is whether the hopping rate with the odorant in place is significantly greaterthan that without it.The ca
38、lculations show that it is which means that odour identification inthis way seems theoretically possible.13.But Horsfield stresses that thats different from a proof of Turins idea.So far things lookplausible,but we need proper experimental verification.Were beginning to think about whatexperiments c
39、ould be performed.114.Meanwhile,Turin is pressing ahead with his hypothesis.At Flexitral we have beendesigning odorants exclusively on the basis of their computed vibrations,he says.Our successrate at odorant discovery is two orders of magnitude better than the competition.At the very least,he is pu
40、tting his money where his nose is.(668 words Nature)Questions 1-4Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?Please writeTRUEFALSEif the statement agrees with the writerif the statement does not agree with the writerNOT GIVENif there is no information about this in th
41、e passage1.The result of the study at UCL agrees with Turins theory.2.The study at UCL could conclusively prove what Luca Turin has hypothesized.3.Turin left his post at UCL and started his own business because his theory wasignored.4.The molecules of alcohols and those of thiols look alike.Question
42、s 5-9Complete the sentences below with words from the passage.Use NO MORE THAN THREEWORDS for each answer.5.The hypothesis that we smell by sensing the molecular vibration was made by.6.Turins company is based in.7.Most scientists believed that our nose works in the same way as our.8.Different isoto
43、pes can smell different when weigh differently.9.According to Audrew Horsfield,it is still to be proved that could really occurin human nose.Question 10-12Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for eachanswer.10.Whats the name of the researcher who collaborated wi
44、th Stoneham?11.What is the next step of the UCL teams study?12.What is the theoretical basis in designing odorants in Turins company?(by Zhou Hong)Answer Keys and Explanations1.T 见第一段。“give sth the thumbs up 为“接受 的意思。2.F 见第三段。Thats still some way from proving that the theory,proposed in themid-1990s
45、 by biophysicist Luca Turin,is co rrect.意 即“现在尚无法证实生物物理学家 Luca在九十年代中期提出的理论是否正确。”3.NG4.T 见第六段 uMolecules that look almost identical can smell very different-such asalcohols,which smell like spirits,and thiols,which smell like rotten eggs.”identical 词是“完全相同”的意思。这句话是说alcohols和 thiols的分子结构看起来一样，但是它们的味道却
46、相去甚远。5.Luca Turin 文章第二，三和七段均可看出Luca的理论即人类的鼻子是通过感觉气味分子的震动来分辨气味的。6.Virginia 见第四段。7.tongue 见第五段“This molecular lock and key process is thought to liebehind a wide range of the bodys detection systems:it is how some parts of the immune systemrecognise invaders,for example,and how the tongue recognizes s
47、ome tastes.M8.the atoms 见第八段“This would explain why isotopes can smell different:their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier.,9.vibration-assisted electron tunneling 见第九段“The question is whether this ispossible in the nose,says Stonehams colleague,Andrew H orsfield.句中的代词“this”指句
48、首的 u vibration-assisted electron tunneling”。10.Andrew Horsfield 见第九段结尾。11.proper experimental verification 见第十三段。12.their computed vibrations 见第十四段。Why did a promising heart drug fail?Doomed drug highlights complications of meddling with cholesterol.1.The failure of a high-profile cholesterol drug h
49、as thrown a spotlight on the complicatedmachinery that regulates cholesterol levels.But many researchers remain confident that drugs toboost levels of good cholesterol are still one of the most promising means to combat spirallingheart disease.2.Drug company Pfizer announced on 2 December that it wa
50、s cancelling all clinical trials oftorcetrapib,a drug designed to raise heart-protective high-density lipoproteins(HDLs).In a trial of15000 patients,a safety board found that more people died or suffered cardiovascular problemsafter taking the drug plus a chole sterol-Io wen ng statin than those in