In April 1985, the management of the Coca-Cola Company announced its decision to change the flavor of the company's flagship brand. This decision was made based on the fact that Pepsi consumer re search discovered in blind taste tests that a majority of consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi to that of Coke. The "Pepsi Challenge" campaign made this public knowledge and Coke executives quickly moved to change America's top brand. New Coke came in a new can, with updated red and silver graphics re placing the traditional red and white look. Although taste tests of the New Coke had shown that majority of those tested preferred the new product, these tests could not gauge(评估) the emotional appeal of the "old" Coke. In other words, consumers want their cake and eat it too. A large public cried one after another during the 79 days when old Coke was no longer on the shelves. Coca-cola quickly reintroduced the "old" Coke when they realized market share was falling and named it Classic Coke. Volume for the classic brand has risen 24 percent since 1984, making it the No. 1 soft drink in the land since 1987. Consumers became even more loyal to the brand after it was temporarily taken away from them.
What do you think is the best title for this passage?
A. consumers' Loyalty to the Old Coke Brand.
B. Competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
C. New Coke—A Lesson in Brand Loyalty.
D. Always Coca-Cola.
听力原文:W: Are you coming with us to Li's birthday party?
M: I'd love to, but my daughter got a cold and I have to take care of her.
Q: Why can't the man go to Li's birthday party?
(15)
A. He doesn't like Li.
B. He has to take care of her daughter.
C. He will see a doctor.
D. He is ill.
Section B
Directions: This section is to test your ability to understand short dialogues. There are 5 recorded dialogues in it. After each dialogue, there is a recorded question. The dialogues and questions will be spoken two times. When you hear a question, you should decide on the correct answer from the 4 choices marked A, B, C and D.
听力原文:W: I told you that you should not be late for class.
M: Well, I'm sorry. The bus came late and the traffic was heavy.
Q: What might the man be?
(11)
A. Director.
B. Teacher.
C. Father.
D. Student.
The cooling off in demand threatens to cascade through the industry: The big six U.S. cell-phone carriers—Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Voice Stream, and Nextel Communications—are engaged in a fierce price war that imperils their timetables for becoming profitable, not to mention their efforts to whittle down their mountains of debt. As the carriers have begun to cut costs wireless equipment makers—companies such as Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson have been left with a market that's bound to be smaller than they had anticipated. Handset makers have been insulated so far, but they, too face a nagging uncertainty. They'll soon introduce advanced phones to the U.S. market that will run on the new networks the carriers are starting up over the next year or two. But the question then will be: Will Americans embrace these snazzy data features and their higher costs—with the wild enthusiasm that Europeans and Asians have?
Long before the outcome in clear, the industry will have to adopt a new mind-set. "In the old days, it was all about connectivity." says Andrew Cole, an analyst with wireless consultancy Adventist. Build the network, and customers will come. From now on, the stakes will be higher. The new mantra: Please customers, or you may not survive.
To work their way out of this box, the carriers are spending huge sums to address the problem. Much of Sprint PCS's $3.4 billion in capital outlays this year will be for new stations. And in fact, the new high-speed, high-capacity nationwide networks due to roll out later this year should help ease the calling capacity crunch that has caused many consumer complaints. In the meantime, some companies are using better training and organization to keep customers happy. The nation's largest rural operator, Alltel (AT), recently reorganized its call centers so that a customer's query goes to the first operator who's available anywhere in the country, instead of the first one available in the customer's home area. That should cut waiting time to one minute from three to five minutes previously.
What is the text mainly about?
A. The bad service in the U.S. cell-phone industry.
B. The crisis in the U.S. cell phone industry.
C. The conflicts among cell-phone companies in the U.S.
D. The price of the U.S. cell-phone industry.