Cash, credit or debit? You may one day have far more choices to make at the checkout counter. A group of big retailers, includin

admin2014-04-20  35

问题     Cash, credit or debit? You may one day have far more choices to make at the checkout counter. A group of big retailers, including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, CVS and Wal-Mart, said on Wednesday that they were forming a company that would offer a way for customers to pay for purchases with their smartphones, joining a wide array of businesses seeking a piece of this market.
    Other than announcing the formation of the payment network, to be called Merchant Customer Exchange, the companies gave few details about how their mobile system would work or when it would be released. They said that their payment application would be available for virtually any smartphone, and that it would use a secure technology to process transactions. Fourteen companies so far have agreed to help develop the mobile wallet system, and more are expected to join the alliance later.
    Michael A. Cook, vice president and assistant treasurer of Wal-Mart, said the merchants in the group, which have $ 1 trillion in annual sales, knew people’s shopping habits and payment preferences, so it made sense for them to work together.
    The announcement came a week after Starbucks said it was teaming up with Square, a start-up company that lets people make purchases with their smartphones. Howard D. Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, joined Square’s board. Some speculated that this partnership risked alienating other big retailers, by giving Starbucks influence over how Square’s payment system was developed. In addition to Square and similar start-ups, many types of businesses are hoping to make a grab at the mobile wallet market, including phone carriers, credit card companies and big tech companies like Google and Microsoft.
    While competition in a market is typically a good thing, giving consumers many different options to make a mobile payment could leave them baffled. Charles S. Golvin, a Forrester analyst who focuses on mobile technology. said that in order for a mobile wallet product to gain at traction, it would need to be an open system that allowed customers to pay for anything, anywhere.
    Mr. Golvin said the newly announced merchants’ payment network seemed as if it could gain traction with customers who shop regularly at the businesses that are part of the group. But he added that it did not seem likely to generate a compelling product that would give the idea of mobile payments the push it needed. " It does not strike me as a driver for the fundamental shift to mobile payments that the industry at large is counting on," he said.  
The phrase "make a grab"(Line 5, Para. 4)is closest in meaning to______.

选项 A、realize huge profits
B、make a great change
C、face a fierce competition
D、take collective actions

答案A

解析 语义题。首先观察该词组的构成,名词grab是由动词转化过来的,本意是“抓住,夺得”,前面的make+a的形式主要表示强调,再看其后接的对象是移动支付市场,结合本段主题是谈论各个商家争夺移动支付市场的情况,可见该词组在此处与争夺市场份额,从而谋取利益有关,故[A]为答案。首先可以排除face a fierce competition,因为根据句型判断,该词组表达的应该是各大移动服务商的主观愿望,他们不可能主动希望面临激烈的竞争,排除[C]。[B]在原文中没有可靠的事实根据,并且同样是用了make+a+n.的形式,change和grab意义相差甚远,故排除[B]。[D]的意思是“采取集体行动”,虽然前文提到了若干商家联合成立一个移动支付平台的信息,但是本段讨论的是这个平台成立的背景,本句也是泛指各类的商家,而并没有上下文显示它们都要采取集体行动,故排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/VPO4777K
0

随机试题
最新回复(0)