80. Products sold under a brand name used to command premium prices because, in general, they were superior to nonbrand rival products. Technical expertise in product development has become so widespread, however, that special quality advantages are very hard to obtain these days and even harder to maintain. As a consequence, brand-name products generally neither offer higher quality nor sell at higher prices. Paradoxically, brand names are a bigger marketing advantage than ever.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the paradox outlined above?
(A) Brand names are taken by consumers as a guarantee of getting a product as good as the best rival products.
(B) Consumers recognize that the quality of products sold under invariant brand names can drift over time.
(C) In many acquisitions of one corporation by another, the acquiring corporation is interested more in acquiring the right to use certain brand names than in acquiring existing production facilities.
(D) In the days when special quality advantages were easier to obtain than they are now, it was also easier to get new brand names established.
(E) The advertising of a company’s brand-name products is at times transferred to a new advertising agency, especially when sales are declining.
答案选A，为什么？
还有，argument第一句话到底是什么意思，command premium prices命令溢价？这是经济学上的知识吗？我专业不是这个，不理解它的含义，如果能理解，可能会对理解argument有所帮助吧。。
So, 求大牛指点作者: mslancaster 时间: 2013-3-4 20:40
commanding premium prices means selling at high prices.
the question want us to resolve the paradox:brand-name products that can't offer special quality command premium prices.
ask yourself:does high prices really require one business to offer special quality?Of course not.If one can produce just better-but-not-best-product,it can command premium.作者: wzwkb 时间: 2013-3-5 06:40
1. past: products under brand name were superior->premium prices2. now: technical expertise becomes widespread->no premium quality or price for products under brand names
(Naturally, the value of brand names go down)
Paradoxically, brand names are bigger marketing advantage
解释型题目，即加强paradoxically的部分
A: products under brand names >= best rival products (best non-branded products), meaning brand names still work as a competitive advantage, not losing their value, even all products (branded, non-branded) are the same in quality and price. In the past, brands might make money from charging premium on the products; now they still can make money buy selling more because of the brand effect mentioned in choice A.
B: "drift" makes this choice weaken the brand effect a little.
C: this comparison is irrelevant, even if the claim stands, it makes no support for the brand effect.
D: we are looking for something supporting a claim about the current situation, discussion about the past doesn't help at all
E: totally irrelevant.
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