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  3. The Making of a Success Story IKEA is the world’ s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one

The Making of a Success Story IKEA is the world’ s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one

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问题                         The Making of a Success Story
    IKEA is the world’ s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs(企业家). Born in Sweden in 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally, he used it to start up a business—IKEA.
    Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist(极简单主义的)furniture, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous(五花八门的)goods, including watches, pens and stockings.
    IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947. The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad’ s home. Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line. Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951.
    In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden. IKEA is known today for its spacious stores with furniture in attractive settings, but in the early 1950s, people ordered from catalogues. Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelming: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.
    In 1956, Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea, flat packaging. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales soared. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA. Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations of self-sufficiency. This image has done wonders for the company, leading to better sales and continued expansion.
    Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004 he was named the world’ s richest man. He currently lives in Switzerland and is retired from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing.
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
选项 A、IKEA experienced rapid expansion since the late 1950s.
B、IKEA designed its own products since 1955.
C、IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods originally.
D、Kamprad sold his company after retirement.
答案D
解析 由文章最后一段第二句话中的“Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately—heldcompany”和第四句话中的“he is retired from the day—to—day operations of IKEA”可知，Kamprad设法将宜家保持为一家私有企业，虽然他脱离了宜家的日常经营，但是并没有将公司卖掉。故选D。
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