综合A阅读理解.docVIP

第四部分：阅读理解(第31～45题，每题3分，共45分) 下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每道题后面都有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案涂在答题卡相应的位置上。 第一篇 Making a Loss is the Height of Fashion Given that a good year in the haute couture(高级定制女装)business is one where you lose even more money than usual, the prevailing mood in Paris last week was sensational. The big-name designers were falling over themselves to boast of how many outfits they had sold at below cost price, and how this proved that the fashion business was healthier than ever. Jean—Paul Gaultier reported record sales. “But we don’t make any money out of it”, the designer assured journalists backstage. “No matter how successful you are, you can’t make a profit from couture,” explained Jean—Jacques Picart, a veteran fashion PR man, and co—founder of the now—bankrupt Lacroix house. Almost 20 years have passed since the unusual economics of the couture business were first exposed. Outraged that he was Losing money on evening dresses costing tens of thousands of pounds, the couturier Jean-Louis Scherrer published of his costs. One outfit he described curtained over half a mile of gold thread 1 8, 000sequins(亮片), and had required hundreds of hours of hand—stitching in an atelier(制作室). A fair price would have been~50, 000, but the couturier could only get~35, 000 for it. Rather than riding high on the foolishness of the super—rich, he and his team could barely feed their hungry families. The result was an outcry and the first of a series of government-and industry—sponsored inquiries into the surreal(超现实的)world of ultimate fashion. The trade continues to insist that couture offers you more than you pay for, but it’s not as simple as that. When such a temple of old wealth starts talking about value for money, it isn’t to convince anyone that dresses costing as much as houses are a bargain. Rather, it is to preserve the peculiar mystique(神秘), lucrative(利润丰厚的)associations and threatened interests that couture represents. Essentially, the argume