单选题
In 1998 consumers could purchase virtually anything
over the Internet. Books, compact discs, and even stocks were available from
World Wide Web sites that seemed to spring up almost daily. A few years earlier,
some people had predicted that consumers accustomed to shopping in stores would
be reluctant to buy things that they could not see or touch in person. For a
growing number of time-starved consumers, however, shopping from their home
computer was proving to be a convenient alternative to driving to the
store. A research estimated that in 1998 U. S. consumers would
purchase $7.3 billion of goods over the Internet, double the 1997 total. Finding
a bargain was getting easier, owing to the rise of online auctions and Web sites
that did comparison shopping on the Internet for the best deal.
For all the consumer interest, retailing in cyberspace was still a largely
unprofitable business, however. Internet pioneer Amazon.com, which began selling
books in 1995 and later branched into recorded music and videos, posted revenue
of $153.7million in the third quarter, up from $37.9 million in the same period
of 1997. Overall, however, the company's loss widened to $45.2 million from $9.6
million, and analysts did not expect the company to turn a profit until 2003.
Despite the great loss, Amazon. com had a stock market value of many billions,
reflecting investors' optimism about the future of the industry.
Internet retailing appealed to investors because it provided an efficient
means for reaching millions of consumers without having the cost of operating
conventional stores with their armies of salespeople. Selling online carried its
own risks, however. With so many companies competing for consumers' attention,
price competition was intense and profit margins thin or nonexistent. One video
retailer sold the hit movie Titanic for $9.99, undercutting (削价) the $19.99
suggested retail price and losing about $6 on each copy sold. With Internet
retailing still in its initial stage, companies seemed willing to absorb such
losses in an attempt to establish a dominant market position.
单选题
Which of the following is true, according to the writer?
A. Consumers are reluctant to buy things on the Internet.
B. Consumers are too busy to buy things on the Internet.
C. More and more consumers prefer Internet shopping.
单选题
"For all the consumer interest" (Para. 3) means ______.
A. to the interest of all the consumers
B. for the interest of all the consumers
C. all the consumers are much interested
D. though consumers are very much interested
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 词汇+上下文逻辑题。本题考查考生对介词短语的理解。for all是in spite of或despite的意思。根据上下文也可推知，第三段第一句的前后两部分应是转折关系。在前两段已讲越来越多的消费者喜欢网上购物，而整个行业却还是不盈利。所以，for all the consumer interest意思是“尽管消费者(对网上购物)很感兴趣”，即D。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that Amazon. com ______.