第四部分 阅读理解

　　第一篇 The Making of a Success Story

　　IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. Born in Sweden in 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally he used it to start up a business一IKEA.

　　IKEA's name comes from Kamprad's initials (I.K.) and the place where he grew up ('E' and 'A'). Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture1, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods. Kamprad's wares included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices2, including watches, pens and stockings.

　　IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947. The fUrniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad's home. Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line. Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951.

　　In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden. IKEA is known today for its spacious stores with furniture iti attractive settings, but in the early 1950s, people ordered from catalogues. Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelmiig: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.

　　In 1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging3. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales soared. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA. Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations of self-sufficiency. This image has done wonders for the company, leading to better sales and continued expansion.

　　Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004 he was named the world's richest man. He currently lives in Switzerland and is retied from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing.

　　31. Kamprad established IKEA with

　　A . his personal savings

　　B . his father’s reward for his school performance

　　C . large profits from selling things

　　D . his school’s support

　　32. The author states in Paragraph 5 that flat packaging

　　A . needs large space to assembly fumiture

　　B . is a business concept inspired by Kamprad

　　C . helps reduce transportation costs

　　D . makes the company self-sufficient

　　33. According to the passage.which of the following is NOT true?

　　A . IKEA experienced rapid expansion since the late 1950s

　　B . IKEA designd its own products since 1955

　　C . IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods originally

　　D . Kamprad said his company after retirement

　　34. what is the auther’s attitude towards IKEA’s future according to

　　A . indifferent

　　B . Doubtful

　　C . Optimistic

　　D . Pessimistic

　　35. The passage is developed primarily in terms of

　　A . analysis of a process

　　B . examples that illustrate a problem

　　C . comanson and contrast

　　D . sequence events