問題詳情

V. Based on the following piece of news, design THREE READING COMPREHSION QUESTIONS. Each questioncontains 4 choices
(A),
(B),
(C), and
(D), with one of them being the best answer. The answer key should be provided.(20%) 
   By now, nearly everyone has seen the video of a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight. Most Americans --especially frequent flyers -- are horrified. Airlines are notorious for customer service, but this latest fiasco sets a new low. Somuch for the "friendly skies."   What happened this past weekend should never, ever happen again. It should have never happened at all. The injustice ofthis incident is that the gentleman pulled from the flight was forced to bear the cost of United's error in selecting passengers togive up their seats. He is a doctor who said he had appointments with patients to keep. United's actions in removing him werearbitrary and capricious.    What is most infuriating is that there is no reason for anyone to be involuntarily bumped from an airline flight -- ever. Asimple economic solution exists -- developed long ago by the late economist Julian Simon of the University of Maryland:holding an auction among the passengers to bid to give up their seats in exchange for monetary compensation.    It's a very simple process. The gate agent, flight attendant, or even the pilot announces the need to get a few people off thisplane. They ask, who will take a later flight for $250? How about $500? A free, round-trip ticket anywhere in the United States?The bids keep going up until the number of passengers who have to give up their seats is reached. The price could go up to$1,000 or more, but at some point on a flight with say 100 or more passengers, people will take the deal. Everyone goes awayhappy.    The problem on the United flight was that the airline only offered up to $800. But no one took the deal. Instead of forcingpassengers off the plane, all United had to do was go higher with its bid. Everyone has a price. At some point, if the offer isattractive enough customers will fight to get to the front of the plane or the ticket counter to get the deal.    What happened on United was terrible for the passenger bumped and for United's image. Its stock tumbled and thecompany lost millions of dollars of market value. It would have been so much cheaper for United to offer a passenger $1,000 toget off the plane.    This process used to happen all the time. But then airlines got cheap and stopped the bidding process at a low level. TheFAA issued ridiculous and arbitrary rules that allow airlines to cap how much they offer volunteers. This leads to involuntarybumping of paying customers. It happens to more than 40,000 fliers every year.    But the passenger who gets randomly bumped may have a much greater necessity to be on that flight than anotherseatmate. Missing a flight can mean losing your job or missing a funeral or missing out on a major business contract.The equity of the auction solution is that the passengers who need the money the most, or the ones who have the leasttime-sensitivity of travel, will be the ones to rush to get off the plane. No one is negatively affected, because the passengerswillingly took the deal.     An airline auction is also a much better solution than outlawing overbooking outright. Airlines use computer models toestimate how many passengers will not show up for a flight. For a flight with 150 seats it might book 155 people and 10 or sowill likely miss or cancel the flight reservation. Overbooking saves airlines money and forbidding this practice would verylikely make everyone's ticket prices rise.     Instead, starting now, every major airline should announce to its customers that it will never bump a customer from a flightwithout their full approval. It would be great PR for the airlines. It doesn't require any government regulation. Just ask yourself:how much would you pay to give up your seat?

參考答案

答案:C
難度:簡單0.89313
統計:A(7),B(3),C(117),D(4),E(0)

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