自学考试《商务英语阅读》练习试题及答案_第2页

　　At the beginning, any piece of market research must be carefully planned. The first stage is to define the problem. For example, is it the customer who is not buying, or the shopkeeper? Are low sales used by a firm’s inefficiency rather than by faulty product design? At this point, it is important to get as many views as possible, and to examine all sales records thoroughly. Simply going through all the paperwork at this stage could trace(追踪;查出)the source of the problem.

　　After this has been done—and assuming that the source of the problem has not been revealed—the organization can move to “external” research: looking at various materials published by government bodies, trade associations and so on, to see what these reveal about consumer habits and trends.

　　However, most people associate the term “market research” with survey(调查) work, and this is where the major expenses lie. Why is this kind of research so time consuming and expensive? Basically, because it involves several stages, each of which can take quite a while.

　　The first stage is to decide on a sample, since it is obviously not practicable to survey all possible consumers of a particular product or service. This is the business of statisticians (统计学家). There are a number of different kinds of sample: random, area, quota.

　　Following this, a questionnaire (调查表) must be devised and there are many problems in making sure that this is clear and that the questions are likely to elicit (引出) helpful responses. Before the questionnaire is given to all the sample, it tried out on a small group. This is called a “pilot” survey. The responses are used to revise the questionnaire.

　　( T ) 6. Market research aims to bring about and promote sales.

　　( F ) 7. The discovery made by the British Market Research Bureau is trust-worthy.

　　( F ) 8. Market research is carried out in the form of survey work only.

　　( F ) 9. The questions in questionnaires should be so designed as to elicit expected responses.

　　( T ) 10. Enquiring sample customers is the last stage in market research.

　　Passage Three

　　The rise of multinational corporations(跨国公司), global marketing, new communications technologies, and shrinking cultural differences have led to an unparalleled(空前的)increase in global public relations or PR.

　　Surprisingly, since modern PR was largely an American invention, the U.S. leader ship in public relations is being threatened by PR efforts in other countries. Ten years ago, for example, the world's top five public relations agencies were American owned. In 1991, only one was. The British in particular are becoming more sophisticated and creative. A recent survey found that more than half of all British companies include PR as part of their corporate(公司的) planning activities, compared to about one-third of U.S. companies. It may not be long before London replaces New York as the capital of PR.

　　Why is America lagging behind in the global PR race? First, Americans as a whole tend to be fairly provincial and take more of an interest in local affairs. Knowledge of world geography, for example, has never been strong in this country. Secondly, Americans lag behind their European and Asian counterparts(对手)in knowing a second language. Less than 5 percent of Burson Marshall's U.S. employees know two languages. Ogilvy and Mather has about the same percentage. Conversely, some European firms have half or more of their employees fluent in a second language. Finally, people involved in PR abroad tend to keep a closer eye on international affairs. In the financial PR area, for instance, most Americans read the Wall Street Journal. Overseas, their counterparts read the Journal as well as the Financial Times of London and The Economist, Publications not often read in this country.

　　Perhaps the PR industry might take a lesson from Ted Turner of CNN (Cable News Network). Turner recently announced that the word "foreign" would no longer be used on CNN news broadcasts. According to Turner, global communications have made the nations of the world so interdependent that there is no longer any such thing as foreign.