考研人数逐年增加，竞争之激烈使得我们不得不加急复习的日程。众所周知，阅读理解占据了考研英语二100分试卷的一半分值，而考研英语阅读文章大多来自英美国家的主流报刊杂志，所以如果能在日常就多多阅读这些文章，对以后读懂文章做对题目来说会大有裨益。
学习步骤如下：
1.不看汉语译文自己看一遍短文做理解
2.看汉语译文比对自己理解的意思与之出入
3.强化记忆重点单词（以记忆其汉语意思为主）
I had not realized how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children’s behavior: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularized as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.
Trade publications counseled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping stone” between infant wear and older kids’ clothes. It was only after “toddler” became a common shoppers’ term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences—or invent them where they did not previously exist.
短文翻译
我之前未意识到,市场趋势是如何深刻地影响了我们对孩子天性的看法,包括我们对他们心理发展的核心理念。以学步儿童为例,我曾认为这个阶段是专家们经过多年对儿童行为的研究得出的结论,但是我错了。研究儿童消费主义的历史学家丹尼尔·库克表示,事实证明,20世纪30年代,服装制造商将其作为一种营销手段推广开来。
商业出版物向百货公司提议,为了增加销量,它们应在婴儿服装和大龄儿童服装之间开辟“第三阶段”。直到“学步儿童”成为一个常见的购物术语后,它才发展成为一个被广泛接受的儿童成长阶段。事实证明,细分儿童或成人群体是提高利润的可靠方法。细分市场最简单的方法之一就是放大性别差异,或者创造出原本不存在的差异。
真题练习
*一定要做题哦
28. The author suggests that our perception of children’s psychological development was much influenced by_____.
[A] the marketing of products for children
[B] the observation of children’s nature
[C] researches into children’s behaviour
[D] studies of childhood consumption
29. We may learn from paragraph 4 that department stores were advised to____.
[A] focus on infant wear and older kids’ clothes
[B] attach equal importance to different genders
[C] classify consumers into smaller groups
[D] create some common shoppers’ terms
30. It can be concluded that girls’ attraction to pink seems to be____.
[A] clearly explained by their inborn tendency
[B] fully understood by clothing manufacturers
[C] mainly imposed by profit-driven businessmen
[D] well interpreted by psychological experts
题目解析
28.【解析】根据题干，首先定位到第三段。该段第一句话“I had not realized how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development.”指出：我没有意识到，我们对孩子们天性的看法深受营销趋势的支配，包括我们对他们心理发展的核心信念。接下来作者通过一个例子证明这一事实，暗示了市场营销影响我们的看法，由此确定选项A为正确答案，同时排除选项B。原文有提到“研究”，但作者最后发现还是生产商的营销技巧。C，D项均为干扰项。
29.【解析】根据题干，首先定位到第四段。该段首句提到，贸易刊物建议百货商店：要增加销路就应该在婴儿服装和稍大的一些孩子的服装之间开创“第三个跳板”。接下来在第三句作者又指出，将小孩或者成人分成更小的类别已被证明是提高利润的绝佳方法，所以选项C为正确答案，同时排除选项A。本段并未谈及对于不同性别的人群给予同样的重视，因此排除选项B。第二句中“常见的购物者术语”指的是通过这些术语带领消费者继续给小孩分类分层，D选项属于未贴合文段主旨的错误。
30.【解析】第二段最后一句话谈到，当年龄增大和性别差异成为儿童市场的主要营销策略时，粉色才完全被人所认识。紧接着第三段又谈到市场营销以及服装制造商对我们看法的影响，由此推出选项C为正确答案。同时排除选项B。第二段第一句提到女孩对于粉色的关注似乎就蕴藏在她们的基因里，但是根据《美国研究》的一位副教授乔·帕雷提所说，情况并不是这样，所以排除选项A。第三段第二句提到作者本以为“蹒跚学步的儿童”这个阶段是专家经过多年研究儿童的行为才发现的，但后来发现他这一认识错了，没有说专家解释得很好，因此排除选项D。
