Questions 3 and 4 will be based on thefollowing news item.

　　3

　　A.It is likely to close many of its stores.

　　B.It is known for the quality of its goods.

　　C.It remains competitive in the recession.

　　D.It will expand its online retail business.

　　4

　　A.Expand its business beyond groceries.

　　B.Fire 25,000 of its current employees.

　　C.Cut its DVD publishing business.

　　D.Sell its business for one pound.

　　News Item Two

　　Woolworths is one of the best known names on theBritish High Street. It's been in business nearly acentury. (3) Many of its 800 stores are likely to closefollowing the company's decision to call inadministrators (4) after an attempt to sell thebusiness for a token 1 failed.

　　The company has huge debts. The immediate cause for the collapse has been Britain's slidetoward recession, which has cut into consumer spending. However, the business had been introuble for years. Known for low-priced general goods, Woolworths has struggled in the face ofcompetition from supermarkets expanding beyond groceries and a new generation of Internetretailers.

　　Many of the store group's 25,000 employees are likely to lose their jobs. Some profitableareas such as the DVD publishing business will survive.

　　3.What do we learn about Woolworths from the news report?

　　4.What did Woolworths attempt to do recently?

　　短篇新聞(二)

　　伍爾沃斯曾是英國(guó)高街上最著名的品牌之一，是一家百年老字號(hào)，然而其全部800余家門(mén)店不得不在公司做出請(qǐng)來(lái)管理者的決定之后關(guān)閉，這是在以象征性的1英鎊的價(jià)格出售業(yè)務(wù)失敗之后發(fā)生的。

　　該公司負(fù)債累累。公司破產(chǎn)的直接原因是英國(guó)的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退，人均消費(fèi)水平下降。然而，多年來(lái)這家企業(yè)風(fēng)波不斷。一直以普通商品價(jià)格低廉著稱(chēng)的伍爾沃斯，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)陷入到了與規(guī)模更大的超市及新一代網(wǎng)絡(luò)零售商進(jìn)行競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的困境當(dāng)中。

　　伍爾沃斯旗下的25000名員工將會(huì)面臨失業(yè)的危機(jī)。一些尚在盈利的如DVD出版業(yè)務(wù)得以存活。

　　3.可以從文中了解到關(guān)于伍爾沃斯的什么信息?

　　4.伍爾沃斯最近采取了什么舉措?

　　參考答案：

　　【小題3】A

　　【小題4】D

　　習(xí)題解析：

　　【小題3】新聞開(kāi)頭部分提到，伍爾沃斯是英國(guó)高街最著名的品牌之一，已經(jīng)營(yíng)百年，它企圖以象征性的1英鎊賣(mài)掉其業(yè)務(wù)，但沒(méi)有成功，于是該公司做出了請(qǐng)來(lái)公司管理者的決定，為此，其 800 多家分店中有許多很可能關(guān)張。由此可知，伍爾沃斯有可能關(guān)掉其多家分店，故本題選 A。

　　【小題4】新聞開(kāi)頭提到，after an attempt to sell the business for a token 1 failed，即該企業(yè)試圖以象征性的1英鎊賣(mài)掉其業(yè)務(wù)沒(méi)有成功，這和問(wèn)題中的 attempt to do 相吻合，故可知，以1美元出售其業(yè)務(wù)是該公司最近的一種嘗試，故本題答案為 D。