单选题
Three makes a trend. The Washington Post Co. Friday
announced that it would look to sell its iconic headquarters building in
downtown Washington, D.C. In January, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit
News announced they would put up for sale their headquarters. The same month,
Frank Gannett said it will sell the building that houses the Rochester, N.Y.,
Democrat & Chronicle. The building was the place where Gannett started and
built his vast newspaper empire. It's no secret that newspapers
are in crisis. Advertising revenues have fallen by half in the past decade and
are back to where they were in 1983; circulation revenues are back to where they
were in 1996. The digital numbers are rising, but not nearly fast enough. Print
media is hampered by high fixed costs incurred in the pre-digital era-pensions
and union contracts, equipment like printing presses, large numbers of
employees, and big office buildings. Virtually every newspaper
company has engaged in drastic measures—laying off experienced employees,
eliminating sections, cutting back printing from daily to a few days per week.
Those efforts are all meant to lower day-to-day operating costs. But we've also
seen newspaper companies seek onetime injections of cash by selling off non-core
assets. Increasingly, the headquarters building—typically located right in the
middle of town-is falling into the non-core asset category.
Traditionalists may find these sales and the continued shrinking of newspapers'
real-estate footprints to be depressing. But it's actually a positive
development. Call it creative destruction, or adaptive reuse. In cities around
the country, investors are finding better uses for properties. In lower
Manhattan, Class B office buildings that used to house financial firms have been
converted into ex pensive condos. "It's a great thing, because it drives more
tax revenue to the cities. And it gives the suburbs a run for the money," said
Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal company MillerSamuel.
In D.C., the Washington Post will likely fetch an excellent price for its
headquarters because Washington is a boomtown. Throughout D.C., investors are
plowing cash into housing, office, and retail developments. The building that
housed the organization that exposed the Watergate scandal may become the next
Watergate complex. Of course, progress inevitably displaces the
prior tenants. It's likely the new homes that will be occupied by newspapermen
and newspaperwomen in Washington, Rochester, and Detroit will be less grand,
less central, and less historic than their current homes. And the sale of these
properties alone won't solve the newspapers' financial problems. But it will buy
them a very valuable commodity: time.
单选题
At the very beginning of paragraph 1, the saying "Three makes a trend"
implies that ______.
A. the three companies have sold their buildings together.
B. newspaper-publishers have widely fallen into crisis.
C. newspaper giants start to enter housing market.
D. it's popular for printing companies to change headquarters.
单选题
According to paragraph 2, what has stood in the way of print media's
further development?
A. The decline of advertising revenues.
B. The spread of digital news.
C. The over-high operating cost.
D. The large office buildings.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干定位第二段。根据最后一句开头部分Print media is hampered by high fixed costs，可知阻碍出版业发展的因素在于高昂的固定成本，由此选择C项。
A项和B项都在第二段中有所提及，因而首先可以用排除法去掉这两个选项，因为一道题不可能出现两个正确选项。A和B项之所以错误，他们只是目前报业遇到的困难的表现，而非难以摆脱困境的原因。D项从属于C项，是众多high fixed costs中的一种，不够全面，因而错误。
单选题
In newspaper industry, drastic measures are adopted with the purpose to
______.
A. reduce the staff cost.
B. optimize company sections.
C. cut down the daily expenditure.
D. look for onetime injection of cash.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 第三段第1句话采用总分结构，指出报业集团纷纷采取措施，破折号之后则是具体做法。紧接着第2句点明所有努力的目标在于lower day-to-day operating costs，故而选C项。
选项A和选项B分别对应了第三段第1句中的laying off experienced employees和eliminating sections，这些都属于C项，因而不够全面。D项比较容易混淆。第三段第3句说也有些公司通过卖楼寻求一次性资金注入，这只是另一种措施，而非出版业普遍所采取措施的根本目的。
单选题
In paragraph 4, it is inferred that ______.
A. traditionalists are strongly against the sales of newspapers'
buildings.
B. the destruction of newspapers' buildings is actually creative.
C. the trading of buildings can increase the urban revenue.
D. money flows are running quickly from suburbs to big cities.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干定位第四段。第四段最后引号中提到because it drives more tax revenue to the cities，即地产买卖可以为城市带来更多的税收，也就是增加了城市收入，C项正确。
A项属于言过其实，第四段开头表达出传统人士对卖楼所体现出的行业萎缩感到难过，但这并不等于他们反对售楼举措，因而错误。B项属于曲解词义，段中第3句提到了creative destruction，这里的destruction是“解构、重组”的含义，而非拆毁一幢大楼。D项同样是曲解词义，最后一句中a run for the money意思是积极争取资金，而非现金真的在run，因而D项错误。
单选题
The author's attitude to the building-sales is ______.