This product ______ the latest technology.

What Is a Tour Operator？ Tour operators are businesses that combine two or more travel services (e.g. transport, accommodation, catering, entertainment, sightseeing) and sell them through travel agencies or directly to final consumers as a single product (called a package tour). The components of a package tour might be preestablished, or can result from an“a la carte” procedure, where the visitor decides the combination of services she/he wishes to acquire. A tour operator is often described as an intermediary. As Cooper et al. (1998) have said: “ The principal role of intermediaries is to bring buyers andsellers together, either to create markets where they previously did not exist, or to make existing markets work more efficiently and thereby to expand marketsize... In all industries the task of intermediaries is to transform goods and services which consumers do not want, to a product that they do want.” Tour operators are the crucial link in the distribution chain,representing thecentral connection between customers and providers of services and therefore having the power to influence both sides, the demand and the supply, according to their interests. The product that a tour operator offers to the customer is the “inclusivetour”, i.e. the packaged combination of transport, accommodation and services. Due to bulk buying, the tour operator is able to offer this package at a cheaper price than the customer would have been able to achieve dealing directly with suppliers. This package is distributed to the customer either directly (e.g.direct sell, internet) or via a “middleman' tne travel agent,who arranges the sale the package for commission, usually 10% of the retail price. Tour operatorsan travel agents thus have very ditterent roles. The product that a tour operator offers to the customer is the “inclusive tour”, including () .

A、transport

B、accommodation

C、services

D、all of the above

PLR Air Conditioning Center

27 West Street

Plaines City

LA America 50705

March 6, 2004

Ms. Li Chunhua, President

New Era Engineering Group

26 Renmin Street

Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China

225002

Dear Ms. Li,

Thank you very much for allowing us to present to you our recommendation for PLR Air Conditioning System. We would like to express our appreciation to Mr. Zhang and Mrs. Wu for their help as we collected the data necessary for this proposal.

After thoroughly analyzing your company's engineering requirements, we believe that you will find this proposed PLR system satisfactory. It will provide the maximum return on your investment dollar. In addition, the PLR system protects you against obsolescence(过时) in the near future—if your business continues to experience the normal growth you have experienced in the last few years—because the equipment PLR proposes to install is a modular(模块的) design to which you may add additional units as the need arises.

We believe that you will find this system practical, efficient, and economical for the needs of your company both now and in the near future. It is our sincere hope that my information ill the enclosed proposal will make your decision to install a PLR Air Conditioning System much easier.

Sincerely yours,

James P. Callahan

Sales Manager

Recommendation of a Product

Product recommended: PLR【46】

PLR'S proposal: based on the analysis of the buyer's【47】

Features of the Product: 1. It's a【48】design;

2. It's practical【49】and economical;

Document Enclosed: a/the【50】

ar from a Starbucks. The company started in the West Coast city of Seattle, Washington, in 1971. Starbucks was named after a character in the famous American novel "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville. Today, there are more than twelve thousand Starbucks around the world.

Sales last year were almost eight billion dollars. The company believes in opening many stores in busy areas of cities. For example, there are about thirty Starbucks stores in downtown Seattle. Starbucks sells more than just plain coffee. It started a whole coffee culture with its own special language and coffee workers called baristas. It sells many kinds of hot and cold coffee drinks, like White Chocolate Mocha and Frappuccino. It also sells music albums, coffee makers, food, and even books. But most of all, it sells the idea of being a warm and friendly place for people to sit, read or talk.

However, some people do not like the company's aggressive expansion. Faith Lapidus, a small coffee sell-er is taking the company to court. She says the way the company does business is illegal because it stops property owners from leasing stores to other coffee companies. She sees Starbucks as controlling the market and forcing out competition.

Nicolas O'Connell works for La Colombe, a coffee roasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He says Starbucks has helped to educate people about coffee from many countries. But he criticizes the company for using machines more than people to make the coffee. Mr. O'Connell points out that the coffee culture is all about a hand-made product and interaction between people.

(30)

A．A great character in history.

