单选题 In recent years, Israeli consumers have grown more demanding as they've become wealthier and more worldly-wise. Foreign travel is a national passion; this summer alone, one in 10 citizens will go abroad. Exposed to higher standards of service elsewhere, Israelis are returning home expecting the same. American firms have also begun arriving in large numbers. Chains such as KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut are setting a new standard of customer service, using strict employee training and constant monitoring to ensure the friendliness of frontline staff. Even the American habit of telling departing customers to "Have a nice day" has caught on all over Israel. "Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, 'Let's be nicer, '" says Itsik Cohen, director of a consulting firm. "Nothing happens without competition. "
Privatization, or the threat of it, is a motivation as well. Monopolies (垄断者) that until recently have been free to take their customers for granted now fear what Michael Perry, a marketing professor, calls "the revengeful (报复的) consumer. " When the government opened up competition with Bezaq, the phone company, its international branch lost 40% of its market share, even while offering competitive rates. Says Perry, "People wanted revenge for all the years of bad service. " The electric company, whose monopoly may be short-lived, has suddenly stopped requiring users to wait half a day for a repairman. Now, appointments are scheduled to the half-hour. The graceless ElAl Airlines, which is already at auction (拍卖), has retrained its employees to emphasize service and is boasting about the results in an ad campaign with the slogan, "You can feel the change in the air. " For the first time, praise outnumbers complaints on customer survey sheets.

单选题 It may be inferred from the passage that______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 由短文主题及第一段要点,尤其是第一段第三句,不难推知答案为A。
单选题 In the author's view, higher service standards are impossible in Israel______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 由短文主题及第一段最后一句及第二段内容,可推知高水准的服务水平需要“竞争”。
单选题 If someone in Israel today needs a repairman in case of a power failure,______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题涉及对短文第二段第五句的理解,应用于实际,即答案为D。
单选题 The example of E1A1 Airlines shows that______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题涉及短文第二段最后关于ElAl航空公司的事例,本例说明的是员工再培训对公司竞争力提高的重要性。
单选题 Why did Bezaq's international branch lose 40% of its market share?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干,本题答题出处应在第二段第二至第四句,这一层次涉及的要点是“the revengeful consumer”。
单选题 The last sentence of Paragraph 1 means______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 从文章中可以推出竞争的必要。