问题 阅读理解

阅读理解。

     Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they're always coming in for criticism (批评). Their

critics (批评家) seem to hate them because they think this entirely unproductive industry should absorb

millions of pounds each year. Why don't they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods?

     The poor consumer (消费者)! He'd have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets

for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get

the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function

is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods comes largely from the

advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones

we already know about.

      Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim (说法) may be seriously doubted.

It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a

railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or

reading railway bylaws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news

in your daily paper?

     We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers,

commercial radio and television companies could not exist without this source of revenue (税收). The fact

that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money

spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!

1. What is the main idea of this passage?

A. The Advertising industry is an entirely unproductive industry.

B. Advertisements keep the consumers fully informed of the goods.

C. Advertisers perform a useful service to the public.

D. Advertisements make the goods more expensive.

2. The attitude of the author toward advertisers is ______.

A. appreciative.

B. optimistic.

C. negative.

D. dissatisfactory

3. Why do the critics criticize (批评) advertisers?

A. Because critics think advertisers make a lot of profit.

B. Because advertisement is a"waste of money".

C. Because customers are encouraged to buy more than necessary.

D. Because advertisements often misunderstand consumers.

4. Which of the following is Not True?

A. Advertisements can beautify the surroundings.

B. We can buy what we want thanks to advertisements.

C. Good quality products don't need to be advertised.

D. In terms of money, we benefit a lot from the advertisements.

答案

1-4: CAAC

单项选择题

During the past 15 years, the most important component of executive pay packages, and the one .most responsible for the large increase in the level of such compensation, has been stock-option grants. The increased use of option grants was justified as a way to align executives’ interests with shareholders’. For various tax, accounting, and regulatory reasons, stock-option grants have largely comprised "at-the-money options": rights to purchase shares at an "exercise price" equal to the company’s stock price on the grant date. In such at-the-money options, the selection of the grant date for awarding options determines the options’ exercise price and thus can have a significant effect on their value.
Earlier research by financial economists on backdating practices focused on the extent to which the company’s stock price went up abnormally after the grant date, My colleagues and I focused instead on how a grant-date’s price ranked in the distribution of stock prices during the month of the grant. Studying the universe of about 19,000 at-the-money, unscheduled grants awarded to public companies’ CEOs during the decade 1996-2005, we found a clear relation between the likelihood of a day’s being selected as a grant date for awarding options, and the rank of the day’s stock price within the price distribution of the month: a day was most likely to be chosen if the stock price was at the lowest level of the month, second most likely to be chosen if the price was at the second-lowest level, and so forth. There is an especially large incidence of "lucky grants" (defined as grants awarded on days on which the stock price was at the lowest level of the month): 12 percent of all CEO option grants were lucky grants, while only 4 percent were awarded at the highest price of the month.
The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in August 2002 required firms to report grants within two days of any award. Most firms complied with this requirement, but more than 20 percent of grants continued to be reported after a long delay. Thus, the legislation could be expected to reduce but not eliminate backdating. The patterns of CEO luck are consistent with this expectation: the percentage of grants that were lucky was a high 15 percent before enactment of the law, and declined to a lower, but still abnormally high, level of 8 percent afterwards.
Altogether, we estimate that about 1,150 CEO stock-option grants owed their financially advantageous status to opportunistic timing rather than to mere luck. This practice was spread over a significant number of CEOs and firms: we estimate that about 850 CEOs ( about 10 percent) and about 720 firms ( about 12 percent) received or provided such lucky grants. In addition, we estimate that about 550 additional grants at the second-lowest or third-lowest price of the month owed their status to opportunistic timing.
The cases that have come under scrutiny thus far have led to a widespread impression that opportunistic timing has been primarily concentrated in "new economy" firms. But while the frequency of lucky grants has been somewhat higher in such firms, more than 80 percent of the opportunistically timed grants have been awarded in other sectors. Indeed, there is a significantly higher-than-normal incidence of lucky grants in each of the economy’s 12 industries.

According to the author, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

A.effectively eliminated the practice of backdating.

B.leads to a larger percentage of lucky grants.

C.guarantees that grants are reported immediately.

D.helps to reduce the incidence of lucky grants.

单项选择题