考研英语06年4篇阅读.doc

Text 1 　　Inthe 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, played byMeryl Streep, scold her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashiondoesn’t affect her. Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant’ssweater descended over the years from fashion shows to department stores and tothe bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment。 　　Thistop-down conception of the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or atodds with feverish world described in Overdressed, Elizabeth Cline抯 three-yearindictment of 揻ast fashion? In the last decades or so, advances in technologyhave allowed mass-market labels such as Zara, HM, and Uniqlo to react totrends more quickly and anticipate demand more precisely. Quckier turnroundsmean less wasted inventory, more frequent releases, and more profit. Thoselabels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposal—— meant to last only a wash or two, although they don’t advertisethat——and to renew their wardrobe every few weeks. Byoffering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices, Cline argues, these brands havehijacked fashion cycles, shaking all industry long accustomed to a seasonalpace。 Thevictims of this revolution, of course, are not limited to designers. ForHM to offer a 5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2300-plus stores around theworld, it must rely on low-wage, overseas labor, order in volumes that strainnatural resources, and use massive amount of harmful chemicals。 　　Overdressedis the fashion world’s answer to consumer activist bestsellers like MichaelPollan抯 The Omnivore抯 Dilemma. Mass-produced clothing, like fast food, fillsa hunger and need, yet is non-durable, and wasteful,?Cline argues, Americans,she finds, buy roughly 20 billion garments a year棗about 64items per person——and no matter how much they giveaway, this excess leads to waste。 　　Towardsthe end of Overdressed, Cline introduced her ideal, a Brooklyn woman named SKB,who, since 2008 has make all of her