① Supermarkets have long been suffering as one of the thinnest-margined businesses in existence and one of the least-looked-forward-to places to work or visit. For more than a decade, they have been under attack from e-commerce giants, blamed for making Americans fat, and accused of contributing to climate change.

② Supermarkets can technically be defined as giants housing 15,000 to 60,000 different products. The revolutionary idea of a self-service grocery, where people could hunt and gather food from aisles rather than asking a clerk to fetch items from behind a counter, first came about in America. There is some debate about which was the very first, but over the years a consensus has built around King Kullen Supermarket, founded in New York in 1930.

③ For some 300 years, Americans had fed themselves from small stores and public markets. Shopping for food involved mud, noisy chickens, clouds of flies, nasty smells,  bargaining, and getting short­changed. The supermarket imitated the Fordist factory, with its emphasis on efficiency and standardization, and reimagined it as a place to buy food. Supermarkets may not feel cutting-edge now, but they were a revolution in distribution at the time. They were such strange marvels that, on her  first official state visit to the United States in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II insisted on an impromptu (即兴的) tour of a suburban-Maryland Giant Food.

④ The typical supermarket layout has barely changed over the past 90 years. Most stores open with flowers, fruit and vegetables at the front as a breath of freshness to arouse our appetite. Meanwhile, they keep the milk, eggs, and other daily basics all the way back so you’ll travel through as much of the store as possible, and be tempted along the way.

⑤ In the early days, as the supermarket multiplied, so did our suspicion of it. We have long feared that this “revolution in distribution” uses corporate black magic on our appetite. The book The Hidden Persuaders, published in 1957, warned that supermarkets were putting women in a “hypnoidal trance (催眠恍惚状态), “causing them to wander aisles  bumping into boxes and “picking things off shelves at random.”

1.1. What problem have supermarkets been facing?

A They are actually on the way to bankruptcy.

B They have been losing customers and profits.

C They are forced to use e-commerce strategies.

D They have difficulty adapting to climate change.

解析：选B。B细节理解题。由题干中的 problem 和 facing 定位到第一段。定位段提到,长期以来,超市一直都是利润最微薄的行业之一,也是人们最不期待去工作和光顾的地方之一。十多年来,超市一直受到了来自电子商务巨头的冲击,被指责不但造成了美国人发胖,还加剧了气候变化。由此可知，超市的顾客和利润一直在减少。故选B。

2.2. What does the passage say about the idea of a self-service grocery?

A It was put forward by King Kullen.

B It originated in the United States.

C It has been under constant debate.

D It proves revolutionary even today.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。由题干中的the idea of a self-service grocery定位到第二段第二句。定位句提到，自助式杂货店这个想法最早起源于美国。故选B。

3.3.What did supermarkets do by adopting the Fordist factory approach?

A They modernized traditional groceries in many ways.

B They introduced cutting-edge layout of their stores.

C They improved the quality of the food they sold.

D They revolutionized the distribution of goods.

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。由题干中的 Fordist factory approach 定位到第三段第三、四句。定位句指出,超市模仿了福特主义工厂的理念,注重效率和标准化,并将其重新构想为购买食物的场所。尽管如今超市可能已不再具备前沿感,但在当时,超市可是销售领域的一场革命。由此可知,超市通过采用福特工厂的方法,将其应用到购买食物的场景中,由此改变了食物的销售方式。故选D。

4.4.What is the typical supermarket layout intended to do?

A Arouse customers’ appetite to buy flowers, fruit and vegetables.

B Provide customers easy access to items they want to buy.

C Induce customers to make more unplanned purchases.

D Enable customers to have a more enjoyable shopping experience.

解析：选C。C推理判断题。由题干中的typical supermarket layout intended to do 定位到第四段。定位段指出,典型的超市布局会在前面设有鲜花、水果和蔬菜,唤起我们的食欲。将牛奶、鸡蛋等其他日常基本商品都放置在最内侧,顾客需要穿过尽可能多的区域才能购买到必须要买的日用品，从而在途中受到诱惑,增加更多的非计划购买。故选C。

5.5. What have people long feared about supermarkets?

A They use tricky strategies to promote their business.

B They are going to replace the local groceries entirely.

C They apply corporate black magic to the goods on display.

D They take advantage of the weaknesses of women shoppers.

解析：选A。A推理判断题。由题干中的long feared about supermarkets定位到最后一段第二句。定位句指出，人们长期以来一直担心这种“分销革命”会利用企业的黑魔法来操纵他们的欲望。下一句以女性逛超市,经常漫无目的地徘徊,随机购物为例,说明超市用策略增加人们的消费。由此可见，人们一直担心超市用策略推销自己的生意。故选A。