Question

（湖南省長沙市一中2010屆高三上學(xué)期第二次月考）

Detroit（底特律）might have a hard time hearing any more bad news after the week it just had. Toyota will soon be the world’s No. 1 automaker, while the Big Three-nowadays known as the "Detroit Three," posted $7. 4 billion combined loss for the three months ended Sept. 30. Even Detroit’s best performer, General Motors, couldn’t win over Wall Street by cutting its losses to only $115 million, which is an improvement over last year’s third-quarter loss of $1. 7 billion. The problem: despite all the factory closings and job cuts, GM, Ford and Chrysler are still losing money on every car and truck they sell in America.

What’s the matter with Motown? It all comes down to the models it sells. Car buyers simply don’t find them as appealing as foreign wheels, which explains why Japanese models fetch an average price of $24,289, while American cars go for just $21,597, according to a new study by car consultant Harbour Felax. Increasingly, car buyers see Detroit’s products as too big, too gas-thirsty or too bland.

In other words, fixing Detroit’s product problems requires a serious check. For now, Detroit has only a quarter of the fast-growing small-car market, while nearly two thirds of its models are slow-selling ones, SUVs and minivans. "No automaker can suddenly make a transfer and double its number of small cars," says GM car president Bob Lutz. But sellers want Detroit to move faster. The Japanese make over their new models every five years, while American automakers take seven or eight. Detroit has been slow to vary because it became addicted to the big profits it once made off SUVs. Only now are they making fuel-efficient cars like the Ford Edge and GMC Acadia, while the Japanese have an eight-year lead in that hot market.

 “Detroit needs a complete reinvention（change）of how they do business,” says Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, America’s top car dealer. That reinvention will require Detroit to rethink how it conceives, designs and executes cars. Like the Japanese, Detroit needs to engineer multiple models. They need to simplify how they engineer them, so that they are easier to build, have better quality and make more money.

56. Which of the following is not among the Detriot Three members?

A. Chrysler          B. General Motors                C. Ford                 D. Toyota

57. Despite closing some factories and cutting jobs, the Detroit Three ______.

A. will make profits this year                    B. have stopped the loss

C. are still losing money                           D. get a large improvement over last year’s loss

58. From the passage, we know that American automakers ______.

A. have made a sudden transfer to make small cars

B. have made big profits off SUVs

C. have been making hot styles for years

D. take up most of the fast-growing small-car market

59. According to the passage, which statement about Detriot’s cars is NOT true?

A. They are cheaper than Japanese ones now on average.

B. They are too big, or too bland.

C. They are as appealing as foreign wheels.

D. They need more fuel than foreign cars.

60. Which of the following is not included in the reinvention activities?

A. Rethinking how to conceive, design, and execute cars.

B. Engineering multiple models.

C. Simplifying the products.

D. Building complicated and expensive models.

Answer 1

答案  DCBCD