自考英语

III. Reading Comprehension (30 points, 2 points each)

Passage One

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

Many of today’s most trusted sales techniques were invented over a century ago by a young merchant named Eaton in Toronto. When he was young, Eaton worked briefly with his brothers in small-town stores. In 1869, he set up his own shop in downtown Toronto. He had many competitors, but he was also ambitious and had a plan for success. He offered a unique style of trade, but as was expected, all the other shopkeepers laughed at him, believing he would eventually fail. However, Eaton was not a man to be easily defeated; he came up with a brand new notion of business – “Goods satisfactory, or money refunded.” He sold all his goods at fixed prices and only for cash.

With a sharp sense of what the public wanted, he went out of the way to meet their needs. His business grew rapidly. He set up new branches and started mail order service that allowed people to buy from a list of his goods.

Eaton’s list—advertisements of his day—was the first of its kind. It was distributed and read all over the country. It was the only way to access good-quality goods at reasonable prices for people living far away from big cites. It became part of their life. They even called it The Wishing Book. The secret of the list’s success was that Eaton gained the respect of his customers; they trusted him for good prices and quality goods. Probably because he remembered his miserable early days in Ireland, Eaton thought much of the welfare of his employees: better working conditions, shorter weekday hours than his competitors and Saturday afternoons off in the summer. In all this, he was a leader.

21. The best description of Eaton is that ______.

A. he was the richest merchant in Toronto  

B. he was a successful technical inventor

C. he introduced new sales practices   

D. he changed people’s ideas about businessmen

22. Eaton’s success lay primarily in that ____.

A. he sold only good quality goods

B. he was the first person to provide good service

C. he treated his employees better than any of his competitors

D. he won respect from his customers

23. From the passage we can infer that ______.

A. Eaton invented the idea of the internet shopping

B. Eaton drove other businessmen to failure

C. Eaton never sold his goods on credit   

D. Eaton was defeated by his rivals

24. The best title for this passage is _____.

A. Good Goods, of Money Refunded  

B. Eaton, a Sales Inventor

C. Customers’ Respect, a Secret of Success 

D. Eaton’s list, a Welcome Event in Sales History

25. Eaton’s List was important to people on farms because it was a convenient way of getting _____.

A. good-quality goods at reasonable prices  

B. goods at unreasonable prices

C. good-quality goods at unreasonable prices 

D. poor-quality goods at reasonable prices

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