单选题 {{B}}Passage Three{{/B}}
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 proved to be a convenient alternative to driving to the store.
A research estimated that in 1998 US 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 $ 153.7 million 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 analysis did not expect the company to turn a profit until 2001. 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?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第一段提到，有人预计可能有很多人不愿意在网上购买自己摸不到、看不到的东西。然而，已经证明网上购物比起开车去商场购物是更方便的。由此可见，越来越多的消费者喜欢网上购物。A、B、C三项与原文中的信息不符合。故答案为D。
单选题 Finding a' bargain on the Internet was getting easier partly because______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 文中第二段最后一句提到由于网上拍卖活动增加，以及那些为进行最佳交易而在因特网上进行商品比较的网址增加，消费者找到便宜商品越来越容易了。因此B项是正确的，故答案为B。
单选题 "For all the consumer interest" (Paragraph 3) means______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第三段第一句讲到“For all the consumer interest，retailing in cyberspace was still a largely unprofitable business, however”，后半句的意思是“但是网上零售很大程度上是无利可图的”和前半句是转折关系，所以前一句意思应该是“尽管消费者对网络购物很感兴趣”。故答案为C。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that Amazon.com______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 第三段中提到Amazon.com一开始卖书，后来向销售录音带和录像带发展，故C错误；尽管损失不小，但是该公司的股票市场价值额高达10亿美元，故D错误；还提到分析报告并没有预计该公司2001年会盈利，但这只是预想，公司在2001年实现盈利也是有可能的，所以C错误，A正确。故答案为A。
单选题 Investors are interested in Internet retailing because______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 文章最后一段提到网络零售吸引投资商的原因是，“because it provided an efficient means for reaching millions of consumers”这和C项的内容是一致的，故答案为C。