Local businessmen are increasingly facing petition from online retailers. Larry Pollock, owner of Camera Co/Op on South Congress, said he has been dealing with this kind of problem for years, even before the Internet. The struggle began with mail-order catalogues(目录), which are similar to online retailers in that they have few employees to pay, no sales tax fees and no business venue to lease and manage.
“Their overhead is lower, but they don’t offer a service like we do,” Pollock said.
Pollock, however, said providing a valuable service to customers does not always guarantee continued sales.
“We spend 30 minutes to an hour with somebody and they go home and buy it on line,” he said.
According to the state ptroller’s office, online shopping is developing at a more rapid rate than traditional businesses.
In spite of how fair or unfair online shopping may be to the local businessmen, consumers will continue to turn to the Internet for its variety and accessibility, said Mitch Wilson, an online shopper. “You have a larger selection and it's easier to pare prices.”
Wilson said he built his personal puter and paid a third of the price by shopping on line.
“Before the Internet, I would have had to go and buy an assembled puter from somebody like Dell,” he said. “Before I started shopping on line I could never find all the pieces I wanted. No single store had everything needed, so shopping on line saved me from having to buy from Dell.”
Janny Brazeal, a psychology freshman, said online shopping is too impersonal.
“’d rather see it in person, touch it, know that I’m getting it,” she said.
Brazeal also said she would not give out her credit card number or other personal information on line no matter how safe the site claims it is.
【小题1】Larry Pollock has been facing the problem .A．before longB．after the InternetC．since there were mail-order catalogues D．since he worked as a businessman【小题2】According to the passage, which of the following is WRONG?A．Traditional business can provide valuable ser- vices to customers.B．People can get cheaper goods from traditional business.C．More and more people will turn to the Internet for their needs.D．There are still many people who don’t like on- line shopping.【小题3】 Mitch Wilson prefers to build his personal pu- ter by shopping on line because .A．he can easily get what he needs at a lower priceB．he can not get the price at traditional businessmanC．he is not satisfied with the service of local busi- nessmanD．the quality of Dell is not satisfyingC
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(答案→)C
解析：
【小题1】 C 细节理解题。由文章第一段第二、三句可知，Larry Pollock在mail-order catalogues出现后就开始面临着激烈的竞争了。
【小题2】B 细节理解题。由文中Their overhead is lower可知，网店的运营费用(overhead)比传统商店要低，即成本较低。再根据…paid a third of the price by shopping online.可知，网上购物要便宜些，即传统商店购物要贵些。
【小题3】 D 细节理解题。结合上下文可知网上购物的三个优势：商品样式多，便宜而又便利。