Market analysts in the United States have recently been quoted as saying that the biggest threat to the luxury (奢侈品) industry in the US is the tech industry. This is according to an article by fellow journalist Ashley Lutz. Her suggestion is sound. The main idea of her article is that products from Tiffany & Co. find their biggest competition not from other luxury brands but from companies like Apple. Lutz points out that luxury products are often only for “show,” while the attraction behind tech products is functionality.

You find few people in the United States today willing to purchase luxury goods at full price. It didn’t use to be that way. Luxury goods used to be actually exclusive. That meant you needed to travel to the right store to purchase them, and you didn’t even have the option of getting a deal.

Today, no one wants to pay full price for luxury goods. People have the unfortunate belief that fakes (贗品) somehow are equal to originals, and if you can’t get a deal on eBay, Amazon, or in an outlet store, purchasing a luxury product probably isn’t worth it. Luxury brands struggle to remain high-end (高檔的) images despite the reality that the American consumer is motivated much more by discounts than they are by brand names or image.

Yet people stand in line to pay full price for a new product from Apple and crowds gather to hear about a new smart phone. While electronics are updating every day, people are purchasing technology at full prices much more than they are purchasing luxury goods. What are high-tech makers doing right that luxury makers are pitifully failing at?

Carefully looking at the situation, it would appear as if the Internet didn’t hurt the luxury industry, expectation from the consumers did. What people want these days more than anything is stuff that does something. They want cars that drive, shoes that are comfortable, games that are fun to play, screens that are beautiful to look at, tools that are useful, and entertainment that is entertaining. Little of that fits into what the luxury industry has typically offered with its status, image, and fine materials. The sad reality is that luxury products aren’t that luxury any more.

1.What does this passage mainly talk about?

A. Nobody likes luxury goods any more.

B. Tech products become the new “l(fā)uxury goods”.

C. Luxury goods are of poor quality nowadays.

D. Iphones have taken the place of luxury products.

2. The underlined word “exclusive” in paragraph 2 means _______.

A. easy to sell

B. low in price

C. hard to find

D. unique and with no bargain

3.What do people pay most attention to nowadays?

A. The function of products.

B. The images of luxuries.

C. The Internet service.

D. The expectation from the consumers.

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科目：高中英語 來源：2015-2016學(xué)年湖北沙中學(xué)高一下第一次半月考英語試卷（解析版） 題型：語法填空

閱讀下面的句子，根據(jù)首字母或中文提示在空白處填入合適的單詞

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A. Anyone who shows passion for taking selfies.

B. Anyone who is a full-time student of the college.

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The Collections of Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad: Volume Victoria and Albert Museum has just been published, the fruit of ten years' efforts by Chinese experts.

The book is the first of an upcoming series that centers on ancient cultural heritage(文化遺產(chǎn)) collections in different museums around the world. The book details 195 out of 18,000 items now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in England.

More than 1.64 million ancient Chinese artifacts have been transported out of China because of different reasons such as wars and smuggling(走私) since the mid 19th century. More than 200 museums in 47 countries hold such collections, according to a report from UNESCO.

"The information we now have about these pieces is still very patchy(不全面的)," said Lu Zhangshen, curator(館長) of the National Museum of China. "In order to have a clearer picture about these items, National Museum of China decided to start the Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad book project in 2005. But after we began, we found it really difficult to collect information for every piece from each museum. That’s why the first volume took us ten years."

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According to the National Museum of China, the volume of the Japanese museum Sen-oku Hakuko Kan is coming out soon and the museum will seek more cooperation from museums worldwide to accelerate(加速) the project.

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D. meaningful but difficult

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B. A great many ancient Chinese artifacts have been distributed(分散) worldwide due mainly to wars and smuggling.

C. It is nearly ten years since the Chinese Ancient Cultural Relics Abroad book project was set up.

D. At present, collecting information for every piece from each museum is to some degree tough.

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