单选题 With increasing prosperity, Western European youth is having a fling that is creating distinctive consumer and cultural patterns.
The result has been the increasing emergence in Europe of that phenomenon well-known in America as the "youth market". This is a market in which enterprising businesses cater to the demands of teenagers and older youths in all their rock mania and pop-art forms.
In Western Europe, the youth market may appropriately be said to be in its infancy. In some countries such as Britain, West Germany and France, it is more advanced than in others. Some manifestations of the market, chiefly sociological, have been recorded, but it is only just beginning to be the subject of organized consumer research and promotion. Characteristics of evolving European youth market indicate dissimilarities as well as similarities to the American youth market.
The similarities: The market"s basis is essentially the same—more spending power and freedom to use it in the hands of teenagers and older youth. Young consumers also make up an increasingly high proportion of the population.
As in the United States, youthful tastes in Europe extend over a similar range of products—records and record players, transistor radios, leather jackets and "way-out", extravagantly styled clothing, cosmetics and soft drinks. Generally it now is difficult to tell in which direction trans-Atlantic teenage influences are flowing.
Also, a pattern of conformity dominates Europe youth as in this country, though in Britain the object is to wear clothes that "make the wearer stand out," but also make him "in," such as tight trousers and precisely tailored jackets.
Worship and emulation of "idols" in the entertainment field, especially the "pop" singers and other per-formers is pervasive. There"s also the same exuberance and unpredictability in sudden fad switches. In Paris, buyers of stores catering to the youth market" carefully watch what dress is being worn by a popular television teenage singer to be ready for a sudden demand for copies. In Stockholm other followers of teenage fads call the youth market "attractive but irrational."
The most obvious differences between the youth market in Europe and that in the United States is in size. In terms of volume and variety sales, the market in Europe is only a shadow of its American counterpart, but it is a growing shadow.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】根据第二段第一句末尾“...America as the "youth market"和第二段第二句开头“This is a market in which...”可知This is a market指的就是youth market，由第二句提到cater to the demands of teenagers and older youths in all their rock mania and pop-art forms.可知年青人对摇滚的狂热和流行艺术的追求，这就是distinctive consumer and cultural patterns的具体体现，故本题正确答案为A。