单选题 . Shoppers on Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season in America, are notoriously (声名狼藉地) aggressive. Some even start queuing outside stores before dawn to be the first to lay their hands on heavily discounted goods. Last year destructively violent bargain-hunters in the suburbs of New York City trampled (踩踏) a Wal-Mart employee to death. Despite the madness at many stores, however, the recession appears to have accelerated the pace at which shoppers are abandoning bricks and mortar (灰浆) in favour of online retailers—e-tailers.
E-commerce holds particular appeal in poor times as it enables people to compare prices across retailers quickly and easily. Buyers can sometimes avoid local sales taxes online, and shipping is often free. No wonder, then, that online shopping continues to grow even as the offline sort shrinks.
The shift in spending to the internet is good news for companies like P&G that lack retail outlets of their own. But it is a big concern for brick-and-mortar retailers, whose prices are often higher than those of e-tailers, since they must bear the extra expense of running stores.
The most obvious response to the growth of e-tailing is for conventional retailers to redouble their own efforts online. The online arms of big retailers are performing well, on the whole.
The concept of "multichannel" shopping, where people can buy the same items from the same retailer in several different ways, is gaining ground, and retailers are trying to encourage users of one channel to try another.
Retailers are also trying to make shopping seem fun and exciting to act against the recession. One common method is to set up "pop-up" stores, which appear for a short time before vanishing again, to develop a sense of novelty and urgency.
Stores are also trying to lure customers by offering services that are not available online. Best Buy, a consumer-electronics retailer, has started selling music lessons along with its musical instruments. Lululemon athletica, which sells sports clothes, offers free yoga classes. The idea is to bring people back to its shops regularly, increasing the likelihood that they will develop the habit of shopping there.1. Why does the author say the recession has accelerated the pace of online shopping? ______

A、 Because shoppers are aggressive when shopping at brick-and-mortar stores.
B、 Because online shopping allows people to look for cheaper goods more easily.
C、 Because the sales of brick-and-mortar shops shrink during economic recession.
D、 Because the same item is definitely cheaper when it is sold online.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】 第1、2段。
第1段最后一句提到经济衰退加速了人们在网上购物的步伐，而第2段首句中as之后的内容则明确表示网店受到青睐的原因，即能够让人们更便捷地对价格进行比较。言下之意是说，在经济困难时期，在网上更容易买到便宜的东西，B意思符合，为答案。
文章第1段讲到人们在黑色星期五购物时，非常疯狂，但这并非加速网络购物的根本原因，作者实际是以此段话为引子，为后来说明网络购物的火爆作铺垫，以形成对比；“网上购物的增长是源于实体店的不景气”这一因果关系在文中找不到依据，C不正确；D中definitely一词太过绝对，也不可选。
[参考译文] 在黑色星期五(指感恩节后的那个星期五)，也就是美国传统假日购物旺季开始的那一天，购物场面极为火爆。有些人甚至天没亮就在商店门前排队等候，以求第一个抢到跳水价的商品。去年，在纽约郊区，疯狂抢购打折商品的顾客就踩死了沃尔玛的一名员工。尽管人们对实体商铺的热度不减，经济衰退似乎已经加快了购物者抛弃实体店而选择网上零售商(即网店)的步伐。
电子商务在经济不景气时期能显示出一种特殊的吸引力：它可以让买家轻易、快速地货比三家。在网上购物，顾客有时还可以避开当地的销售税，而且常常是免费送货。这就难怪当实体店销售萎靡不振的时候，网络销售仍能持续增长。
对像宝洁这样没有自己的零售专卖店的公司来说，人们转向网上消费是个好消息，但却令实体商店的零售商非常忧心。因为与网店相比，实体商铺必须承受额外的经营成本，所以其商品价格往往要高于网店。
传统的零售商对于网店的增加作出的最明显的回应就是加倍努力发展网上业务。总体来说，大型零售店的网上业务还是开展得非常好的。
“多渠道”购物理念正受追捧，它是指人们可以通过不同的方式从同一家店铺买到同样的商品，而零售商也鼓励那些购物渠道单一的顾客尝试其他的购物方式。
此外，为应对经济衰退，零售商们也在努力增加购物的趣味性和刺激性。一个普遍的做法是开“限时店”，即店铺只开很短的时间，然后关闭不再营业，这样可以营造一种新奇感和紧迫感。
实体商铺也在通过提供一些网店没有的服务来吸引顾客。例如消费性电子产品零售商百思买在出售乐器的同时提供音乐课程；运动服装品牌露露柠檬体育用品公司为顾客提供免费的瑜珈课程。这样做是为了让人们定期光顾实体店，并增加人们习惯于在此购物的可能性。