考研英语真题英语一阅读部分.docxVIP

Text 1 In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, scolds her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesnt affect her.② Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistants sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to department stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment. This top-down conception of the fashion business couldnt be more out of date or at odds with the feverish world described in Overdressed, Elizabeth Clines three-year indictment of“fast fashion”. ② In the last decade or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara, HM, and Uniqlo to react to trends more quickly and anticipate demand more precisely. ③Quicker turnarounds mean less wasted inventory, more frequent releases, and more profit. ④ These labels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposable—meant to last only a wash or two, although they dont advertise that —and to renew their wardrobe every few weeks. ⑤By offering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices, Cline argues, these brands have hijacked fashion cycles, shaking an industry long accustomed to a seasonal pace. ①The victims of this revolution, of course, are not limited to designers. ② For HM to offer a $5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plus stores around the world, it must rely on low-wage overseas labor, order in volumes that strain natural resources, and use massive amounts of harmful chemicals. Overdressed is the fashion worlds answer to consumer-activist bestsellers like Michael Pollans The Omnivores Dilemma. ②“ Mass-produced clothing, like fast food, fills a hunger and need, yet is non-durable and wasteful,” Cline argues. ③Americans, she finds, buy roughly 20 billion garments a year—about 64 items per person—and no matter how much they give away, this excess leads to waste. Towards the end of Overdressed, Cline introduced her ideal, a Brooklyn woman named Sarah Kate Be