2. 外语
  3. This section measures your ability to write in English to communicate in an academic environment. There are two writing question

This section measures your ability to write in English to communicate in an academic environment. There are two writing question

admin2014-09-29  37
问题 This section measures your ability to write in English to communicate in an academic environment.
There are two writing questions in this section.
For question 1, you will read a passage and listen to a lecture about the same topic. You may take notes while you read and listen. Then you will write a response to a question based on what you have read and heard. You may look back at the passage when answering the question. You may use your notes to help you answer the question. You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response.
For question 2, you will write an essay based on your own knowledge and experience. You have 30 minutes to plan and complete your essay.
Directions: Give yourself 3 minutes to read the passage.
    Many people dream of owning their own business but are afraid of the risks. Instead of starting a new business, however, one can buy a franchise. A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to a small business owner. Under the license, the owner acquires the right to use the company’s brand name and agrees to sell its products. In return, the franchising company receives a percent of the sales.
    A major problem for first-time business owners is finding reliable suppliers of the goods and services they need: equipment, raw materials, maintenance, etc. It is easy to choose the wrong supplier, and doing so can be costly. Buying a franchise eliminates much of this problem. Most franchising companies have already found reliable suppliers, and franchise contracts typically specify which suppliers are to be used. This protects franchise owners from the risk of serious losses.
    Another advantage of a franchise is that it can save a new business a lot of money on advertising. Advertising one’s product to potential customers is a crucial factor in a business’s success. A franchise owner, however, sells an already popular and recognized brand and also gets the benefit of sophisticated and expensive advertising paid by the parent company.
    Finally, a franchise offers more security than starting an independent(nonfran-chise)business. The failure rate for starting independent businesses is very high during the first few years; the failure rate for starting franchises is much lower. Finding one’s own way in today’s competitive business environment is difficult, and buying a franchise allows an inexperienced business owner to use a proven business model.
Listen to Track 84.

Directions: You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge specific points made in the reading passage.
Narrator
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
Professor
Many people think that if you want to go into business for yourself, it’s best to buy a franchise. But recently a study looked closely at franchises, and some of the findings call that idea into question.
One interesting point was that many franchise contracts force franchise owners to ... to buy very specific goods and services, and those goods and services tend to be overpriced. In other words, even though there are equivalent goods and services available on the market, uh, that are considerably cheaper, the owners aren’t allowed to buy them.
Another point was about advertising. When you buy a franchise, you agree to pay up to six percent of your sum total in sales—that’s quite a lot of money. One thing you’re supposed to get in return for this money is that the company does the advertising for you. But the company doesn’t advertise your business. What gets advertised is the company’s brand, the company’s products, which are sold by many other businesses in many other places. It turns out, individual franchise owners mostly get very little benefit—much less than they would get by spending even half that money to advertise their own business directly.
Finally, the biggest issue: security. Starting a franchise is not the most secure option out there. True, it’s less risky than starting an independent business. But there’s a third option that the passage didn’t talk about. You can buy an already existing independent business from a previous owner. And the study showed that independent businesses bought from previous owners have twice as much chance of success during the first four years as franchises.
选项
答案 What is important to understand from the lecture is that the professor disagrees with the advantages of buying franchises presented in the reading, namely that a franchise owner does not have to look for suppliers; that a franchise owner gets the benefit of advertising done by the parent company; and that franchises provide more security than other types of business. In your response, you should convey the reasons presented by the professor for why buying a franchise is not the best way of becoming a business owner. A high-scoring response will include the following points made by the professor that cast doubt on the points made in the reading: [*]
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hGfO777K
0

托福（TOEFL）

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)