单选题 McDonald"s, the burger behemoth announced a 5.2% drop in profits for the first three months of 2014 and a 1.7% decrease in same store sales in the U.S. President and CEO Don Thompson emphasized that McDonald"s would be focusing on its core products, like its Big Mac, Egg McMuffin, and its famous french fries.
Thompson"s back-to-basics vow comes in response to the sort of menu creep the chain experienced in 2013, when it rolled out a seemingly endless stream of limited time offers. After all, those special promotions and innovations didn"t do much good. Same-store sales slipped by 0.2% in the U.S. last year, and chief operating officer Tim Fenton admitted that the fast-food chain "stumbled a bit, in 2013, with too many new products, too fast and we created a lot of complexity."
Thompson said that McDonald"s "core products are familiar favorites for our customers. They truly represent McDonald"s to all of our customers, and at about 40% of total sales, they are an incredible business asset for us that requires a constant publicity and promotion."
When McDonald"s first got off the ground in the 1940s, it had a nine-item menu made up of hamburger, cheeseburger, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie. It built its iconic reputation on guaranteeing that these food and beverage items would have the same great taste no matter the McDonald"s location at which they were served.
But as time goes on, too much menu diversification, which McDonald"s has suffered from of late, leads to longer customer wait times in an industry built on speed. "What McDonald"s workers do inside those four walls is really impressive. Everyone has their time and place, and their entire job is done in two or three steps," says Howard Penney, managing director at Hedgeye Risk Management. Adding more processes that come with a bigger menu, specifically the smoothie and espresso machines, has disrupted McDonald"s restaurants" time and motion. It takes a lot longer to make a smoothie than it does to pour a fountain Coke. "Everything they"ve done to become all things to all people has slowed service," Penney says. All in all, going back to its roots could be just what McDonald"s needs.
单选题 Why Don Thompson emphasized McDonald"s would be focusing on its core products?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。题干中的信息出现在文章的第一段末尾。对这句话的进一步解释在接下来的第二段，第二段第一、二句指出Don Thompson如此说话的原因，即“是为了应对麦当劳在2013年经历的菜品种类大泛滥。去年，麦当劳走马灯似地推出了各种限时菜单。然而，这些特别促销和创新并没有产生太好的效果”。因此C项为正确答案。
单选题 We can infer from Paragraph 2 that extensive menus bring McDonald"s more ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。第二段指出这些新产品没有产生太好的效果，而是使得same-store sales slipped by 0.25% in the U.S. last year(麦当劳美国同店销售额在去年下滑了0.2%)。所以说新的产品使公司遭受了利润缩减的窘境，因此D项正确。A项“年收益”与原文信息相矛盾，实际情况是收益下降而不是增长。B项“粉丝和顾客”和C项“投资项目”这些信息在原文中没有提到。
单选题 According to the passage, what"s the serious problem that McDonald"s nowadays faces?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。文章第五段第一句提到“但是随着时间的推移，麦当劳近期进行的菜单过度多样化导致客户等待时间延长。然而，快餐业是速度优先的行业”。由此可知麦当劳现在面临的一个重大问题是出餐速度变慢，而且这是由于菜单过于丰富导致的，因此B项“多样化的产品导致了工作效率的降低”与原文信息最契合，是正确答案。A项与原文主旨相反；C项信息无误，但是不是文中表达的麦当劳面临的主要问题；D项信息在原文中没有提到。
单选题 What"s the author"s attitude toward McDonald"s present situation?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 态度题。题干问的是作者对麦当劳现状的态度。首先要明确文章的第三段提到的“核心产品是客户最熟悉、最喜爱的产品……它们是我们不可替代的商业资产，需要持续的宣传推广”。然后要明了作者的态度，根据文章最后一句“总而言之，回归本源才是麦当劳需要做的事情”可知，作者与第三段中Don Thompson的看法一致，所以正确答案是D项，即作者持赞同态度。
单选题 For McDonald"s, what is the key point to solve the current problem?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。该文章是围绕麦当劳应该如何应对利润下滑而展开的。文中一再强调要回归根本，对其产品进行整改，加大力度宣传core products，减少不必要的庞杂产品。C项“宣传主打产品”与文章主题相对应，是正确答案。A项“提高产品多样性”与文意相反，B项“建立强大的品牌地位”是麦当劳在建立初期就达成了的成就，D项“缩减门店数量”在原文中没有提到。