Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
Retailers are looking at bigger sales numbers for digital television sets this Christmas sea son, boosting the spirits of federal regulators and the industry. Government and industry analysts alike have worried that this nation of TV viewers is shifting its gaze too slowly to digital from old-fashioned analog sets.
Yet almost 7 million digital television, or DTV, sets will be sold this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group for manufacturers and retailers. Roughly 3 million of these sets will be sold during the last three months of the year.
Independent groups also predict a big sales spike.
Homes in the United States will have 12.1 million high-definition or HDTV sets—the most sophisticated form. of DTV sets—by the end of the year, compared with 7 million at the end of 2003, according to the Yankee Group, a Boston technology research outfit.
HDTVs have accounted for the vast majority of about 13 million digital televisions sold since the fall of 1998.
"The numbers are very encouraging. We believe consumers are embracing this technology," says Jenny Miller, the Consumer Electronics Association's spokeswoman.
A boost in sales of digital televisions will be welcome news for major retailers anxiously watching the Christmas shopping season that began yesterday. Many national retailers lured customers into their stores with extra-early hours and deep discounts.
DTV sets still sell behind traditional analog sets. Almost 22 million analog sets are expected to be sold this year, outpacing even the rosiest predictions for DTV sales.
Until recently, consumers who wanted to buy DTV experienced sticker shock. When the sets first reached the market in the late 1990s, they cost several thousand dollars, turning off many consumers.
Now, prices for basic DTV sets generally start at about $500. HDTV sets offer the best-quality picture and sound and can cost as much as $15,000, according to Consumer Reports, published by the nonprofit Consumers Union advocacy group.
"You're talking about a couple of hundred dollars at the very least, unless you go for a flat panel or plasma screen, in which case you're talking thousands of dollars," says Aditya Kishore, senior analyst for the Yankee Group.
In addition to falling prices, analysts credit the sales boost for DTV to an increase in the number of programs broadcast in digitally compatible "high definition" as well as a government-led consumer education campaign.
From the beginning of the text, we can learn that

A. the country has popularly accepted digital TVs.
B. the retailers have a bad sale of DTVs except Christmas.
C. the viewers still pay more money on old-fashioned TV sets.
D. the government and industry are upset by the present market situation of DTVs.