单选题 With just one week until Christmas, retailers are rolling out shopper-baiting strategies to attract procrastinators, deal-hunters and people who just want a few extra Christmas gifts.
Strategies include offering extended shopping hours, free shipping, last-minute-shopping ad campaigns and social media reminders that time is ticking away.
The week leading up to Christmas is usually when consumers open their wallets wide—the Saturday before the holiday traditionally being the biggest spending day behind Black Friday, according to shopper analytics firm Shopper Trak. Four of the 10 busiest holiday shopping days will occur between Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, Shopper Trak predicts.
This holiday shopping season is shorter than last, with six fewer days—translating into just four weekends.
There will be "high levels of in-store shopper activity" the weekend before Christmas, says Shopping Trak founder Bill Martin. Here"s how retailers are trying to get the attention of gift buyers:
Going social in their countdown warnings. Companies are using social media to remind customers that Christmas is coming and to offer gift suggestions. Best Buy is using the Twitter tag "Last Minute Gifts" to promote its goods and on Tuesday evening hosted a Google Hangout chat with the last-minute gift theme.
Targeting procrastinators. On Wednesday, J. C. Penney launches a "men in panic" TV ad. In it, a desperate man walk by a store as a small choir sings "point him to the jewelry so he won"t buy a "vacuum"".
Offering free shipping. Many retailers, including J. C. Penney, have embraced Wednesday as "Free Shipping Day" —no minimum order, and delivery by Christmas Eve is guaranteed. FreeShippingDay.com has a list of nearly 900 participating merchants.
Extending store hours. Nordstrom, Target and Toys R Us all have longer hours now or coming up. Toys R Us will be open around the clock for 87 continuous hours beginning at 6 a. m. Saturday, Dec. 21, through 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. "Expanded hours at this time of year have proven to be very popular with customers in the past, but with the shortened shopping window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and no time left to procrastinate, we expect to see larger crowds at all hours." says company spokeswoman Linda.

单选题 What does the phrase "open their wallets wide" (Para. 3) mean?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 词义推断题。根据题干要求直接定位到原文第三段第一句。该句由破折号分割成两个分句，后半句是对前半句的解释说明，open their wallets wide属于前半句，所以需要从后半句推断其意思。后半句指出，节日前的那个周六会是黑色星期五之后的最大消费日，由此可知，前半句的意思为圣诞前的一周消费者购物量会比较大，open their wallets wide即为购物多，花钱多的意思，故选C。

单选题 How long was the holiday shopping season last year?

单选题 What strategy is Best Buy taking to attract consumers?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。根据题干中的关键词Best Buy定位到原文第六段。该段介绍了商家吸引顾客的第一种方式，使倒计时提醒社交化。商家Best Buy是其中的一个实例，Best Buy利用推特标签“最后一分钟礼物”推销其商品，且周二晚上在谷歌上举办了以最后一分钟礼物为主题的视频群聊。由此可知Best Buy吸引顾客注意力的策略是倒计时提醒，故选A。