题目内容

Travellers arriving at Heathrow airport this year have been met by the smell of freshly-cut grass, pumped from a discreet corner via an "aroma box", a machine which blows warm, scented air into the environment. It can scent the area of an average high street shop with the smell of the chocolate, freshly-cut grass, or sea breezes, in fact any synthetic odours that can be made to smell like the real thing.
Heathrow's move into "sensory" marketing is the latest in a long line of attempts by businesses to use sensory psychology -- the scientific study of the effects of the senses on our behaviour to help sell products. Marketing people call this "atmospherics" -- using sounds or smells to manipulate consumer behaviour. On Valentine's Day two years ago the chain of chemist's Superdog scented one of its London shops with chocolate. The smell of chocolate is supposed to have the effect of reducing concentration and making customers relax. "Chocolate is associated with love", said a marketing spokeswoman, "we thought it would get people in the mood for romance." She did not reveal, though, whether the smell actually made people spend more money.
However, research into customer satisfaction with certain scented products has clearly shown that smell does have a commercial effect, though of course it must be an appropriate smell. In a survey, customers considered a lemon-scented detergent more effective than another scented with coconut despite the fact that the detergent used in both was identical. On the other hand, a coconut-scented suntan lotion was rated more effective than a lemon-scented one. A research group from Washington University reported that the smell of mint or orange sprayed in a store resulted in customers rating the store as more modern and more pleasant for shopping than other stores without the smell. Customers also rated the goods on sale as better, and expressed a stronger intention to visit the store again in the future.
Music too has long been used in supermarkets for marketing purposes. Supermarkets are aware, for example, that slow music causes customers to stay longer in the shop (and hopefully buy more things). At Leicester University psychologists have found that a specific kind of music can influence consumer behaviour. In a supermarket French wine sold at the rate of 76% compared to 20% German wine when French accordion music was played. The same thing happened in reverse when German bierkeller music was played In one American study people even bought more expensive wines when classical music was played instead of country music.
Writers and poets have often described the powerful effects of smell on our emotions, and smell is often considered to be the sense most likely to evoke emotion- filled memories. Research suggests however that this is a myth and that a photograph or a voice is just as likely to evoke a memory as a smell. Perhaps the reason for this myth is because smells, as opposed to sights and sounds, are very difficult to give a name to. The fact that smell is invisible, and thus somehow more mysterious, may partly explain its reputation as our most emotional sense.
What is the use of "aroma box" at Heathrow airport?

A. It can send a lot of synthetic fragrance into the environment.
B. It is a machine which blows warm and fresh air into the environment.
C. It often pumps the smell of freshly-cut grass from a high-street shop.
D. It is a box which sends out not only aroma but also music.

查看答案
更多问题

The CBI will this week announce a Think British campaign aimed at cutting imports and stimulating home industries. The man behind the move is Sir Derek Ezra, chairman of the National Coal Board, who has persuaded the CBI's council that firms can buy British without paying more for their patriotism.
The target of a conference the CBI is calling early in the New Year will be the 50 biggest manufacturing companies in the private sector and 16 leading firms in distribution who together spend ∮35bn a year.
Sir Derek says "By actively pursuing a policy on the line I have described, they could have a major impact in stimulating industrial competitiveness and growth". Nationalized industries have already switched up to ∮100m worth of their buying from foreign suppliers to British firms in, the past year.
In a paper which went to the CBI council last week, Sir Derek produced figures to demonstrate how, by hunting out suppliers who were prepared to co-operate closely in developing equipment and materials at the right quality and price, the nationalized enterprises have succeeded in getting what they want and in boosting Britain's exports.
The NCB itself, at the same time as cutting back the import content of its annual $1,000m worth of purchases to 2.6%, has helped the British mining equipment industry to raise its exports from ∮26m to ∮129m in two years. The public enterprises together, who spent up to ∮10bn on goods and services each year, have cut the amount they buy abroad from 4.3% to 3.4% over the past year.
Sir Derek emphasizes that this has not been done by sacrificing profitability. But, Debenhams, one of the handful of retail chains who have been pursing a similar policy, says that it has had to accept a cut in its own margins so far to make it work. The chain has replaced I25m worth of Italian shirts and socks by British products during the past nine months.
One of the aims of Think British campaign is to______

A. cut exports
B. stimulate imports
C. develop new products
D. encourage domestic industries

From a world of silence, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie brought some of the world's most beautiful music to the church of St Paul and St Peter the Great at Chichester on Monday evening.
This attractive young Scottish lass has proved that what many would consider a disability was no handicap at all as she hypnotized her audience with a talented performance at this Chichester Festivities concert. She demonstrated her art with pieces on the xylophone, the marimba, the snare drum, 'and the timpani.
With accompaniment from pianist Robert Howle, this evening with Evelyn Glennie was one of those little gems the festival seems to pull out to surprise and delight us each year.
Displaying an easy and relaxed attitude and a keen sense of humor -- with many jokes directed against herself ("this is the part I find most difficult," she told us as she tuned the timpani) -- Evelyn played some haunting works specially written for xylophone, such as her own inspiring "A Little Prayer" and the lilting Scottish tune "Tween Heaven and Sea".
She also "stole" items from the repertoire of other instruments -- the exciting "Czarda' more usually heard on violin, "Dreaming" by Schumann, "Maple Leaf Rag" by Joplin, and Chopin's "Black Key Study", all works written for the piano but given an extra dimension on the xylophone.
The audience was foxed completely as they tried to clap along to snare drum demonstration, a "mummy and daddy open roll", and there was no falling asleep during the dramatic sonata for Timpani by Beck -- as Evelyn said herself "It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it isn't very often that you see a solo timpanist, and a female one at that !"
Evelyn Glennie may not have been able to hear the applause, but she must surely have seen the warm smiles and happy faces of an audience to which she endeared herself with a charming personality and uncanny instrumental ability.
Which of the following is NOT one of Evelyn Glennie's physical characteristics?

A. She's unable to hear.
B. She's young.
C. She's short.
D. She's charming.

Probably 95% of the white bread sold in the United States is enriched with thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and iron, and about 30% of the 50 states have laws requiring white bread enrichment. Formerly, calcium and vitamin D were frequently added to enriched bread, but lack of consumer demand and questionable nutritional benefit led to gradual phasing out of these enrichments. India has attempted to encourage consumption of protein-enriched bread, with some success. Except for research projects, little has been done in other countries, however. In areas where bakery products comprise a large proportion of the diet, they could provide an ideal vehicle for nutritional supplementation. The need for better quality protein in the daily diet occurs mostly in the developing countries, where carbohydrate foods -- usually cereals -- are the basic components of the diet and therefore the logical protein carriers.
Japan is used in this passage to illustrate a trend in many countries which is to______

A. enrich bread
B. invest more in food industry
C. increase consumption of bakery foods
D. increase reliance on rice and grains

What did the Russian police do to prevent the disease from further spreading?

A. They boosted road checks.
B. They killed the migrating birds.
C. They stopped the transportation to Siberia.
D. They withdrew from the infected village.

答案查题题库