Question

How can the appearance of a product be more important than what it does? The battle between form and function rose again when James Dyson, British inventor of the Dyson vacuum（真空）cleaner that has sold in millions around the world, resigned as chairman of London's Design Museum． It is widely believed that Mr．Dyson felt that the museum put too much stress on style and fashion at the expense of serious industrial design．

Mr．Dyson accused the museum of not keeping true to itself． He may be right, but these days, museums everywhere can no longer afford to be unique centers of scholarship and learning．Among competition for sponsorship, they must use exhibitions of populist culture, nice cafes and shops or, best of all, a new building by Frank Gehry to increase visitor numbers．

On the one hand, some producers can be too old-fashioned and too concerned with the importance of product engineering and the functionality of their goods．On the other hand there are those who believe that how a product looks is more important．Design is indeed a broad term, involving both function and form．Typically, in any given product area, it changes from the former to the latter． Clothing is a good example．But surely you would have to be a very shallow person to think something's appearance was more important than what it did．

Today nearly all goods at any given price-point do much the same job．So almost the only way producers can differentiate their products from those of their competitors is to create some sort of emotional connection with the consumer, which could be through the visual appeal of the product or its packaging; or the imagery（意象）created by advertising. And what of the Dyson vacuum cleaners? Mr. Dyson may believe that people buy these machines because of the graphs showing their superior suction(喝酒), but most vacuum cleaners do a good job; the main reason people pay extra for a Dyson is because it is a vacuum cleaner with a trendy brand. With its inside workings exposed, it is a bit like a Richard Rogers building with all its pipes shown in bright colors on the outside instead of being hidden inside. Functional it may be, but it is a bit of a trick, too．

1.Mr. Dyson left the Design Museum because he thought the museum ．

A. didn't increase the number of visitors

B. couldn't provide scholarships for learners

C. hadn't great appeal for serious industrial designs

D. wasn't loyal to its original purpose of learning

2.Speaking of clothing, the underlined word "latter" refers to ．

A. affording protection

B. indicating one's identity

C. making someone beautiful

D. providing warmth

3.What is the author's opinion in Paragraph 4?

A. A product with convenient packaging sells well．

B. The majority of consumers prefer to buy branded goods．

C. Emotion contributes much to the development of advertising industry．

D. Most similarly priced products are of a comparable standard．

4.The author believes that people buy the Dyson vacuum cleaner because ．

A. it has a fashionable range

B. it has very good suction

C. it sells well around the world

D. it is invented by James Dyson

5.What is the author's attitude towards the form of a product?

A. Optimistic B. Skeptical

C. Objective D. Disapproving

Answer 1

1.D

2.C

3.D

4.A

5.C

【解析】

試題分析：本文是一篇議論文。作者通過舉例、對(duì)比等方式討論了產(chǎn)品到底是賣功能還是賣外觀這樣的話題。

1.】D 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章第二段“Mr．Dyson accused the museum of not keeping true to itself. He may be right, but these days, museums everywhere can no longer afford to be unique centers of scholarship and learning”可知他離開的原因是認(rèn)為博物館喪失了本該有的學(xué)術(shù)功能。故選D。

2.】C 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段第一、二句可知人們?cè)诋a(chǎn)品開發(fā)領(lǐng)域，生產(chǎn)商要么關(guān)注產(chǎn)品本身的功能，要么關(guān)注產(chǎn)品外觀，在服裝領(lǐng)域，這里的“后者”明顯指的是衣服的美觀性。故選C。

3.】D 根據(jù)文章第四段第一句“Today nearly all goods at any given price-point do much the same job”可知作者認(rèn)為同等價(jià)位的商品實(shí)質(zhì)上都差不多。故選D。

4. 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章第四段“the main reason people pay extra for a Dyson is because it is a vacuum cleaner with a trendy brand”可知人們購(gòu)買Dyson的主要原因還是因?yàn)樗�是一個(gè)時(shí)尚的品牌。故選A。

5. 觀點(diǎn)態(tài)度題。根據(jù)文章內(nèi)容，作者討論了產(chǎn)品到底賣的是功能還是外觀這樣的話題，羅列事實(shí)為主，并未表達(dá)個(gè)人態(tài)度，比較客觀。故選C。

考點(diǎn)：考查日常生活類短文閱讀