阅读理解 For decades a titan has towered over America's shopping landscape. Walmart is not just the world's biggest retailer but the biggest private employer and, by sales, the biggest company. Last year its tills rang up takings of $482 billion, about twice Apple's revenue. But now the beast of Bentonville must cope with an unfamiliar sensation. After ruling as the undisputed disrupter of American retailing, Walmart finds itself being disrupted.
The source of the commotion is online shopping, specifically online shopping at Amazon. E-commerce accounted for $1 in every $10 that American shoppers spent last year, up by 15% from 2014. Amazon's North American sales grew at about twice that rate. Walmart's share of America's retail sales, which stands at 10.6%, is still more than twice Amazon's, but it peaked in 2009 at nearly 12%. In January Walmart said it would close 154 American stores. It may need to shut more.
Walmart's 'supercentres' once offered an unmatched combination of squeezed prices and expansive choice, but this formula is losing its magic. Discounters and other competitors are rivalling Walmart's low prices at the same time as Amazon's warehouses can beat its range. Amazon is also offering something different. Whereas Walmart has strived to help Americans save money, Amazon is obsessed with helping them save time. Amazon has become a new kind of big-box retailer, with warehouses placed strategically around America to speed deliveries to customers. Innovations such as Dash, which let you press a button in your kitchen to order soap or coffee, could turn Amazon from an online store into something like a utility.
Walmart is fighting back. It is spending billions in the hope of growing even larger. It is offering more goods to more customers, in stores and online. With its legendary attention to detail, it is making its operations even more efficient. For instance, it will save more than 35 truckloads of buttercream icing this year, after spotting that its bakers were leaving too much icing in the bottom of their tubs. By using 27 different boxes rather than i2 to deliver online goods, the firm reckons it can save 7.2m cubic feet of cardboard boxes a year.
Last month sunny results sent up its share price by 10%. Yet far from offering comfort to other retailers hoping to knit together physical and online businesses, Walmart's fightback shows how hard it will be for them to repel Amazon.

单选题 From the first paragraph we know ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】 推理判断题。本题是问从第一段中推出什么。第一段最后一句提到“沃尔玛发现自己正在被颠覆”，所以A项“沃尔玛正面临一个威胁”是正确答案。 B项“沃尔玛有一个新的竞争对手——苹果”，从文中第二段可知，其竞争对手是亚马逊；C项“沃尔玛曾引起轰动”，第一段没有提到沃尔玛做出的引起轰动的事件；D项“本顿维尔”是沃尔玛总部所在的城市，并非一个公司。

单选题 The word 'commotion' (Line 1, Para. 2) is closest in meaning to ______.

单选题 Amazon's magic is ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】 事实细节题。第三段主要讲亚马逊如何与沃尔玛竞争以及其优势何在。第四句中提到Amazon is obsessed with helping them save time(亚马逊正在痴迷于帮助美国人节省时间)，所以B项“节约顾客的时间”为正确答案。 A项“提供多样化的选择”，第三段第二句提到Amazon's warehouses can beat its range(亚马逊的仓库中有媲美沃尔玛的商品种类)，但亚马逊只是与之抗衡，在商品种类方面并没有超越沃尔玛，所以A项不正确；C项“售卖创新的产品”，第三段第六句提到亚马逊有Innovations such as Dash(类似一键购买这样的创新产品)，这个是为了方便顾客购物，并非售卖创新的产品，C项是对文意的曲解，故排除；D项“在全国都有仓库”，在第三段第五句提到亚马逊将自己的仓库精心地放置在美国各地，使商品更快送达到客户手中，其目的也是节省时间。

单选题 Walmart has more advantage than Amazon, especially in ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】 事实细节题。第四段提到沃尔玛面对竞争的反击。第四段第三句It is offering more goods...in stores and online(通过实体店和线上店，它正在提供更多的货物……)，所以可知沃尔玛的优势在于整合线上商店和线下实体店，提供更多的商品，因此答案选D项。 A项“快速交货给客户”，在第三段第五句提到亚马逊在美国各地都有仓库，使商品可以更快地送达客户手中，并非沃尔玛，A项拼凑了文章信息，可排除；B项“不同大小的投递箱”，是沃尔玛公司注重细节，为了节约纸箱而增加不同规格纸箱，但不是沃尔玛公司的主要优势；C项“底部有更多糖霜的蛋糕”，第四段第五句中提到bakers were leaving too much icing in the bottom of their tubs(面包师过去遗留了太多的奶油糖霜在调味桶里)，体现了沃尔玛注重细节使运营更有效，但并非其主要优势，故排除C项。

单选题 The author's attitude towards Walmart's war against Amazon is ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】 态度方向题。第五段提到沃尔玛股价上涨了10%，但远不能让其他零售商安心，最后一句提到Walmart's fightback shows how hard it will be for them to repel Amazon(但沃尔玛的反击让它们看到击退亚马逊有多难)，由此可推测作者认为沃尔玛很难战胜亚马逊，态度是悲观的，因此答案选C项。 A项“乐观的”、B项“嘲弄的”和D项“模棱两可的”均与上述分析不符，可排除。