2016年BEC考试初级备考阅读讲义详解五

　　2016年BEC考试初级备考阅读讲义详解五

　　Icon Acoustics: Bypassing Tradition

　　Like most entrepreneurs, Dave Fokos dreams a lot. He imagines customers eagerly phoning Icon Acoustics in Billerica, Massachusetts, to order his latest, custom-made stereo peakers ____example____

　　Like most entrepreneurs, Dave has taken a long time to develop his dream. ____(8)____ Dave discovered that he had a strong interest in studio engineering, He took independent-study courses in this area and by graduation had designed and built a pair of marketable stereo speakers. Following graduation, Dave pursued his interest in audio engineering. He landed a job as a loudspeaker designer with Conrad-Johnson, a high-end audio-equipment manufacturer headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia ____(9)____

　　Dave identified a market niche that he felt other speaker firms had overlooked ____(10)____These affluent, well-educated customers are genuinely obsessed with their stereo equipment. ‘They’d rather buy a new set of speakers than eat,’ Dave observes.

　　Dave faced one major problem---how to distribute Icon’s products. He had learned from experience at Conrad-Johnson that most manufacturers distribute their equipment primarily through stereo dealers. Dave did not hold a high opinion of most such dealers; he felt that they too often played hardball with manufacturers, forcing them to accept thin margins. ____(11)____This kept those firms that offered more customized products from gaining access to the market. Perhaps most disturbing, Dave felt that the established dealers often sold not what was best for customers, but whatever they had in inventory that month.

　　Dave dreamed of offering high-end stereo loudspeakers directly to the audio-obsessed, bypassing the established dealer network. ____(12)____ “My vision for the future is one where all manufacturers sell their products directly to end user. In this way, even the audiophiles in Dead Horse, Alaska, can have access to all that the audio-manufacturing community has to offer.”

　　Example: I.

　　A. At the age of 28, Dave set out to turn his dreams into reality.

　　B. Furthermore, the dealers concentrated on only a handful of well-known producers

　　C. Who provided mass-produced models.

　　D. The firms tend to plow their money in to developing their products and have little left over to market them.

　　E. Within four years, Dave had designed 13 speaker models and decided to start his own company.

　　F. To serve the audio-addicts segment, Dave offers only the highest-quality speakers.

　　G. It all began while majoring in electrical engineering at Cornell.

　　By going directly to the customers, Dave could avoid the dealer markups and offer top-quality products and service at reasonable price.

　　H. This niche consisted of “audio-addicts”----people who love to listen to music and appreciate first-rate stereo equipment.

　　I. He sees sales climbing , cash flowing, and hundreds of happy workers

　　Striving to produce top-quality products that delight Icon’s customers.

　　答案：Questions 8 - 12: F, D, H, B, G