The Rose Bowl parade (takes place) every year (in) Pasadena (in) (New Year's Day).A.takes
The Rose Bowl parade (takes place) every year (in) Pasadena (in) (New Year's Day).
A.takes place
B.in
C.in
D.New Year's Day
The Rose Bowl parade (takes place) every year (in) Pasadena (in) (New Year's Day).
A.takes place
B.in
C.in
D.New Year's Day
Re-selling tickets for a profit, known less politely as scalping in America or touting in Britain, is booming. In America alone, the "secondary market" for tickets to sought-after events is worth over $10 billion, reckons Jeffrey Fluhr, the boss of StubHub, an online ticket market. Scalping used to be about burly men lurking outside stadiums with fistfuls of tickets. Cries of "Tickets here, tickets here" still ring out before kick-off. But the Internet has created a larger and more efficient market. Some Internet-based ticket agencies, such as tickco. com and dynamiteticketz, corn act as traditional scalpers, buying up tickets and selling them on for a substantial mark-up. But others like StubHub have a new business model—bring together buyers and sellers, and then take a cut. For each transaction, StubHub takes a juicy 25%.
Despite its substantial commission—far higher than those charged by other online intermediaries including eBay or Craigslist—StubHub is flourishing. The firm was set up in 2000 and this year's Rose Bowl was its biggest event ever. The Super Bowl in early February will bring another nice haul, as have U2 and Rolling Stones concerts. Unlike eBay, which is the largest online trader in tickets, StubHub guarantees each transaction, so buyers need not worry about fraud. The company's revenues, now around $200 million, are tripling annually (despite its start in the dotcom bust). And there is plenty more room to grow. Mr. Fluhr notes that the market remains "highly fragmented", with tiny operations still flourishing and newspaper classified not yet dead.
But there are risks. Some events are boosting prices to cut the resale margins; others are using special measures to crack down. This summer, tickets to the soccer World Cup in Germany will include the name and passport number of the original purchaser and embedded chips that match the buyer to the tickets.
Then there are legal worries. In America, more than a dozen states have anti-scalping laws of various kinds. New Mexico forbids the reselling of tickets for college games; Mississippi does so for all events on government-owned property. Such laws are often ignored, but can still bite. In Massachusetts, where reselling a ticket for more than $2 above face value is unlawful, one fan brought a lawsuit last autumn against 16 companies (including StubHub) over his pricey Red Sox tickets.
UK is mentioned in the text with the intention to______.
A.define re-selling tickets for profits
B.stress the prosperity of the industry
C.shed light on the booming of scalping
D.cast doubt on the profits of online ticket market
Severe measures to discourage re-selling tickets for profits are illustrated with______.
A.U2 concert
B.Super Bowl in early February
C.Rolling Stones concerts
D.the soccer World Cup in Germany
A.Moreover
B.More often
C.Truly speaking
D.Instead
Yet the share price of Wendy's International, the parent company, rose steadily through March and April, despite the finger furore and downgrades from analysts. One reason was heavy buying by hedge funds, led by Pershing Square Capital. This week Pershing made its intentions public, saying that it was worried by market rumours that Wendy's might soon buy more fast-food brands, and arguing that the firm should be selling assets instead. Pershing's approach indicates rising pressure on American restaurant companies to perform, at a time when the industry's growth prospects look increasingly tough.
The hit on customers' wallets from higher petrol prices and rising interest rates will probably mean that year-on-year sales growth across the American restaurant industry slows to just 1% by the fourth quarter of 2005, down from a five-year historic average of 5.6%, say UBS, an investment bank, and Global Insight, a forecasting group. Looking further ahead, says UBS's David Palmer, the industry may have to stop relying on most of the long-term trends that were behind much of its recent growth.
Three-quarters of Americans already live within three miles of a McDonald's restaurant, leaving little scope for green-field growth. (Obesity is a growing issue in America, and with it come the threat of liability lawsuits against big restaurant chains and, perhaps, legal limits on advertising.) This week America's biggest food trade group, the Grocery Manufacturers' Association, was said to be preparing tougher guidelines on the marketing of food to children, in the hope of staving off statutory controls. Home cooking may also be making a comeback, helped by two factors. The percentage of women joining America's workforce may have peaked, and supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart have been forcing down retail food prices.
Expansion overseas is one option for American restaurant chains. Burger King, the privately owned number two hamburger chain, opened its first outlet in China last month, apparently aiming to maintain strong growth ahead of an initial public offering next year. McDonald's has 600 outlets in China and plans 400 more. But at home, the future seems to hold only an ever more competitive and cost-conscious restaurant industry. Fast-food chains are trying to poach customers from "casual dining" chains (such as Applebee's Neighborhood Grill), while those chains are squeezing out independent restaurants unable to compete on cost or in marketing clout. Business conditions, not severed fingers, are the real threat to the weaker firms in the restaurant business.
The word "hoax"(paragraph 1) probably means
A.truth.
B.joke.
C.revenge.
D.warn.
The example the author gives in the second paragraph might mean______.
A.one spends his day playing and drinking
B.don't waste your time as one does
C.time slips easily if you don't make good use of it
D.time is just like drinking milk from a bowl
A.Rose’s hesitation
B.Rose’s father
C.Rose’s mother Ruth
D.Rose’s desire for money