Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this

Over three million people will do their Christmasshopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll(民意调查) has found. Overcrowding and long queuesin shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.

The number of people turning their backs on the highstreet is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to thepoll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of theirshopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.

Over a third of people said that the main turn-offabout shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quartersaid that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.

Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stirtaking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high streetwill spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using therest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percentof people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of theirshopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forwardto dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.

Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at CasioBusiness Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, saidthat despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are"social creatures" who actually like spending time together.

"Although the high street is facing a bigchallenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) shouldsee this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience,rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire tospend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to goaway," said Mr. Boxall.

1.According to the poll, in this year's Christmas       

A．about 7 % ofthe population will do both online and actual shopping

B．about 31% ofshoppers will do half of their shopping in actual shops

C．about 39% ofshoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shops

D．over threemillion shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues

2.What's the meaning of "turn-off" inPara.5?

A．Somethingthat makes people lose heart

B．Somethingthat makes people lose face

C．Somethingthat makes people lose interest

D．Somethingthat makes people lose courage

3.It can be inferred from Mr. Boxall's words that                                                                                                   

A．retailersshould reduce their in-store goods.

B．retailers wiRbe pessimistic about the result of this research.

C．retailersshould focus on the advantage of in-store shopping.

D．retailerswill make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas

4.Wheat's the writer's attitude towards Christmasonline shopping?

A．Concerned.        B．Doubtful.          C．Approving.        D．Objective.

试题答案

【答案】

1.C

2.C

3.C

4.D

【解析】

试题