单选题 Unfortunately sales results over the last year have failed to come up to our expectations. A number of factors have been responsible, but basically it is the result of too many companies chasing the microcomputer market which is no longer expanding as fast as it once was.
Looking at the past year in detail, it must be admitted that the sales have declined considerably over the period. Our market share in wholesales has dropped from 21% to only 10%. The lack of a good local distributor in Asia has meant that our sales of the Obec series have collapsed despite the huge jump in the microcomputer market there during the past year. Our dominance of that part of the market has been lost to Strong, but once we find a new distributor we should come back strongly.
Retail sales in general have been a problem. There has been a tendency for the big high street stores to concentrate on high volume turnover of a few fairly well-known makers. When they stopped promotion of the Obec 1500, sales slumped by 50%. We are negotiating a fresh marketing deal for the new Obec 1600. Once this is settled we expect a gradual rise in sales, which will be followed by a big TV advertising campaign at the appropriate time. What we are facing now is that we have not been able to push the Obec 1500 as much as we would have liked because of insufficient advertising.
Most of our advertising budget went on the promotion of the Obec Extra before last Christmas. Unfortunately we have failed consistently to find the proper marketing strategy for the Extra, which has not been sold to either the leisure or the business market.
The serious business market has performed worse than any other in the period under review. The main factor was the introduction of the new Legend 586 Plus, when sales reduced over a period of several months. With this background it is natural that sales of the Obec 1000 and 2000 have gone into a slide. They showed a slight upturn just after the introduction of the 586 Plus, only to crash again a few weeks later.

单选题 What purpose does this passage possibly serve?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】主旨题。文章谈到了一个公司的批发、零售方面的成绩,以及各种产品的销售状况,而且在叙述中还夹杂了关于销售业绩滑坡的原因,以及与竞争对手相比较存在的差距。从这些方面来看,本文像一份公司的业务年报。
单选题 How many computer models are mentioned in this passage?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文中提到的Obec的产品型号共有5个,但是这里问的是文中总共提到多少个计算机产品型号,不仅限于Obec的产品。文中还提到了Legend的一个产品型号Legend 586 Plus。因此文中一共提及6个计算机产品型号。
单选题 Which of the following is NOT a measure suggested by the author to win back the market?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。该题考查对文章的整体把握能力。A、B、D选项均与原文意思相符。唯有C选项在原文里没有任何依据。第四段第二句说,Extra销售失利的原因是营销策略不当,并没有说到要通过改变营销策略挽回局面。
单选题 According to this passage, what is the major reason for its retail sales to drop?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。在文中第三段看到“There has been a tendency for the big high street stores to concentrate on high volume turnover of a few fairly well-known makers.”意思是“主要商场都更为关注一少部分比较知名企业的产品。”后文还进一步举例说明在商场停止为公司促销时,商品的销售额就下降了。
单选题 Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。据第五段所述,Obec 1000和Obec 2000的销量在疲软下滑的总体趋势中曾经有过小幅度回升,故A选项说法与原文不符,据第二段despite后面的意思,整个亚洲计算机批发市场销量有大幅度增长,故B选项所述意思与原文不符;据第五段所述,Legend 586 Plus投入市场之后引起了市场的观望(waited to see),因此市场出现疲软并不是由于市场转向了新产品,而是因为新产品入市导致购买停滞,因此D选项与原文意思不符。