When 18-year-old Jon Angle set his sights on a $5,000 motorcycle last month, he was determined not to let a little thing like la

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问题      When 18-year-old Jon Angle set his sights on a $5,000 motorcycle last month, he was determined not to let a little thing like lack of funds stand in his, way. "My bank said they’d never loan me that sort of money, since I don’t really have any assets yet," the recent high school graduate from Littleton, Colo., recalls. Still, Angle was able to secure a loan from the Young Americans Bank in Denver, which caters to the under-22-year-old crowd and permits allowance to be listed as a source of income on loan application. Now, with a new Suzuki, Angle is setting aside most of the income from his $6.75-an-hour job at a local McDonald’s to pay off his debt.
     At mails, movie theaters and even motorcycle dealerships around the country, teenagers like Jon Angle are behaving like the fiscal equivalent of the Energizer Bunny: They keep spending, and spending, and spending. Last year, 12-to-19-year-olds went on their biggest shopping spree ever, ringing up $109 billion in purchases, a 38 percent increase over 1990. And the demographics for the teen market are enough to make any orthodontist smile. As the baby boomers’ babies hit puberty, the teen population is expected to balloon from 29.1 million to 34.9 million by 2010.
      Teens also are earning money. About half of all 16-to-19-year-olds have part-time jobs, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, a market research firm. Combined with allowance from their parents, adolescents average $64 in income per week. But that money bums a quick hole in their pockets. For every dollar teens earned last year, they spent 84 cents. And even when they do put aside some of their funds, teenagers save only until they can afford some coveted big-ticket item. Clair Boetticher, 17, from North Dallas, Texas, for example, receives $35 in weekly allowance and is earning an extra $100 a week this summer working on a ranch. She spends most of money on food, movies and compact disks. And when Boetticher does save, she usually hangs onto the money only enough to buy tickets to a rock concert.
      With all this money up for grabs, it is no longer just makers of acne medication who are zeroing in on adolescents. Nike, for example, which consistently ranks as one of the most popular brands among teens, targets its products to consumers between the ages of 14 and 24. And Levi Strauss consults a panel of several hundred teens around the country during its product-development process. If the feedback indicates that the cut on a pair of jeans needs changing, the designers return to the drawing board.
     Teens don’t just spend their money, they also affect the way their parents shop. When it comes time to buy a family computer, for example, grown-ups often turn to their kids as technology consultants. With an increasing number of children using PCs at school, it’s not surprising that parents who buy home computers let their teens influence the decision about two third of the time.
It can be inferred from the passage that the producers are focusing on the adolescent market because

选项 A、adolescents account for a great part of the consumers and their tastes and preferences are of great importance to the producers.
B、adolescents often serve as consultants for their parents’ purchasing behavior and sometimes even alter their parents’ purchasing habits.
C、adolescents are turning their interests from acne medication and sport wears to other goods.
D、a research team has revealed that nearly half of American adolescents have part-time jobs, and thus, some extra money to spend.

答案A

解析 本题考查推理判断。文中倒数第二段的开头写到:“With all this money up for grabs,it is no longer just makers of acne medication who are zeroing in on adolescents.”面对一个有如此巨大潜力的消费市场,动心的绝不仅仅是生产治疗粉刺药物的厂家。后面作者以Nike和Levi Strauss为例说明商家对青少年的重视。因此A 是正确答案。选项 B 讲:青少年对他们父母的购物习惯的影响不可忽视,这是在最后一段中提到的,和题目没有直接关系。选项C 的意思是:青少年消费的主题已经从治疗粉刺的药物和体育用品转向了其他的领域,这在文中没有涉及。选项D 意思为:调查表明,将近一半的美国青少年有兼职工作,这虽然是文中提到的内容,但和问题无直接联系。
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