B．A theatrical role in a play.

C．A special symbol in life.

D．An imaginary person in a fiction.

听力原文： (A = Alex S = Sophie)

A: Job losses are expected at the Manchester plant of the beauty products manufacturer, Vie Vitale, Sophie Jones has been following the story and is in our Manchester studio. Good morning, Sophie.

S: Good morning, Alex.

A: So, job losses, Sophie？ How are things going？ We've been hearing reports of up to 300 jobs going.

S: Well, if Vie Vitale does go ahead with restructuring and that includes the disposal of its manufacturing base, then as many as 200 of the 500 jobs here are far from guaranteed.

A: And where exactly will these cuts be made, Sophie？

S: Well, most would almost certainly be in the manufacturing division. This is an area Vie Vitale wants to get out of completely. And if this happens, then it would have serious consequences for jobs in distribution. However, the company wants to focus on its product development, so there's unlikely to be any losses there. At least, that's what the company's saying this morning.

A: So very little good news there. But why should the company suddenly find itself in such a difficult position？

S: Well, the health and beauty retail sector is still as fashionable as ever and has attracted a lot of new companies to the market. The sad truth is, though, that these new companies now have equally good if not better ideas at the same kind of price. And I think this is the fundamental problem. And last year, La Face, the French manufacturer, brought out a new range again, very similar types of products, very similar sorts of ideas.

A: So how well are La Face doing？

S: Well, actually, they haven't been doing that well either. In fact, only last week they announced they're no longer going to focus on their own retail outlets, but rather on the mail order side of the business instead. They're also considering selling through department stores, but nothing's been confirmed yet. So Vie Vitale isn't alone in feeling incredible pressure.

A: Well, it sounds like the problem they're all having is that it's getting quite crowded. So what does all this mean for Vie Vitale's share price？

S: Well, if we look at the share price over the last year, you can see that although it started high at the beginning of the year and looked steady in the first six months, there's been a huge drop since then, reaching its lowest point last week where the City really lost confidence in what they were doing.

A: Right. Now, Vie Vitale's corporate image used to be unique, didn't it？ So how are they planning to establish themselves as the market leader once more？

S: Well, Alex, they're not giving away too many details just yet, but it seems they're intending to refresh up their shops and update their corporate look. You know, all their packaging. There's certainly no news of any new product lines or any change in their basic values.

A: But what about the number of shops？ Any change there, Sophie？

S: Well, in fact, what they're doing is buying franchises back. They feel that if they're in control of their shops, they're in control of their corporate image. We've heard nothing about shop closures.

A: So how many of their shops do they now own？

S: Well, they started the process a few months ago and they've now regained control of all their French outlets, and they should have ownership of all their German shops by early next year. As there are more outlets in the UK, it'll take a bit longer here. I think the name of the game is definitely going to be control.

You will hear a report about Vie Vitale, a manufacturer of health and beauty products.

You have to complete the sentences 23--30 by choosing the correct answer.

Mark one letter A, B or C.

How many jobs are likely to be lost at Vie Vitale？

A．200.

B．300.

C．500.

retire to a $6,020-a-night three- bedroom suite on the 10th floor of the Principe di Savoia Hotel. Meanwhile, an extra room at $440-a-night has been booked on the floor below, purely to accommodate her shoes. There's been nothing like it since the final days of Imelda Marcos.

As with Imelda, swelling unpopularity has done nothing to moderate their behaviour. Quite the opposite: they are becoming ever more imperious. It' s almost as if they have adopted the football hooligan' s slogan: "no one likes us and we don' t care."

The latest victim is the parfumier John Stephen, who was asked to create four new scents for Her Majesty.

"The Queen is happy that you mention the perfumes in your newsletter," a letter from Windsor Castle informed him.

Shortly afterwards, however, Stephen received a letter from a royal press secretary, Dickie Arbiter. "I have now had an opportunity of discussing your press release with the Queen and her private secretary, and while the detail in it is accurate it does read like an advertisement... Members of the royal family and their residences cannot and should not be used in any way for advertising or promotion. Nor at any time do members of the royal family endorse commercial products."

