英语阅读小提示.ppt

Tips for Reading Practice Exercises Practice Exercises Practice Exercises The mystery of the Chinese consumer LILY LI wears a lanyard with a little plastic card around her neck, even at weekends. It is a badge of honour: it shows that she has a white-collar job. (She is a secretary at Access Asia, a retail- research company in Shanghai.) She uses Apple earphones for the cheap Chinese mobile phone in her pocket, so it looks as if she owns an iPhone. And she drives to work, though it takes four times longer than public transport, just to show off her little car. The mystery of the Chinese consumer After decades of deprivation and conformism, Chinese consumers regard expensive consumer goods as trophies of success.In public, they show off. In private, they pinch pennies.The owner of a gleaming new BMW will drive around for half an hour to avoid a 50 cent parking fee. And she will hesitate to spend much on interior decoration, because only her family sees the inside of her flat. The mystery of the Chinese consumer By some forecasts China will be the second- largest consumer market in the world by 2015, not far behind America. Chinese people already buy more cars than people in any other country: 13.5m last year to Americans’ 11.6m. China is on its way to becoming the biggest luxury-goods market. The central government made an increase in domestic consumption one of the priorities of its latest five-year plan. The mystery of the Chinese consumer Small wonder that Western firms are piling in. On July 4th Nestlé, the world’s largest food maker, confirmed that it is in talks with Hsu Fu Chi, one of China’s biggest makers of confectionery and baked goodies, with a view to buying the firm. The mystery of the Chinese consumer If a deal is sealed, it would be one of the largest foreign takeovers yet seen in China: Hsu Fu Chi is valued at $2.6 billion on the Singapore stock exchange. China is currently Nestlé’s ninth-bigg-