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In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, scolds her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesn’t affect her. Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant’s sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to department stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment.

This top-down conception of the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or at odds with the feverish world described in Overdressed, Elizabeth Cline’s three-year indictment of “fast fashion”. In the last decade or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo to react to trends more quickly and anticipate demand more precisely. Quicker turnarounds mean less wasted inventory, more frequent releases, and more profit. These labels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposable—meant to last only a wash or two, although they don’t advertise that—and to renew their wardrobe every few weeks. By offering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices, Cline argues, these brands have hijacked fashion cycles, shaking an industry long accustomed to a seasonal pace.

The victims of this revolution, of course, are not limited to designers. For H&M to offer a $5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plus stores around the world, it must rely on low-wage overseas labor, order in volumes that strain natural resources, and use massive amounts of harmful chemicals.

Overdressed is the fashion world’s answer to consumer-activist bestsellers like Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “Mass-produced clothing, like fast food, fills a hunger and need, yet is non-durable and wasteful,” Cline argues. Americans, she finds, buy roughly 20 billion garments a year—about 64 items per person—and no matter how much they give away, this excess leads to waste.

Towards the end of Overdressed, Cline introduced her ideal, a Brooklyn woman named Sarah Kate Beaumont, who since 2008 has made all of her own clothes—and beautifully. But as Cline is the first to note, it took Beaumont decades to perfect her craft; her example can’t be knocked off.

Though several fast-fashion companies have made efforts to curb their impact on labor and the environment—including H&M, with its green Conscious Collection line—Cline believes lasting change can only be effected by the customer. She exhibits the idealism common to many advocates of sustainability, be it in food or in energy. Vanity is a constant; people will only start shopping more sustainably when they can’t afford not to.

21. Priestly criticizes her assistant for her _______.

[A] lack of imagination                [B] poor bargaining skill

[C] obsession with high fashion          [D] insensitivity to fashion

22. According to Cline, mass-market labels urge consumers to _______.

[A] combat unnecessary waste         [B] shop for their garments more frequently

[C] resist the influence of advertisements           [D] shut out the feverish fashion world

23. The word “indictment” (Line 3, Para.2) is closest in meaning to _______.

[A] accusation     [B] enthusiasm     [C] indifference     [D] tolerance

24. Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph?

[A] Vanity has more often been found in idealists.        [B] The fast-fashion industry ignores sustainability.

[C] Pricing is vital to environment-friendly purchasing.     [D] People are more interested in unaffordable garments.

25. What is the subject of the text?

[A] Satire on an extravagant lifestyle.        [B] Challenge to a high-fashion myth.

[C] Criticism of the fast-fashion industry.       [D] Exposure of a mass-market secret
 

答案解析

21.【答案】D

【解析】文章首段包含了两方面的内容，作者先简单介绍Peer pressure，再引出Tina Rosenberg在她的新书Join the Club中对于peer pressure的看法，这篇文章是以一篇书评的形式出现。而题目"根据第一段，同伴压力的出现常常是…"问的仅仅是同伴压力，并无涉及到Tina Rosenberg或者她的新书，因此答案则应主要涉及文章对于peer pressure的介绍，而非Tina对于peer pressure的看法。首段第三句说"(同伴压力)通常引起不好的事情，如酗酒，嗑药，乱交"，故答案选D，说明同伴压力出现导致的结果，这里的答案使用了同义替换的方式。

22.【答案】B

【解析】根据题干关键词"public-health advocates"可以定位到第三段最后一句话"Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure",即应该向广告商学习，这里主要是对于短语"take a page from"的理解，答案选B

23.【答案】A

【解析】根据题干"在作者看来，Rosenberg的书没能…"，所选答案是要找出作者看来这本书的缺点是什么。文章第四段第一句话说"但是，在…方面，Rosenberg不太有说服力"，紧接着说"Join the Club中太多无关的细节，而对于使同伴压力能产生如此大作用的社会和生物因素并未做足够的探究"，这句话充分说明了在作者心目中这本书的不足在哪儿，故答案选A

24.【答案】C

【解析】这是一道细节题。文章第五段首句告诉我们peer groups确实会对行为产生很大的影响，第二句具体说明影响的内容，即好的习惯和不好的习惯都会通过社会交际在朋友圈中传递，最后一句则对这种影响进行了总结，"这是同伴压力的细微表现，我们无意识地模仿日常所见到的行为"。而分析题干和选项，我们发现该题是对"imitation of behavior"进行归纳，回到原文，找到"我们无意识地模仿日常所见到的行为"，答案即刻清晰，这里是对unconsciously一词进行了释义，因此C选项正确。

25.【答案】D

【解析】这道题考查作者对于peer pressure所能带来的影响的态度，作者通过最后一段第一句话首先向我们表明他对"专家和其他官方人员是否能成功选择同伴来引导他们的行为朝好的方向发展"的不肯定，接下来以教师指导学生的例子为说明，得出结论"The tactic never really works."(这个策略从来没有真正起作用)。通过作者的这样一番描述，可以看出，作者对于peer pressure是否能有效果是质疑的，故答案选D。