Not for nothing do the senior royals refer to themselves as "The Firm. Click on to the monarch's official website and the first thing you see is a link to online booking of tickets for Buckingham Palace." Delve a little further and you'll find a complete list of all the companies that are endorsed by the Queen, her husband, her heir or her mother.

More than 1,000 holders of the "By Appointment... warrant benefit from this ancient system of product placement. The Queen Mother, for instance, is happy to have her name used in advertisements for the morning cereal Weetabix, HP Sauce, Hoover (suppliers of vacuum cleaners), Kimberley Clark (makers of the royal toilet paper), Rigby & Peller (providers of the Queen Mum' s corsets) and Metro Cable TV, who ensure that she gets the Racing Channel. There are hundreds more, including the inevitable Tanqueray Gordon & Co of Basildon (gin distillers)." That old theatrical favorite, "Cigarettes by Abdullah, is regrettably absent: John Player and Sons are her snout-purveyors of choice."

As the official line confirms, a warrant holder is permitted "to use the legend' By Appointment' and display the Royal Arms on his products, such as stationery, advertisements and other printed material..."

Perhaps this had somehow slipped the sovereign's mind when she ordered Arbiter to issue his pompous warning about the royal family's stern refusal to be used "in any way for advertising or promotion".

Incidentally, the website's address is www. royal.gov.uk. Don't make the mistake of trying www.queen.com or you'll enter "the baddest sex site on the net which features such delights as Naked Old Grannies".

Big Fat Horny Bitches and Just Hardcore ("We don' t respect our women here!").

I assume that even The Firm hasn't yet diversified that far.

How much did the Queen spend after attending a performance at La Scala in Milan this evening？

A．$6,020.

B．$440.

C．$6,460.

D．$6,202.

Centers of the Great European Cities

The centers of the great cities of Europe are meeting places by tradition. People gather there to drink coffee and chat late into the night. A mixture of locals and tourists make for an exciting, metropolitan atmosphere.

Squares, plazas (广场) and arcades (拱廊) form. the heart of Europe's cities.

Venice in Italy has the Piazza San Marco - a beautiful square surrounded by shops, churches, restaurants and cafes. In Barcelona, Spain, La Bosqueria is a lively market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of goods. London's Covent Garden is filled with fruit and vegetable stalls by day and musicians, acrobats (杂技演员) and artists by night. The government buildings at the center of many cities often are architecturally impressive. In London, they serve as a beautiful backdrop (背景) to the coffee tables that line the streets and the banks of the Thames.

These vibrant (有活力的) hearts are the product of centuries of evolution, social historian Joel Garreau told US News and World Report recently. "The reason people think Venice is so great today is you don't see all the mistakes," said Garreau, "Those have all been removed." Most European cities were laid out before the invention of the car, so bars, restaurants and cafes were near to people's homes. Today, the focus of many Europeans' life has moved away from the centers. They live in the suburbs and outskirts, driving to supermarkets to get their supplies. But on a continent where people treasure convention, there are still those who hold onto traditional ways, living and shopping locally. These people, together with tourists, provide the city centers with their reason for existence.

Coffee culture plays a part in keeping these city centers flourishing. This is particularly true of Paris whose citizens are famous enthusiastic conversationalists. This skill is developed over many hours spent chatting over espressos (浓咖啡) and cigarettes.

Religion also plays a role in developing sociable atmosphere. People in Roman Catholic countries used to visit the Church on an almost daily basis. Entire communities would gather in the same building and then move out to the markets, cafes and bars in the surrounding streets. An enormous example of this relationship between church and society is the Duomo. The huge marble cathedral in Florence, Italy is surrounded by bakeries and coffee shops, and caters (迎合) not only to the tourist crowds, but also the local community.

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that each big city in Europe

A．has many large squares.

B．has many very magnificent sky-scrapers.

C．draws tourists in large numbers every year.

D．has a center where tourists meet their spouses.

