阅读理解。
Tom owned a small shop. He worked hard. It was open from seven in the morning until eleven at night
and sold many different things. Tom worked hard in his shop but he had a good business and he was happy.
Then a supermarket opened across the street. The supermarket was ten times the size of Tom's shop.
The manager of the supermarket wanted to take people away from Tom. He found out what Tom's
prices were and then made his lower than Tom's.
People quickly stopped buying things from Tom's shop. They bought everything from the supermarket
instead. Soon Tom's business was very bad and he was angry.
"It's not fair," Tom thought, "I must do something to teach that supermarket manager a lesson." The
price of steak in the supermarket was $ 5.00 a pound. Tom put a sign in his window,"Steak—$4.50 a pound."
The next day the price of steak in the supermarket was $4.25 a pound, Tom changed the sign in his
window. "Steak—$4.00 a pound."
An hour later, the sign in the supermarket said, "Steak—$3.75 a pound." Ten minutes later the sign in
Tom's window said, "Steak—$ 3.50 a pound." Five minutes later the sign in the supermarket said, "Steak—
$ 2.50 a pound." Twenty seconds later the sign in Tom's window said, "Steak—$ 1.00 a pound."
The manager of the supermarket ran cross the street into Tom's shop. "This price cutting must stop,"
he said, "Steak is costing me $ 4.00 a pound. I'm selling it at $ 2.50 a pound. I'm losing money every minute!"
"I'll stop cutting all my prices," Tom said, "if you will stop cutting all yours."
The supermarket manager agreed, and the two men shook hands.
Tom smiled. He had not lost any money on the steak. He didn't sell steak at all.
1. Tom worked hard but he was happy because ______. [ ]
A. he liked hard work
B. he wanted to make a lot of money
C. he had a good business.
D. his prices were high
2. What does "price cutting" mean? [ ]
A. Making your prices the same as others'.
B. Making your prices lower than others'.
C. Making your prices higher than others'.
D. Losing money every minute.
3. According to this passage, if the supermarket manager sold out 100 pounds steak at $ 2.75 a pound,
he would at least lose _____ dollars. [ ]
A. 125
B. 150
C. 100
D. 175
4. If you're Tom, how do you solve the problem between the supermarket manager and you?
Please give us at least two ways.
A. _____________________________________________________________.
B. _____________________________________________________________.
