新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit07-a

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[00:-1.00]1  Nothing says love like a dozen long-stemmed roses on Valentine's Day.
[00:-2.00]More than a million roses will be sold during this festival for lovers,
[00:-3.00]the biggest day of the year for the nation's rose industry.
[00:-4.00]For rose growers, those who distribute roses,
[00:-5.00]and those who sell,
[00:-6.00]this year's anticipated 7% increase in sales
[00:-7.00]will be sweeter than a 5-pound box of chocolate candy.
[00:-8.00]"Red roses say 'I love you'," says Gerald Hager,
[00:-9.00]executive director of a marketing research insitute.
[00:10.00]"It's going to remain the most popular flower
[00:11.00]because love never goes out of style."
[00:12.00]2  Yes, a rose is a rose is a rose.
[00:13.00]But selling them is no longer a beautiful experience
[00:14.00]for traditional flower shops.
[00:15.00]Supermarkets now offer convenience to the busy.
[00:16.00]And discount rose shops help those hopelessly in love save money.
[00:17.00]3  Roses Only is a good example of a discount rose retailer
[00:18.00]that was transformed from a traditional shop to answer
[00:19.00]the challenge in the '90s.'
[00:20.00]Except for today,
[00:21.00]prices range from $6 for a dozen short-stems
[00:22.00]to $19 for a dozen of its longest stems.
[00:23.00]The company, Which has its headquarters in New York,
[00:24.00]has three stores in New York,
[00:25.00]one in Canada and five in Spain.
[00:26.00]It plans to expand to three more U.S. cities this year.
[00:27.00]4  Inside this store, on Sixth Avenue near 40th Street,
[00:28.00]contemporary white furniture and well-to-wall mirrors
[00:24.62]giveit an expensive look.
[00:25.62]Customers — some dressed in work clothes,
[00:26.62]some in expensive suits and overcoats — circulate among the counters
[00:27.62]and stare at shelf after shelf of roses in more than 50 colors.
[00:28.62]Some customers say the high quality of the roses
[00:29.62]makes them look as if they spent a fortune.
[00:30.62]"I spent $20 but (they) looked like
[00:31.62]I paid 60 or 70 dollars," says one customer.
[00:32.62]5  Studies show more people are buying roses in ones,
[00:33.62]twos and threes these days. In fact,
[00:34.62]more than half of all roses are sold in groups of fewer than a dozen,
[00:35.62]says the Floral Index,
[00:36.62]a private firm that researches the flower industry.
[00:37.62]But Roses Only's prices encourage people to spend.
[00:38.62]Even on Valentine's Day,
[00:39.62]when the price of a dozen roses
[00:40.62]and delivery can soar as high as $150,12 of Roses
[00:41.62]Only's most expensive flowers sell for just $35.
[00:42.62]"If we can make someone's day brighter for $35 instead of $65,
[00:43.62]then they'll have enough money left over for candy and dinner,"
[00:44.62]says the general manager of Roses Only's New York stores.
[00:45.62]6  The company's formula for success is to hold prices down
[00:46.62]by controlling every link in the rose chain.
[00:47.62]It grows its own roses in the sunshine
[00:48.62]of the Andes Mountains near the capital of Ecuador.
[00:49.62]Fresh roses are sprayed with water to keep them moist
[00:50.62]and flown to company stores three times a week.
[00:51.62]The New York stores sell about 45,000 stems a week,
[00:52.62]along with other items like balloons and stuffed animals.
[00:53.62]Roses Only can arrange delivery via overnight mail to anywhere in the country.
[00:54.62]7  While discount rose retailers watch their business bloom,
[00:55.62]U.S. rose growers are going bankrupt amid severe foreign competition.
[00:56.62]Sales of U.S.-grown roses have declined from 565 million in 1988
[00:57.62]to an estimated 520 million in 1993,
[00:58.62]says an industry group. In 1988,
[00:59.62]imports accounted for 34% of roses sold here.
[-1:-0.62]Today, more than 57% of roses sold in the USA are grown in other countries.
[-1:-1.62]The biggest foreign producers are Colombia and Ecuador,
[-1:-2.62]which accounted for almost 90% of the total imported last year.