单选题 Every year thousands of people are arrested and taken to court for shop-lifting. In Britain alone, about HK $ 3,000,000"s worth of goods are stolen from shops every week. This amounts to something like HK $150 million a year, and represents about 4 percent of the shops" total stock. As a result of this "shrinkage" as the shops call it, the honest public has to pay higher prices.
Shop-lifters can be divided into three main categories, the professionals, the deliberate amateur, and the people who just can"t help themselves. The professionals do not pose much of a problem for the store detectives, who, assisted by closed circuit television, two-way mirrors and various other technological devices, can usually cope with them. The professionals tend to go for high value goods in parts of the shops where security measures are tightest. And, in any case, they account for only a small percentage of the total losses due to shop-lifting.
The same applies to the deliberate amateur who is, so to speak, a professional in training. Most of them get caught sooner or later, and they are dealt with severely by the courts.
The real problem is the person who gives way to a sudden temptation and is in all other respects an honest and law-abiding citizen. Contrary to what one would expect, this kind of shop-lifter is rarely poor. He does steal not because he needs the goods and cannot afford to pay for them. He steals because he simply cannot stop himself. And there are countless others who, because of age, sickness or plain absent-mindedness, simply forget to pay for what they take from the shops. When caught, all are liable to prosecution and the decision whether to send for the police or not is in the hands of the store manager.
In order to prevent the quite incredible growth in ship-lifting offences, some stores, in fact, are doing their best to separate the thieves from the confused by prohibiting customers from taking bags into the store. However, what is most worrying about the whole problem is, perhaps, that it is yet another instance of the innocent majority being penalized and inconvenienced because of the actions of a small minority. It is the aircraft hijack situation in another form. Because of the possibility of one passenger in a million boarding an aircraft with a weapon, the other 999,999 passengers must subject themselves to searches and delays. Unless the situation in the shops improves, in ten years" time we may all have to subject ourselves to a body-search every time we go into a store to buy a tin of beans!
单选题 Why does the honest public have to pay higher prices when they go to the shops?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。文章第一段指出:As a result of this "shrinkage" as the shops call it, the honest public has to pay higher prices.商家所受偷窃损失将会由消费者买单。由此可见,消费者要支付高于商品的价格是因为偷窃引起的,D项符合题意。
单选题 The third group of people steal things because they ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文章第二段指出:Shop-lifters can be divided into three main categories: the professionals, the deliberate amateur, and the people who just can"t help themselves.由此可知第三种偷窃的人是不能控制自己的人,所以C项符合题意。
单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true about the main types of shop-lifting?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。文章第二段指出:The professionals...account for only a small percentage of the total losses due to shop-lifting.惯偷的盗窃只占一小部分,A项与此矛盾,所以选A。
单选题 In author"s opinion, which one is the most worried thing?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文章最后一段指出:However, what is most worrying about the whole problem is, perhaps, that it is yet another instance of the innocent majority being penalized and inconvenienced because of the actions of a small minority.最令人担心的是因为要惩罚一小部分人,就要牺牲大多数人的利益。所以C项符合题意。
单选题 The aircraft hijack situation is used in order to show that ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理题。文中的例子说明因为担心有的乘客携带武器,所以要检查所有乘客,因为这可能的一个乘客,耽误了其他的乘客。这与为防止盗窃而检查所有顾客是一样的,都牺牲了大部分人的利益。所以C项符合题意。