fast reading快速阅读

Fast reading (True or False Questions + Blank Filling)

Directions: Read the following passages and then answer the questions. For questions 1-7, choose Y (YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage, choose N (NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage, choose NG (NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

Passage One

Who Brings the Beauty to You?

Using smart networking and a keen nose for the slight differences of retail, Andrea Jung rises to the top of the world’s biggest direct marketer of women’s products. When she began flirting with department store work after college her parents scoffed. When she started actually taking full-time retail jobs, they gasped, complaining bitterly that she was selling all they had invested in their little girl into the waste heap and lowering herself into the same class as street hawkers (沿街叫卖的小贩) and used-car salesmen.

Her parents’ sneers, however, turned into applause when Andrea Jung moved to the top of retailing respectability by becoming President of Avon’s Product Marketing Group for the US (before moving on to become named CEO of all Avon in late 1999). Jung’s list of responsibility is enough to impress even the snootiest (傲慢) of parents. The Chinese-American oversees marketing, advertising and product development of all of the US, supervising 360 employees. On her slender shoulders now rests the responsibility of not only maintaining but growing the company’s $1.6 billion in annual sales. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Board of Directors of the American Management Association.

“No one in my family had a retail or marketing background,” says Jung, 41. “They were professionals. They didn’t understand just what I was doing by going into retailing. After I started, though, it got into my blood. I knew this was what I wanted.” Th is determined style sweeps across the landscape of her personal and professional life. Jung, every morning, takes her five-year daughter to the bus stop, and then walks to her mid-Manhattan office by 8 a.m. And she insists on returning home by 7:30 p.m. for dinner at home with her husband and daughter. Her professional style reflects her directness. She never shies away from seeking advice and aggressively seeking out the cultivated senior women executives to serve as her mentors.

Introducing more Avon cosmetics to American women is no easy task. The 108-year-old company sells $4 billion of beauty goods every year around the world. It i s the world’s largest producer of mass-market perfumes, makeup and fashion jewelry. Every American woman knows the name and by the time they reach their mid-30s, most have picked the cosmetics brand they will remain loyal to. There are the customers Jung must win over if she is to make a success of her tenure at Avon. Increasing sales in a market saturated (饱和的) with beauty products and savvy consumers has proven a challenging task even for a giant of Avon’s stature. In 1993, the year before Jung came aboard, the company’s US sales dipped by 1% though sales in all other world markets increased, especially in Asia.

The chance to boost US sales thrilled Jung when Avon offered her the job in January of 1994. After successful stints at exclusive retailers like Neiman Marcus and Magnin, she wanted to try her hand in the decidedly less glamorous but far larger mass-market segment. She expanded the number of products offered to long-time customers by introducing a line of lingerie and casual