求请教！OG12 CR 80

headhunter

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

weidehou

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.

gui5910667

哥选了D  哥表示强连抗议  啥叫paradox

就是解释互相矛盾的东西
为什么今天市场名牌东西又不是特别好但是却可以卖的好，这个矛盾的paradox就可以被D解释：因为技术今天比较容易提高，但是建立牌子难

当然A也没错 反正这两个我觉得都对 D更为深刻些 直击要害

OA 是A

xuyuanwai

我真的不明白第一句话

Products sold under a brand name used to command premium prices because, in general, they were superior to nonbrand rival products.

说的是有brand的比没brand的贵，而且，比没brand的好，对吧。

但是后面又说，于是，
As a consequence,
brand-name products generally neither offer higher quality nor sell at higher prices.

brand-name products既不比普通的质量好，也不卖的高价。

这不是自相矛盾吗？

ozymen

正文大概翻译：品牌产品通常值得更高的价格，因为通常他们的质量要比非品牌同类商品要好。但是，产品研发技术现在被广泛应用，因此特别的质量优势目前很难被获取，更难被保持.结果，品牌产品不但难以提供高质量，也很难卖出高价格。矛盾的是，品牌商品比以前拥有更大的市场优势。
问题：哪一项。如果为真，能够帮助解释上述矛盾 （矛盾是：品牌产品质量上并无优势，却为何获得更大的市场竞争力？）

A:消费者相信品牌能够提供买到最佳商品的保证

wzwkb

我觉得这道题主要是看懂它的paradox，因为题目比较长，表达又不直接所以觉得无从下手。
第一句话是说：品牌产品比没牌子的产品贵，因为品牌产品质量比较好。
后面来了一个转折，however，否定前一个观点，说了一大串，要表达的意思就是 无论是在价格上还是在质量上，品牌和非品牌的产品都无差异，为什么品牌产品的市场优势却前所未有的大呢？
答案A解释了这个矛盾，A指出消费者把名牌作为最好产品的保证，所以才会导致品牌产品优势依旧很大。
希望有所帮助。

mslancaster

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.