18. stock-keeping units
还有一个是说近年来出现了一个矛盾现象，就是虽然scanner和其他先进的技术可以使company生产少量的多样化的产品，但还是有越来越多的inventory 不足或过剩的现象。
原文 (原题)
Companies that must determine well in advance of the selling season how many units of a new product to manufacture often underproduce products that sell well and have overstocks of others. The increased incidence in recent years of mismatches between production and demand seems ironic, since point-of-sale scanners have improved data on consumers’ buying patterns and since flexible manufacturing has enabled companies to 24 produce, cost-effectively, small quantities of goods. This type of manufacturing has 美国GREatly increased the number of new products introduced annually in the United States. However, frequent introductions of new products have two problematic side effects. For one, they reduce the average lifetime of products; more of them are neither at the beginning of their life (when prediction is difficult) or at the end of their life (when keeping inventory is expensive because the products will soon become obsolete). For another, as new products proliferate, demand is divided among a growing number of stock-keeping units (SKU’s). Even though manufacturers and retailers can forecast ag美国GREgate demand with some certainty, forecasting accurately how that demand will be distributed among the many SKU’s they sell is difficult. For example, a company may be able to estimate accurately the ag美国GREgate number of shoes it will sell, but it may be uncertain about which specific types of shoes will sell more than other types.
问题是
Q35:Which of the following most accurately describes the function of the last sentence in the passage (lines 35-40)?
A. To cite a situation in which the ag美国GREgate demand is more important than the distribution of demand among SKU’s
B. To refute an assertion about the side effects of flexible manufacturing
C. To illustrate an assertion about companies’ ability to forecast demand
D. To provide an example of ways in which companies address the difficulties of forecasting demand
E. To note an exception to the author’s assertion about distributing demand among SKU’s
Q36:The passage suggests which of the following about divided demand among a growing number of SKU’s?
A. It has increased the average lifetime of products.
B. It has resulted from retailer’s attempts to predict demand more accurately and avoid both understocks and overstocks.
C. It has decreased the use of flexible manufacturing by companies.
D. It has not increased the expense of keeping inventory of certain products.
E. ? It has not prevented companies from predicting ag美国GREgate demand with some certainty.
Q37:TTGWD-6 According to the passage, which of the following has led to growth in the number of new products introduced in the United States each year?英语作文
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