[简答题]This is an explosive situation for any industry，particularly a declining one．Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers．Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers．But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that SO many former buyers are complaining about． If it did，it would open up its diversity program，now focused narrowly on race and gender，and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook，values，education，and class．

[单项选择]More than any other industry, the luxury-goods business needs people to feel good about spending money. So at a recent conference in Moscow, Bernard Arnault, the head of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the world’s biggest luxury-goods group, went to great lengths to dismiss investors’ fears about the impact on the industry of America’s credit crisis, a possible recession and the weak dollar. Indeed, Mr. Arnault said he expects the industry’s sales almost to double in the next five years, thanks to strong demand from emerging markets and the creation of new wealth across the globe.
After a depressing period at the beginning of the decade when the terrorist attacks in America, the outbreak of SARS and the war in Iraq reduced international travel and people’s appetite for frivolous things, the industry has had three excellent years. According to Bain, a consultancy, sales of luxury goods grew by 9% in 2006 to 159 billion ($ 200 billion) and will reach about 170 billion this year
A. The subprime mortgage and subsequent credit crisis in US.
B. Possible recession of the world economy.
C. Dollar will very probably be weak in the coming months.
D. Luxury goods lack innovation and creativity than before.

[单项选择]Any industry that mislays 25%～30% of its product in the process of delivering it might reasonably be thought to have a problem. Yet, according to the World Bank, that is the case for the world’s water companies. Though water is cheap, it is not free. According to a report published by the Bank in 2006, leaks even then were costing $14 billion a year. But to plug a leak you have to find it. Water mains (自来水管道) are hard to inspect, particularly if they are underground. Many are old and thus decrepit (破旧). And outright theft is not unheard of, as the poor seek to fill their drinking vessels and the rich their swimming pools. An effective way of detecting leaks, both accidental and deliberate, would therefore be welcome.
TaKaDu, a firm based near Tel Aviv, thinks it has one. The problem, in the view of its founder, Amir Peleg, is not a lack of data per se, but a lack of analysis. If anything, water companies--at least, those in the rich world--have too much information. A typical fi
A. the water mains are hard to inspect
B. the water mains are underground
C. the water mains are old and decrepit
D. the water theft frequently happens

[填空题]We’ve never had any problem with our car in the past three years; it’s highly reliable in (operate) _______.