Beauty is big business in China. The country’s cosmetics market is worth $26 billion a year, making it the third-biggest in the

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问题     Beauty is big business in China. The country’s cosmetics market is worth $26 billion a year, making it the third-biggest in the world. Euromonitor, a research firm, believes it will grow 8% each year from now to 2017.
    It would seem【C1】________then, that some of the world’s best-known brands are giving up on such an【C2】________market. This week L’Oreal of Prance, the world’s biggest cosmetics firm, said that it will stop selling its Gamier line of beauty products in China. This came on the【C3】________of an announcement by Revlon, an American【C4】________that it would leave the country altogether.
    L’Oreal insists that this is not a step【C5】________from the Chinese market, of which it【C6】________an 11% share, but rather a【C7】________in strategy. It says it will henceforth【C8】________selling Chinese consumers its L’Oreal Paris and Maybelline New York lines. Revlon has done rather less well in China, which【C9】________a tiny share of its global【C10】________. It is said to have【C11】________a big fall in sales in recent months and【C12】________this on a slowing Chinese economy.
    A few years ago, when China’s annual GDP growth was in double digits and its consumers had【C13】________ begun to fill their repressed desire for foreign luxury, the firms that sold it set themselves ambitious targets. Now China is coming to【C14】________a more normal emerging market: still with much potential for growth,【C15】________with no guarantee that every【C16】________foreign product entering it will get a piece of the action. Consumers are becoming more【C17】________, and are increasingly unwilling to pay extra money for all but the very best brands.
    At the same time costs are high. Wages for "beauty assistants" and other saleswomen are【C18】________at double-digit rates annually. Marketing in such a huge and diverse country, are【C19】________. To cap it all, Chinese cosmetics firms are quickly catching up with the foreign ones.
    As the costs rise and the【C20】________slows, L’Oreal and Revlon are unlikely to be the last foreign cosmetics firms to think again about their ambitions in China.
【C13】

选项 A、frequently
B、consequently
C、seldom
D、barely

答案D

解析 由空格后的begun to可知外国奢侈品当时在中国才刚刚兴起,故选D项barely,意为“刚刚,才”。注意此句中barely不取其常见的词义“几乎不”。A项frequently“频繁地”和begun连用语义不畅。本句前后不存在因果关系,B项consequently“因此”可排除。C项seldom“很少”也不能与begun连用。
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