Shoppers throughout the West, wary(警惕的) of a double-dip recession（经济衰退）, are still pinching their pennies. However, Chinese consumers are opening their wallets—big time. According to McKinsey, shop sales in China have grown by 25 percent annually from 2007 to 2009. Consumer confidence is now at its highest point since 2007 and female shoppers are leading the way.
Chinese women saved just 24 percent of their income, compared with 55 percent in 2006, according to a recent study in Women of China Magazine. What’s more, three quarters of Chinese women say that they’re the ones who control the family purse strings .That means the nation’s 650 million women are an “emerging powerhouse within the powerhouse” of China.
In the 1950s women contributed just 20 percent of household income. That rose to about 40 percent in the 1990s and then reached 50 percent last year.
In a recent study of Chinese consumer behavior, McKinsey found that women tend to shop more frequently than men, and spend more on personal-care products and food. Men, by contrast, tend to spend more of their income on gadgets(小玩意) , drinks and alcohol, dining out, and socializing. They also tend to save for the bigger-ticket items, like cars and houses.
Chinese women make up an ever-growing small part of the market—up from 20 percent a decade ago to 50 percent last year. It’s estimated that in the next five years women will account for 55 percent of the $9 billion market. “The future is female,” concludes a January HSBC(汇丰银行) report on luxury goods(奢侈品) in China.
The Chinese Market Research Group recently found that women younger than 35 are the most optimistic segment(群体) in China. A very large 80 percent of the 3,500 women surveyed saying they’ll spend more in the second half of 2010 than they did in the first half. With trends like these, Chinese women may bring new meaning to the term “the power of the purse.”
小题1:According to the passage, Chinese women _________.
A．save more of their income than before
B．save less of their income than before
C．make as much money as men in the 1990s
D．spend half of their income on luxury goods小题2:The fourth paragraph mainly tells us that _________.
A．women go shopping more frequently than men
B．women spent more on personal care products than men
C．men tend to save for the bigger-ticket items than women
D．Chinese women and men have different consuming behavior小题3:The underlined phrase in the first paragraph probably means_________.
A．making more money in a careful way
B．wasting their money without hesitation
C．spending their money in a careful way
D．recovering the economy at a fast speed小题4:Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A．Chinese Men Go Socializing
B．Chinese Women Go shopping
C．The Future Is Female
D．The Purse Is Powerful