Centers of the Great European Cities

The centers of the great cities of Europe are meeting places by tradition. People gather there to drink coffee and chat late into the night. A mixture of locals and tourists make for an exciting,metropolitan atmosphere.

Squares, plazas (广场) and arcades (拱廊) form. the heart of Europe&39;s cities.

Venice in Italy has the Piazza San Marco-- a beautiful square surrounded by shops, churches,restaurants and cafes. In Barcelona, Spain, La Bosqueria is a lively market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of goods. London&39;s Covent Garden is filled with fruit and vegetable stalls by day and musicians, acrobats (杂技演员) and artists by night. The government buildings at.the center of ma.ny cities often are architecturally impressive. In London, they serve as a beautiful backdrop (背景) to the coffee tables that line the streets and the banks of the Thames.

These vibrant (有活力的 ) hearts are the product of centuries of evolution, social historian Joel Garreau told US News and Worm Report recently. "The reason people think Venice is so great today is you don&39;t see all the mistakes." said Garreau. "Those have all been removed." Most European cities were laid out before the invention of the car, so bars, restaurants and cafes were near to people&39;s homes. Today, the focus of many Europeans&39; life has moved away from the centers They live in the suburbs and outskirts, driving to supermarkets to get their supplies. But on a continent where people treasure convention, there are still those who hold onto traditional ways,living and shopping locally. These people, together with tourists, provide the city centers with their reason for existence.

Coffee culture plays a part in keeping these city centers flourishing. This is particularly true of Paris whose citizens are famous enthusiastic conversationalists. This skill is developed over many hours spent chatting over espressos (浓咖啡) and cigarettes.

Religion also plays a role in developing sociable atmosphere. People in Roman Catholic countries used to visit the church on an almost daily basis. Entire communities would gather in the same building and then move out to the markets, cafes and bars in the surrounding streets. An enormous example of this relationship between church and society is the Duomo. The huge marble cathedral in Florence, Italy is surrounded by bakeries and coffee shops, and caters not only to the tourist crowds, but also the local community.

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that each big city in Europe 查看材料

A.has many large squares

B.has many very magnificent sky-scrapers

C.draws tourists in large numbers every year

D.has a center where tourists meet their spouses

听力原文： If you are in any major city in America, the chances are high that you are not far from a Starbucks. In fact, you might be very close to several of these coffee stores. The company started in the West Coast city of Seattle, Washington, in 1971. Starbucks was named after a character in the famous American novel "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville. Today, there are more than twelve thousand Starbucks around the world.

Sales last year were almost eight billion dollars. The company believes in opening many stores in busy areas of cities. For example, there are about thirty Starbucks stores in downtown Seattle. Recently, three Starbucks opened in the area near VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Starbucks sells more than just plain coffee. It started a whole coffee culture with its own special language and coffee workers called baristas. It sells many kinds of hot and cold coffee drinks, like White Chocolate Mocha and Frappuccino. It also sells music albums, coffee makers, food, and even books. But most of all, it sells the idea of being a warm and friendly place for people to sit, read or talk.

Starbucks is a great success story. Buyers are willing to pay as much as five dollars for a coffee drink. People we talked to said they go to Starbucks because they can depend on it to have exactly what they want and to be nearby.

However, some people do not like the company's aggressive expansion. A small coffee seller is taking the company to court. She says the way the company does business is illegal because it stops property owners from leasing stores to other coffee companies. She sees Starbucks as controlling the market and forcing out competition.

Nicolas O'Connell works for La Colombe, a coffee roasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He says Starbucks has helped to educate people about coffee from many countries. But he criticizes the company for using machines more than people to make the coffee. Mr. O'Connell points out that the coffee culture is all about a hand-made product and interaction between people.

Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

33. Where did Starbucks, the store name come from？

34. What is Starbucks' most extraordinary character？

35. Why does Mr. O'Connell not like Starbucks？

(30)

A．A special symbol in life.

B．A theatrical role in a play.

C．A great character in history.

D．An imaginary person in a fiction.