2. 外语
  3. •Read the article below from a leisure industry magazine and the questions. •For each question 13—18, mark one letter (A. B, C o

•Read the article below from a leisure industry magazine and the questions. •For each question 13—18, mark one letter (A. B, C o

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问题 •Read the article below from a leisure industry magazine and the questions.
•For each question 13—18, mark one letter (A. B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet for the answer you choose.
                              Cruise Ship: Where to Go
     Passengers on cruise ship holidays, as they are described on TV programs and films, usually appear to be both wealthy and elderly. Such people do not, however, accurately represent the 6.8m passengers who took this kind of holiday last year. Over the last few years the world cruise industry has concentrated on appealing to younger, less wealthy people, giving them an experience more like a floating disco than the traditional quiet holiday on a luxury ship. Even families with young children are no longer so rare on cruise ships. Partly as a result, the number of passengers taking a cruise has increased by an average of 8.5% a year since 1990.
     Cruise Star is now the world’s largest cruise line. The other two major companies are Intersail and Seaways. Together these three carry nearly half the world’s cruise passengers and make almost all the industry’s profits. For the 30 or so smaller firms, life is much tougher. That is because sheer size brings so many benefits to the large firms. They can negotiate bulk discounts on supplies such as food and fuel, and even, if they order enough of them, on ships. A secondary disadvantage for the smaller operators is that they cannot spread overheads such as marketing as broadly. A significant part of the cost of sending people on a cruise happens before they go on board the ship. The three large companies between them spend more than $100m a year on TV advertising in America. They employ armies of salesmen. Delivering passengers to the ship is part of the package deal and, once again, volume means savings: Cruise Star is the biggest single buyer of airline tickets in America.
     Cruise Star has ten ships, with four more on order for delivery by 1999. Intersail is building at a similar rate, hoping to expand today’s fleet of ten ships to 14 by 1998. Seaways will add three more ships to its present nine. The 30 ships on order throughout the industry will increase cruising capacity by 40% by 1998. Some analysts suspect that even the big companies will find it difficult to fill all those extra cabins. They make a comparison with the overcapacity in the airline market in the early 1990s, When aircraft ordered at a time of growth arrived during the recession. And they point out that, after steady growth, the American market was flat in 1995, with firms offering discounts up to 30% in order to fill cabins.
     The big firms reckon that this pessimism is overdone. This year has started well. But if the industry’s outlook ends up being rougher than it hopes, many smaller firms will face a choice: go for specialized business, go out of business, or get taken over by a larger business. Already more than 40 small companies offer an increasing variety of cruises, ranging from archaeological tours of the Black Sea to ecological cruises to the Galapagos Islands. This trend seems set to continue, although in fast-growing Asis, a few mid-sized firms may one day rise to challenge the top three. However, in more established markets, smaller firms are being squeezed out. For instance, Gentle Waves, which has debts of $850m, has already been approached by Cruise Star, who wanted to buy a majority share of the company. The negotiations came to nothing, but analysts think they will revive if Gentle Waves’ problems go on.  
The main benefit the large firms have is that they can ______.
选项 A、run large marketing departments.
B、sell their tickets more cheaply.
C、afford better quality advertising.
D、arrange to pay reduced prices.
答案D
解析 答案在第二段。规模可以给大公司带来益处，因为大公司在订购大宗食物和燃料时就此进行谈判并获得高额回扣。
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