For anyone who is determined to be a fashion(时尚) designer, it is not enough to have succeeded in college.The real test is whether they can.survive, and become established during their early 20s, making a name for themselves in the real world where business skills can be as important as talent and creativity.

Fashion is a hard business.There is a continuous amount of stress because work is at a constant and extremely fast speed to prepare for the next season's collections. It is extremely competitive and there is the constant need to make attractive advertisements of the latest fashion in newspapers and magazines.It also requires continual freshness because the appetite for new ideas is hard to satisfy."We try to warn people before they come to us about how tough it is." says Lydia Kemeny, the Head of Fashion at St. Martin's School of Art in London. "And we point out that drive and determination are absolutely necessary."

This may seem far removed from the popular opinions of fashionable young people spending their time designing pretty dresses.That may well be what they do in their first year of study but a good college won't be slow in introducing students to commercial realities."We don't walk our foot on the blossoming (绽放的)flower of creativity but in the second year we start introducing the restrictions of price, producing ability, marketing and so on."

Almost all fashion design is done to a brief.It is not a form of self-expression as such, although there is certainly room for imagination and creativity.Most young designers are going to end up as employees of a producer or a fashion house and they still need to be able to work within the characteristic style of their employer. Even those students who are most modern in their own taste of clothes may need to adapt to produce designs which are right for the mainstream of market. They also have to be able to work at both the expensive arid the cheap end of the market and the challenge to produce good design inexpensively may well be demanding.

28.Which of the following is mainly discussed in the passage?

A.Talent in fashion. B.Good marks at college.

C.Ability to create new designs. D.Business skills in fashion industry.

29.What can we learn from the second paragraph?

A.Fashion designers are highly motivated and really determined.

B.Good preparations for the next season can reduce stress.

C.Consumers' appetite for new ideas keeps changing.

D.Advertisement business is very competitive.

30.How does St.Martin's School of Art train her students of fashion?

A.To encourage the new students to design freely with imagination.

B.To require students to develop their creativity in their designing.

C.To demand students to make pretty dresses for companies.

D.To offer commercial courses for the new students.

31.What does the underlined word "this" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A.Lydia Kemeny's opinion. B.The competitive business world.

C.The warning to the young designers. D.The real situation in fashion industry.

D

There is no doubt eCommerce is growing, and it will continue to grow. However, physical stores would not die as a result of the rise of eCommerce, at least not in the near future. The idea that eCommerce is taking over physical stores has already misguided many people. Physical stores are far from vanishing, and there are some solid reasons for it.

The projections for online spending is optimistic with $150 billion expected to be spent in the coming three years, yet we are also expecting $300 billion in spending at physical stores in the same duration. Do yostill think that physical-store shopping is too small to sustain the eCommerce blow?

Even though consumers are staying away from physical stores that follow older concepts, yet we are seeing the rise of fresh concept stores all around the US. We are seeing innovative and attractive success stories of physical stores, ranging from clothes stores to restaurants to health spas. It would be easy to assume that this trend will continue.

Indeed, many shopping malls are dying, yet there are still those shopping centers that are performing well. Yocan see this for yourself by visiting shopping malls near you. What I want to emphasize here is that not all shopping centers are made equal, just like not all eCommerce retailers are made equal. Both shopping malls and eCommerce sites can lose business if they fail to maintain productivity through improvements and innovations. When yovisit shopping centers that are serious about their business, yowould see their shops and parking lots packed.

On the other hand, even e-tailers like Amazon have experimented with pop-up shopping concepts. It is important to bear in mind that consumers prefer face-to-face interactions instead of online interactions during shopping, meaning that physical stores are going to stay there.

Still, eCommerce retailers are seeing all of their excitement disappear as they settle the sales tax problem associated with e-tailing. As of now, five states of America have already imposed sales tax on purchases through eCommerce sites, and e-tailers in those states have already witnessed 6 to 12 percent decrease in sales.

This reinforces the fact that physical stores are here to stay, and if yoare still undervaluing their growth, yoare omitting a huge chunk of the retail representation.

32. The underlined word "projections" in Paragraph 2 probably means____.

A. intentions B. assessments C. performances D. predictions

33. What can we infer from the passage?

A. E-tailers are more creative businesses.

B. Fresh concepts help build good business.

C. Fewer consumers will visit physical stores.

D. Physical stores can’t stand the blow of eCommerce.

34. What is the best title for this passage?

A. Is Offline Spending Greater Than Online Spending?

B. Online Stores V.S. Physical Stores—What’s the Difference?

C. Will Physical Stores replace eCommerce in the Near Future?

D. Does eCommerce Success Mean Physical Stores Will Disappear?