Question

IKEA is the world’s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world’s most successful enterprisers. Born in Sweden in 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally he used it to start up a business—IKEA.

IKEA’s name comes from Kamprad’s initials (I.K.) and the place where he grew up (‘E’ and ‘A’). Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods.

Kamprad’s goods included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices, including watches, pens and stockings.

IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947. The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad’s home. Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line．Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951.

In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden. IKEA is known today for its large stores with furniture in attractive settings, but in the early1950s, people ordered from catalogues. Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelming: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to develop. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.

In 1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling(拆卸) a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales went up. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA. Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations(內(nèi)涵) of self-sufficiency. This image has done wonders for the company, leading to better sales and continued expansion．

Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004 he was named the world’s richest man. He currently lives in Switzerland and is retired from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing.

1.The author states in Paragraph 6 that flat packaging___________.

A. needs large space to assembly furniture

B. is a business concept inspired by Kamprad

C. helps reduce transportation costs

D. makes the company self-sufficient

2.What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Ingvar Kamprad is the richest man in the world.

B. IKEA is the world’s largest furniture retailer.

C. The advantage of IKEA’s furniture is dissembling.

D. Ingvar Kamprad established IKEA and led it to great success.

3.What is the author’s attitude towards IKEA’s future according to the last paragraph?

A. Indifferent B. Optimistic

C. Doubtful D. Pessimistic

Answer 1

1.C

2.D

3.B

【解析】

試題分析：本文主要講述了IKEA是世界上最大的家居零售商，而IKEA背后的IKEA也是世界上最成功的企業(yè)家之一。IKEA以現(xiàn)代的極抽象的家居而出名，但是它在最開始并不是家居公司，而是出售各種各樣的商品。IKEA在Almhult, Sweden開了第一家陳列室，而人們對此陳列室的反應(yīng)是勢不可擋的，人們喜歡在股買家居之前看見和嘗試這些家居商品。這使得IKEA的銷售量增加，和公司不斷房發(fā)展。到1955年，IKEA開始設(shè)計自己的家居產(chǎn)品。

1. packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. 意思是：扁平封裝將意味著IKEA更低的運輸費用，同時對于消費者更低的價格�？芍�扁平封裝有助于降低運輸費用。故選C。

2. Kamprad使用17歲的時候，他爸爸給他的成績提高的獎賞，創(chuàng)建了生意IKEA，IKEA從最開始的各種各樣的商品零售商，到后來慢慢創(chuàng)建家具公司，并且慢慢把公司發(fā)展成功。故選D。

3. Kamprad把IKEA經(jīng)營成一個私人控股的公司。主要表現(xiàn)出Ingvar Kamprad的成就，以及IKEA輝煌的發(fā)展現(xiàn)狀。所以作者對于IKEA的未來的態(tài)度是很有信心，樂觀的。故選B。

考點：考查說明文閱讀。