单选题 George Bernard Shaw once wrote: "There is no love sincerer than the love of food. "That love has limits, however. In thin years, diners value their wallets over their palates. Visits to posh restaurants in America declined by 15 % between May 2008 and May this year, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. Fast-food restaurants, on the other hand, saw traffic decline only 2%.
To lure eaters back, many fine restaurants have done what luxury brands hate to do: have a cut-price sale. Some offer discounts to those who dine at unpopular times, such as early in the evening or on Sunday. Restaurant Week, a twice-yearly tradition in New York City where restaurants offer discounted prix-fixed menus at lunch and dinner, was extended by six weeks this summer. This may help. The 21 Club, a fancy joint in Manhattan, usually sees its business increase by around 25%～40% during Restaurant Week, says Bryan McGuire, its general manager.
Many restaurants have also turned to the Internet. Gilt and Rue La La, two popular online shopping sites that offer heavy discounts on designer clothing, have started to peddle meals at fancy restaurants too. Gilt, for example, recently sold a four-course meal at the Tribeca Grill, a restaurant owned by Robert De Niro, an actor, for $160 (36% off). Shopping sites like these attract image-conscious restaurants, because only the site's members can see that the restaurant has started to offer leaner prices.
Another website, Groupon, has gained popularity among restaurants as a way to bring in new customers. The company offers a daily discount in each of the 140 American and European cities where it operates. Some 40% of its promotions are for restaurants. The deals can be generous: some offer $50-worth of food and wine for $25. The deal only goes into effect, however, if enough people buy it. So people prod their Facebook friends to join the feeding frenzy. This type of "collective buying" has caught on. Since the firm started in 2008, it has brokered the sale of more than 8.8m "groupons" and saved customers around $375m. La Condesa, a restaurant in Austin, has sold 3,000 groupons. " It brings a lot of people into the restaurant who would never have come in," says Jesse Herman, an executive.
Tasty offerings abound online. OpenTable, a website, allows people to book a table without having to plead with a snooty hostess. It also makes it easier for restaurants to track customers. SeamlessWeb allows people in America and Britain to search online for nearby eateries and order their food delivered. Even swanky restaurants have started to take part, betting that some people might want to eat haute cuisine without dressing for the occasion. But SeamlessWeb takes a cut of restaurants' sales for bringing them business, so restaurants have to decide whether' it's better to stay hungry for customers or share part of their meal with someone else.

单选题 Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
A. Posh restaurants innovate to attract customers.
B. Popular online shopping sites are important to fancy restaurants.
C. Eaters love discounted food.
D. Fine restaurants' business boomed by discounting.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查主旨要义。本文第一段指出在经济不景气的年份，人们会减少高档餐厅的消费。第二段提出为了吸引回头客，一些高档餐厅采取了奢侈品牌最忌讳的措施：打折。第三～五段进一步描述了一些高档餐厅为留住顾客而借助互联网来推销新型的折扣服务。本文最后提到开通网络业务可能会增加成本，高档餐厅需要在留住顾客和利润分成之间做出选择。由此得出正确答案应该是A项。在人气购物网站打广告只是餐厅实现折扣促销的一个手段，并非文章主旨，B项错误。第一段提到“人们对食物的喜爱是最真诚的”，但这种感情也对发生变化，引用这句话的目的是为了引出下面的话题，所以它也不是文章论证的中心，故排除C项。本文确实提到，在餐厅周期间销售额有所提升和折扣消费也吸引了新的顾客，但这并不能说明高档餐厅因此变得繁荣了，且这不是本文的主旨。故排除D项。

单选题 According to the passage, which of the following is true?
A. People have a special feeling for food.
B. The leaner deal is valid in Groupon only when some people buy it.
C. The members knowing lower prices attribute to the attraction of the shopping sites.
D. Restaurant bosses need some consideration when decide to discount.

单选题 What can we learn from the example of Gilt?
A. It never administrates clothing, but interests food.
B. Food is more popular than clothing.
C. Restaurants use the Internet to attract customers.
D. Gilt is the most influential.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题属于推理判断题。通过“Gilt”定位到文章第三段，从Gilt的例子知道，可以利用网络平台销售折扣服务，从而吸引更多的顾客，故选择C项。从第三段的前两句知道以前销售折扣衣服的网络商店，现在也提供餐馆的折扣服务，文中并没有提到现在不销售折扣衣服，A选项“never”过于绝对化。文中没有将衣服和食物做比较，B选项属于无中生有。文中并没有提到Gilt是最具有影响力的，故D选项属于过度推理。

单选题 What can we learn from Jesse Herman's words?
A. La Condesa often offers $50-worth of food for $25.
B. La Condesa is a luxury restaurant.
C. La Condesa likes to sell food for poor people.
D. Selling groupons can attract customers.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题属于推理判断题。通过“Jesse Herman”定位到文章第四段。由最后一句可知答案为D项。从"Another website, Groupon…"、"The deals can be generous: some offer $50-worth of food and wine for $25"可知这只是列举Groupon网站上做的一项打折服务，但是La Condesa不一定经常提供这种价位的服务，A项是无中生有。B项也属于无中生有，属于一个干扰项。文章第四段说折扣餐可以吸引更多的顾客，如果没有折扣餐，有些人是永远都不会来的。这说明这些顾客可能是比较穷的人，但是并不能说这家公司喜欢把东西卖给穷人，C项属于过分推理。