Companies that must determine well in advance of the selling season how many units of a new product to manufacture often underproduce products that sell well and have overstocks of others. The increased incidence in recent years of mismatches between production and demand seems ironic, since point-of-sale scanners have improved data on consumers’ buying patterns and since flexible manufacturing has enabled companies to 24 produce, cost-effectively, small quantities of goods. This type of manufacturing has greatly increased the number of new products introduced annually in the United States. However, frequent introductions of new products have two problematic side effects. For one, they reduce the average lifetime of products; more of them are neither at the beginning of their life (when prediction is difficult) or at the end of their life (when keeping inventory is expensive because the products will soon become obsolete). For another, as new products proliferate, demand is divided among a growing number of stock-keeping units (SKU’s). Even though manufacturers and retailers can forecast aggregate demand with some certainty, forecasting accurately how that demand will be distributed among the many SKU’s they sell is difficult. For example, a company may be able to estimate accurately the aggregate number of shoes it will sell, but it may be uncertain about which specific types of shoes will sell more than other types.
问题是
Q35:
Which of the following most accurately describes the function of the last sentence in the passage (lines 35-40)?
A. To cite a situation in which the aggregate demand is more important than the distribution of demand among SKU’s
B. To refute an assertion about the side effects of flexible manufacturing
C. To illustrate an assertion about companies’ ability to forecast demand
D. To provide an example of ways in which companies address the difficulties of forecasting demand
E. To note an exception to the author’s assertion about distributing demand among SKU’s
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Q36:
The passage suggests which of the following about divided demand among a growing number of SKU’s?
A. It has increased the average lifetime of products.
B. It has resulted from retailer’s attempts to predict demand more accurately and avoid both understocks and overstocks.
C. It has decreased the use of flexible manufacturing by companies.
D. It has not increased the expense of keeping inventory of certain products.
E. It has not prevented companies from predicting aggregate demand with some certainty.
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Q37:TTGWD-6
According to the passage, which of the following has led to growth in the number of new products introduced in the United States each year?
A. Reduced average lifetime of products
B. Increased ability to forecast aggregate demand
C. More cost-effective ways of keeping inventory for products
D. Cost-effective production of small quantities of goods
E. Increased ability to divide demand among a number of SKU’s and to forecast how that demand will be distributed among those SKU’s
OA : D、E、D
考古by XYXB[目前考完的同学反馈遇到的内容与考古一致]
注：曾经传闻这个话题存在2个版本，长文章出现在高分库，短文章出现在低分库，文章侧重点不同。目前是根据原作者提供的关于assumption的描述找到的考古版本，所以大家使用时务必谨慎。
---------------文章与题目完全一样。。。我做错了第二题，我选了C。。。。难道我在低分库么555555555555
我怎么会没有看狗狗啊。。。天啊。。。。。。
-- by 会员 chyiwealwin (2010/12/16 21:10:49)
T-3-Q36
The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about productivity improvements in United States service companies?
A.Such improvements would be largely attributable to efficiencies resulting from corporate takeovers.
B.Such improvements would depend more on wise implementation of technology than on managers’ choice of skilled workers.
C.Such improvements would be more easily accomplished if there were fewer governmental regulations of the service sector.
D.Such improvements would require companies to invest heavily in the development of new technologies.
E.Such improvements would be attributable primarily to companies’ facing global competitive pressure.
Ans: E A A C
4道题目中，前三道完全一样，最后一题选项是不同的
-- by 会员 chyiwealwin (2010/12/16 20:54:42)