阅读理解   The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered a complimentary nail-polish change while I waited for my hair to dry. Maybe she hoped this little amenity would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months.
    Suddenly everything is on sale. The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives retailers to treat you like a queen for a day. But now the customer rules, just for showing up. Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward. When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $ 2,000, it's time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause. You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off.
    Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street. New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as 'extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation'.
    Now everyone is hoping to restart the economy. But human nature is funny that way. In dangerous times, we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss, suspecting that it must be too good to be true. Store owners will tell you horror stories about shoppers with attitude, who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every turn. These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming: Will people expect discounts forever? Will their hard-won brand luster be forever cheapened, especially for items whose allure depends on their being ridiculously priced?
    There will surely come a day when things go back to 'normal'; retail sales even inched up in January after sinking for the previous six months. Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of the markets, and haggling is a low-risk, high-value contact sport. Trauma digs deep into habit, like my 85-year-old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet 'the bomb shelter.' The children of the First Depression were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared. They came to be called the 'greatest generation.' As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources, who knows what might come of it? We have lived in an age of wanton waste, and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line.
单选题     Why did the stylist treat the author so well when she got her hair cut? ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题 stylist, treat well 本文共有五段。第一段提到造型师在理发时提供完美服务，以留住顾客。第二段介绍因为经济衰退，服务行业的商家变得殷勤。第三段阐述了餐饮业对顾客的热忱态度。第四段强调了消费者对折扣的追求。第五段总结前文，并暗示人们应该保持节俭的作风。 根据题干关键词定位到文章第一段。通过原文可知，卖家在绞尽脑汁地取悦顾客，希望其能频繁护理头发，光顾小店。而卖家这样做正是因为女性的剪发次数越来越少，四个月才去剪一次头发，因此C项“女性越来越不频繁剪头发”符合题意。A项“商店尝试各种各样的方法来满足顾客”、B项“大大小小的商店提供大额折扣”和D项“顾客不愿冲动地购买东西”均不符合题意。故本题选C。 [参考译文] 当我剪头发时，第一件事情发生了。造型师在我等候头发吹干时，为我免费修指甲。也许她希望这项小小的福利可以减缓女性理发的间隔时间越来越长的趋势，她们甚至四个月才打理一次头发。 突然一切都在促销。经济衰退的加剧极大地刺激了零售商，使他们对待你如一日女王。但是现在客户们掌管权力只是为了炫耀。你拨弄围巾，然后走开，就能得到较低的价格。当修理工打电话来告诉你，刹车和同步带以及其他服务的花费将接近2000美元时，顾客们是时候使出最新的还价手法了——沉默地考虑。你真的不必为了让他减掉几百块钱而说一些令人同情的话。 在餐厅也会受到热忱款待，特别是在华尔街周围。《纽约时报》餐厅评论家弗兰克·布鲁尼将新餐厅的风格描绘为“极度乐观，超级绝望”。 现在每个人都希望重新振兴经济，但是人性就是这样。在危险时刻，我们紧紧盯着交易，怀疑它一定好过头了，因此无法成真。店主会态度明确地告诉你关于购物者的恐怖故事，他们寻求折扣，并在每一回合中炫耀他们的新权力。这些店主眉头紧锁，因为他们觉得如果让顾客养成了坏习惯，他们会不会永远期待折扣?那些昂贵的品牌会不会变得廉价?特别是对于那些靠其高价吸引顾客的商品会不会也失去原有的吸引力? 肯定会有一天，所有的事情将回归“正常”。零售销售额在经历六个月的下降之后在一月份缓慢上升。讨价还价会上瘾，无论市场状况如何，讨价还价是一种低风险、高价值的活动。创伤深入人心，就像我85岁的母亲仍然叫她的罐头柜“防空洞”。第一次大萧条时期的孩子们在一切恢复以后，在很长一段时间里仍然节约线绳和布道的祭品，他们后来被称为“最伟大的一代”。当我们学会成为我们资源的体面管家时，谁知道可能会发生什么呢?我们生活在肆意浪费的时代，而践行节约的价值远远超出了我们自己的底线。
单选题     By saying the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2, the author shows that customers ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】含义题 underlined sentence, Paragraph 2, customers 根据题干关键词定位到文章第二段。联系上下文可知，这种考虑时的沉默就是一种有效的还价手法，只是由于现在经济不景气，所以连这些还价的流程都不需要了。从You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off可知，因为顾客现在是真的不需要玩这种还价艺术，商家就会主动提供折扣。所以the newly perfected art of the considered pause即指顾客们将考虑时的沉默作为最新的还价手法，因此C项“顾客已经学会了如何还价”正确。A项“顾客购买打折的东西”、B项“顾客有一种优越感”和D项“客户对服务有更高的要求”均不符合题意。故本题选C。
单选题     According to Paragraph 4, the phrase 'flaunt their new power at every turn' means that consumers want to ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题 Paragraph 4, flaunt their new power at every turn 根据题干关键词定位到文章第四段。该段指出，每一次在商家满足了顾客的还价要求后，顾客又会提出进一步的降价要求，让一开始的就显得过分的折扣变得越来越大。因此A项“获得更低的商品价格”符合文意。B项“表现他们的力量”只从字面上对flaunt their new power进行了解释，没有联系语境进一步说明。C项“炫耀他们的钱财”和D项“疑心更重”均不符合题意。故本题选A。
单选题     What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs? ______
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推断题 last two paragraphs 根据题干关键词定位到文章最后两段。通过最后一段末句there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line可知，作者崇尚节俭，因此A项“厉行节俭是很重要的”符合题意。因此B项“奢侈的消费会加速经济的发展”、C项“一个人的生活经历会转变成一生的习惯”和D项“消费者应该期待奢侈品降价”均不符合题意。故本题选A。
单选题     Which of the following could be the best title of this passage? ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】主旨题 best title 作者首先列举在理发店、家电市场和餐馆的一些经历，指出商家在提供服务时变得越来越热情主动，进而阐述了这一变化的原因主要是经济危机。而这些变化刺激了顾客的购买欲，随之而来的是奢侈消费，必而造成浪费。所以D项“在经济衰退中，消费者是女王”符合文意。A项“在经济低迷时期，一切都在促销”、B项“砍价的艺术”和C项“有前途的购物者”都只是文中部分内容的概况，并不是本文主旨。故本题选D。