第二篇 The Makingof Success Story

IKEAis the world's largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is IngvarKamprad, one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs．Born in Sweden in1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman．As a child, he enjoyed selling thingsand made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in hiscommunity．When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward forhis good grades．Naturally he used it to start up a business一IKEA．

IKEA'sname comes from Kamprad's initials (I．K．) and the place where he grew up ('E'and 'A')．Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture1, but it wasnot a furniture company in the beginning．Rather, IKEA sold all kinds ofmiscellaneous goods．Kamprad's wares included anything that he could sell forprofits at discounted prices2, including watches, pens and stockings．

IKEAfirst began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947． Thefurniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad's home．Initialsales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line．Furniturewas such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely afurniture company in 1951．

In1953 IKEA opened its first showroom in Almhult, Sweden．IKEA is known today forits spacious stores with furniture iti attractive settings, but in the early1950s, people ordered from catalogues．Thus response to the first showroom wasoverwhelming: people loved being able to see and try the furniture beforebuying it．This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive．By1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture．

In1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport．Kamprad was inspired．The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging3．Flatpackaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices forcustomers．IKEA tried it and sales soared．The problem was that people had toassemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantagefor IKEA．Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations ofself-sufficiency．This image has done wonders for the company, leading tobetter sales and continued expansion．

Todaythere are over 200 stores in 32 countries．Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad hasmanaged to keep IKEA a privately-held company．In 2004 he was named the world'srichest man．He currently lives in Switzerland and is retired from theday-to-day operations of IKEA．IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing．

（來自于2014職稱英語教材綜合類C級概括大意與完成句子第一篇）

36．Kamprad established IKEA with

A．his personalsavings

B．his father’s reward for his school performance

C．large profitsfrom selling things

D．his school’ssupport

37．The author states in Paragraph 5 that flat packaging

A．needs largespace to assembly fumiture

B．is a businessconcept inspired by Kamprad

C．helps reduce transportation costs

D．makes thecompany self-sufficient

38．According to the passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE?

A．IKEAexperienced rapid expansion since the late 1950s．

B．IKEA designedits own products since 1955．

C．Kamprad sold his company after retired．

D．IKEA sold allkinds of miscellaneous goods．

39．What is the author’s attitude towards IKEA’s future according to the lastparagraph?

A．indifferent

B．Optimistic

C．Doubtful

D．Pessimistic

40．The passage is developed primarily in terms of

A．sequence of events

B．analysis of aprocess

C．examples thatillustrate a problem

D．comparison andcontrast

（責任編輯：vstara）

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