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  3. The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the

The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the

游客2024-12-16  28
问题     The first clue came when I got my hair cut. The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail-polish change while I waited for my hair to dry. Maybe she hoped this little amenity would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months while nursing our hair back to whatever natural colour we long ago forgot.
    Then there was the appliance salesman who offered to carry my bags as we toured the microwave aisle. When I called my husband to ask him to check some specs online, the salesman offered a preemptive discount, lest the surfing turn up the same model cheaper in another store. That night, for the first time, I saw the Hyundai ad promising shoppers that if they buy a car and then lose their job in the next year, they can return it.
    Suddenly everything’s on sale. The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives retailers to treat you like a queen for a day. During the flush times, salespeople were surly, waiters snobby. But now the customer rules, just for showing up. There’s more room to stretch out on the flight, even in a coach. The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness, with scarcely a shopper in sight. Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff. Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward. When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $ 2,000, it’s time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause. You really don’t even have to say anything pitiful before he’ll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off.
    Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street: Trinity Place offers $3 drinks at happy hour any day the market goes down, with the slogan "Market tanked? Get tanked!"—which ensures a lively crowd for the closing bell. The "21" Club has decided that men no longer need to wear ties, so long as they bring their wallets. Food itself is friendlier: you notice more comfort food, a truce between chef and patron that is easier to enjoy now that you can get a table practically anywhere. New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as "extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation " "You need to hug the customer," one owner told him.
    There’s a chance that eventually we’ll return all this kindness with the extravagant spending that was once decried but now everyone is hoping will restart the economy. But human nature is funny that way. In dangerous times, we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss, suspecting that it must be too good to be true. Is the store with the supercheap flat screens going to go bust and thus not be there to honour the "free" extended warranty? Is there something wrong with that free cheese? Store owners will tell you horror stories about shoppers with attitude, who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every turn. These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming: Will people expect discounts forever? Will their hard-won brand luster be forever cheapened, especially for items whose allure depends on their being ridiculously priced?
    There will surely come a day when things go back to "normal"; retail sales even inched up in January after sinking for the previous six months. But I wonder what it will take for us to see those $ 545 Siger-son Morrison studded toe-ring sandals as reasonable? Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of the markets, and haggling is a low-risk, high-value contact sport. Trauma digs deep into habit, like my 85-year-old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet "the bomb shelter. " The children of the First Depression were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared. They came to be called the "greatest generation. " As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources, who knows what might come of it? We have lived in an age of wanton waste, and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line. [br] According to the passage, "shoppers... flaunt their new power at every turn" means that shoppers would
选项 A、keep asking for more discounts.
B、like to show that they are powerful.
C、like to show off their wealth.
D、have more doubts or suspicion.
答案 A
解析 语义理解题。由题干定位至第五段倒数第二句。该句之后，店主提出的质疑均围绕价格：discounts，cheapened，这说明题干部分的含义与打折有关，[A]符合该处语义关系，故为答案。[B]是对power的字面曲解；文中没有提及顾客是否有钱，排除[C]；[D]项与题干句子不相关，排除。
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