AEAS考生看这里：澳大利亚中小学阅读练习解析

100留学网快讯：看了这么久的AEAS阅读素材，是时候检测大家的实力了，今天开始小编给大家带来练习题，同学们要认真做啊。

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

Macy’s reported its sales plunged 5.2% inNovember and December at stores open more than a year, a disappointing holidayseason performance that capped a difficult year for a department store chainfacing wide-ranging challenges. Its flagship stores in majorU.S. cities depend heavily on international tourist spending, which shrank atmany retailers due to a strong dollar. Meanwhile, Macy’s has simply struggled to lure consumers who are moreinterested in spending on travel or dining out than on newclothes or accessories.

Thecompany blamed much of the poor performance in November and December onunseasonably warm weather. “About 80% of our company’s year-over-year declines in comparablesales can be attributed to shortfalls (短缺)incold-weather goods，”said chief executive Terry Lundgren in a press release. This prompted thecompany to cut its forecasts for the full fourth quarter.

However,it’s clear that Macy’s believes its troubles run deeper than atemporary aberration (偏离)off thethermometer. The retail giant said the poor financial performance this year haspushed it to begin implementing $400 million in cost-cutting measures. Thecompany pledged to cut 600 back-office positions, though some 150 workers inthose roles would be reassigned to other jobs. It also pluns to offer“voluntary separation” packages to 165 senior executives. It will slashstaffing at its fleet of 770 stores, a move affecting some 3,000employees.

Theretailer also announced the locations of 36 stores it will close in early 2016.The company had previously announced the planned closures, but had not saidwhich locations would be affected. None of the chain’s stores in the Washington metropolitanarea are to be closed.

Macy’s has been moving aggressively to tryto remake itself for a new era of shopping. It has plans to open more locationsof Macy’s Backstage, a newly-developed off-priceconcept which might help it better compete with ambitious T.J. Maxx. It’s also pushing ahead in 2016 with an expansionof Bluemercury,the beauty chain it bought last year. At a time when young beauty shoppers areoften turning to Sephora or Ulta instead of department store beauty counters,Macy’s hopes Bluemercury will help strengthenits position in the category.