When it comes to Barbie’ s body, it will no longer be one size fits all. On Thursday, Mattel unveiled curvy, petite and tall ver

admin2016-12-28  28

问题     When it comes to Barbie’ s body, it will no longer be one size fits all. On Thursday, Mattel unveiled curvy, petite and tall versions of its iconic fashion doll whose unrealistically thin shape has attracted criticism for decades. The three body types will also be sold in an assortment of skin tones, eye colors and hairstyles.
    The move is about more than just making Barbie look different. While Barbie was once Mattel’s powerhouse brand, sales have plummeted in recent years as the doll has struggled to remain relevant to little girls who do not look like her and who play with toys other than dolls. "This is about drawing a wider demographic that had turned away from Barbie back to Barbie," said Jim Silver, the editor of a toy review website.
    But some industry experts and academics have long doubted that cosmetic changes—whether racial or body shapes—can revive the popularity of the 57-year-old Barbie, whose sales have been declining by double-digits in recent years. Executives have been optimistic, pointing to signs that Barbie’ s in-store sales began picking up last year.
    The slumping sales may also be partly attributed to the shift away from traditional toys toward electronics and games in recent years, as many parents and children have clamored for less gender-specific toys. Even Lego, the world’ s top toymaker, has had to alter its strategy and some of its building block lines to accommodate the growth in the market for learning toys that appeal to boys and girls. Faced with weakening sales in its core brands like Barbie, and criticism that it was too slow to pick up on trends, Mattel has undertaken a number of efforts to improve innovation.
    Barbie’ s new shapes also coincide with a progressive cultural shift already underway in stores and the toy aisles. Parents and many health experts have complained that too many dolls, models and even clothing companies conform to an extremely thin, even anorexic, body type and have pressured corporations to offer a broader variety of images and apparel sizes to give girls and boys more confidence in their own body shapes.
    And some parents, concerned about negative gender stereotypes(a racecar for a son, a princess doll for a daughter), have pushed retailers into more gender-neutral territory. The Disney Store, for example, decided to label all of its children’s Halloween costumes as "for kids," as opposed to for boys or girls. Amazon, which by some measures accounts for more than half of all online sales, has banished gender distinctions for its toys.
According to Jim Silver, Barbie adds curvy, petite and tall to body shapes in order to______.

选项 A、make Barbie look different in skin tones, eye colors and hairstyles
B、cater to girls who do not look like Barbie and who play with other toys
C、let a wider range of people who lose interest in Barbie like Barbie again
D、let more people from different countries who have never known Barbie love Barbie

答案C

解析 根据题干关键词定位到第二段。该段最后一句是吉姆.西尔弗的观点,考生需要准确理解他的话.引号中句子的意思是“这是为了让那些对芭比失去兴趣的更广泛的人群重新爱上芭比”,故C项为正确答案。A项“让芭比在肤色、眼睛颜色和发型方面看起来有所不同”和B项“迎合那些长得不像芭比、喜欢玩其他玩具的女孩”虽然也是原因之一,但并不是吉姆.西尔弗的观点。D项的have never known Barbie love Barbie与原文的had turned away from Barbie back to Barbie不符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/N3oZ777K
0

最新回复(0)