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  3. The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail-polish

The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail-polish

admin2013-08-27  71
问题     The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail-polish change while I waited for my hair to dry. Maybe she hoped this little amenity would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months while nursing our hair back to whatever natural colour we long ago forgot.
    Then there was the appliance salesman who offered to carry my bags as we toured the microwave aisle. When I called my husband to ask him to check some specs online, the salesman offered a preemptive discount, lest the surfing turn up the same model cheaper in another store. That night, for the first time, I saw the Hyundai ad promising shoppers that if they buy a car and then lose their job in the next year, they can return it.
    Suddenly everything’s on sale. The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives retailers to treat you like a queen for a day. During the flush times, salespeople were surly, waiters snobby. But now the customer rules, just for showing up. There’s more room to stretch out on the flight, even in a coach. The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness, with scarcely a shopper in sight. Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff. Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward. When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $ 2,000, it’s time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause. You really don’t even have to say anything pitiful before he’ll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off.
    Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street: Trinity Place offers $3 drinks at happy hour any day the market goes down, with the slogan "Market tanked? Get tanked!"—which ensures a lively crowd for the closing bell. The "21" Club has decided that men no longer need to wear ties, so long as they bring their wallets. Food itself is friendlier: you notice more comfort food, a truce between chef and patron that is easier to enjoy now that you can get a table practically anywhere. New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as "extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation " "You need to hug the customer," one owner told him.
    There’s a chance that eventually we’ll return all this kindness with the extravagant spending that was once decried but now everyone is hoping will restart the economy. But human nature is funny that way. In dangerous times, we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss, suspecting that it must be too good to be true. Is the store with the supercheap flat screens going to go bust and thus not be there to honour the "free" extended warranty? Is there something wrong with that free cheese? Store owners will tell you horror stories about shoppers with attitude, who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every turn. These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming: Will people expect discounts forever? Will their hard-won brand luster be forever cheapened, especially for items whose allure depends on their being ridiculously priced?
    There will surely come a day when things go back to "normal"; retail sales even inched up in January after sinking for the previous six months. But I wonder what it will take for us to see those $ 545 Siger-son Morrison studded toe-ring sandals as reasonable? Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of the markets, and haggling is a low-risk, high-value contact sport. Trauma digs deep into habit, like my 85-year-old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet "the bomb shelter. " The children of the First Depression were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared. They came to be called the "greatest generation. " As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources, who knows what might come of it? We have lived in an age of wanton waste, and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line.
What does the author mean by "the newly perfected art of the considered pause"?
选项 A、Customers now rush to buy things on sale.
B、Customers have got a sense of superiority.
C、Customers have learned how to bargain.
D、Customers have higher demands for service.
答案B
解析 语义理解题。由题干定位至第三段倒数第二句。该句提到修车工的表现，再根据末句“You really don’t even have to say anything…hundred dollars off．”可知，顾客只要采用沉默的招数对方就会主动降价，而且这一招数最近经常被使用，可见在卖家面前顾客有了一种优越感，同时结合第三段前面的内容，经济衰退期间，商家对待顾客如女王一样，曾经却极为势利，而如今顾客成了老大，甚至飞机上都有更多的伸展空间……等等细节表明了顾客的优越感，故答案为[B]。实际上顾客并没有讨价还价，是卖家主动降价的，因此[C]不符合文意，排除；[A]和[D]在文中未提及，排除。
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