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  3. "The toy industry has always reflected adult culture," says Chris Byrne, an American toy-industry consultant. In the 1920s girls

"The toy industry has always reflected adult culture," says Chris Byrne, an American toy-industry consultant. In the 1920s girls

admin2012-07-05  92
问题     "The toy industry has always reflected adult culture," says Chris Byrne, an American toy-industry consultant. In the 1920s girls played with ironing boards because they expected later to iron their husbands’ shirts. The first 1950s Barbie dolls had two careers: fashion model and bride. So what do British toy shops say about the state of the nation today?
    Good news first: the British are generous. Parents buy many more toys for their offspring than do their continental counterparts (相对应的人或物). Britain is Europe’s biggest toy market, followed by France and Germany, according to Frederique Tutt, an analyst at NPD EuroToys. British parents buy an average of 41 toys per year, which is almost a toy per week. In Spain, by contrast, children receive few toys outside the Christmas season.
    Less encouragingly, Britons seem highly susceptible to media conglomerates’ (大型联合企业) marketing campaigns. Britain’s toy market is similar to America’s in favouring entertainment over education, says Gerrick Johnson, a toy analyst at BMO Capital Markets. About one-quarter of toy sales in Britain are licence-driven, which means they are based on characters from Disney films or television series such as the popular Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam. The proportion in Germany is just 14%. German parents are bigger on engineering. Last year building sets accounted for 13.4% of German toy sales compared with only 8.6% in Britain. Germany is the biggest European market for Lego, the Danish maker of colourful bricks. Mediterranean countries are more traditional. Dolls account for fully 16.8% of toy sales in Spain, compared with 9.7% in Britain and just 7.9% in Germany. Italians buy a disproportionate number of toys from small, local makers.
    UNICEF, a United Nations agency, slams British parents for encouraging "compulsive (强迫性的) consumerism" in their children. Yet analysts think the British habit of piling children’s bedrooms with junk is changing, thanks to the economic slump. Movie-related toys have not sold as well as expected recently, says Mr. Johnson. And Lego has been thriving in Britain, as it has everywhere else. The firm’s building sets are expensive, but they give parents lots of "play value", which means children play with them for a long time without getting bored.
What do we know about British parents from the second paragraph?
选项 A、They are willing to spend more money buying their children toys.
B、They can buy as many as 41 toys for their offspring within a month.
C、They buy toys for their children only on special occasions.
D、They are fond of buying toys made in France and Germany.
答案A
解析 细节辨认题。定位段开头便点出本段主旨：英国人慷慨大方。后面通过数据资料证明英国父母给孩子买的玩具比欧洲其他国家的父母要多。故正确答案为A)“他们愿意花更多的钱给孩子买玩具”。
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大学英语四级

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