单选题 Queuing is nothing special in Japan. Every day, television programs show long lines of people queuing for up to one hour even in front of regular noodle shops, only to finish their food within less than ten minutes.
Why Japanese people queue so often? Do they love it? Probably they do. According to Japanese people, just like an excessively high price can evoke an image of equally high quality, long waiting lines act as an indicator for popularity, reduce availability and increase the subjective value of a good. Thus, for many Japanese customers, waiting lines are probably the most effective advertisement. For example, in an article published in The Japan Times in summer 2007, a Japanese woman confessed that she enjoyed queuing outside shops and restaurants and that she usually joined the line before asking the person in front of her what kind of product was sold. Standing in line also increases and extends anticipation until—yatto! (finally!)—patience is rewarded with the desired product. But when taken to an extreme level, the product one is actually queuing for ceases to be of any importance at all.
There are also some customers who are unable to queue or who are unwilling to wait, thinking it's a waste of time queuing in a line. What could they do? They can rent a queuer who will stand in line and purchase the desired product for them. Obviously, this service is not free of charge. Some service companies who offer all kinds of unusual service provide rentable "queuers" . What's more, in addition to providing queuers to individuals, the service companies also provide queuers to some shops to increase the image of a hard-to-get product and make customers want to join the line by forming or extending lines. Therefore, waiting lines have become a marketing tool and it would not be surprising to find professional queuers in a line. Some people view it a pure speculation, but they can't deny that it really works and the wage of a few professional queuers to keep the line in shape would be a minor investment compared with what would happen if the queue suddenly disappeared.
However, success is not always guaranteed because the attractiveness of waiting in line can easily backfire if the desired product does not meet expectations.

单选题 What is the marketing tool appears in the text?
A. Providing queuers to individuals.
B. Providing queuers to shops.
C. Hiring professional queuers to wait for oneself.41．B本题要求考生在通读第一段的基础上进行判断。由第一段第一句“Nowadays, our society is being reshaped by information technologies-computers, telecommunications networks, and other digital systems. (现在，信息技术——计算机，电信网络和其他数字系统正在重新塑造着我们的社会。)”可知，计算机、电信网络和数字系统都属于信息技术。由第一段第二句“...driven by such innovations as the steam engine, railroad, telephone, and automobile. (…由蒸汽机、铁路、电话、汽车等发明驱动，经历了巨大变化。)”可知，电话不属于信息技术。所以，本题选择B。
D. Hiring professional queuers to keep a line in shape.

单选题 Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. All the Japanese people love queuing.
B. Japanese people join in a line without asking what product is sold.
C. Waiting lines are very attractive to some Japanese customers.
D. Japanese advertisements are waiting lines.

单选题 What does the word "backfire" (Line 2, Paragraph 4) mean?
A. Disappear.
B. Make a sudden noise like an explosion.
C. Have the opposite effect to the one intended.
D. Intensify.

单选题 It can be inferred from the text that ______.
A. Japanese people eat foods quickly
B. many shops hire professional queuers to form or extend waiting lines
C. it's very easy to keep Japanese people in order
D. most Japanese people queue paying no attention to the sold products

单选题 The best title for the text probably is ______.
A. Queuing in Japan B. A New Marketing Tool
C. Professional Queuers D. Keep Order