Taste
is suc．h a
subjective matter that we dori't usually conduct preference tests for food．The most you can say about
anyone's preference is that it's one person's opinion．But because the two bigcola
companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola-are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered
how big arole taste-preference actually plays in brand loyalty．We set up a taste test that
challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-cola or Pepsi fans:
Find your brand in a blind tasting．
We
inwited staff wolunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic
or Pepsi, Diet Coke．or Diet Pepsi．These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their
brand from the oLher brancl．
We
eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers．Then we fed them with four
unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group,
diet versions for the other．rOVe asked them to tell us whether each sample wa．s Coke or Pepsi; then we
analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices \~-ith
what mere guesswork could have accom-plished．
Getting
all four samples right was a tough test, biit not too tough, we thought, for
people whobelieved they could recognize their brand．In the end, only 7 0ut of 19
regular cola drinkers correct-ly identified their brand of choice in all four
trial．s．The diet-cola drinkers did a
little worse-only 7 out of 27 identified all four samples correctly．
Both
groups did better than chance would predict, but nearly half the participants
in each group made the wrong choice two or more times．Two people got all'four samples
vrrong．Overall, hal．f theparticipants did about as
well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burn-out,
was not a factor．Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi
participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by
taste and price．
1.According
to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to
A．show that a person's opinion
about taste is mere guesswork
B．compare the ability of the
participants in choosing their drinks
C．find out the role taste
preference plays in a person's drinking
D．reveal which cola is more to
the liking of the dr-inkcrs
2.The
statistics recorded in the preference tests show that
A．there is not much difference in
taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi
B．few people had trouble telling
Coca-Cola from Pepsi
C．people's tastes differ from one
another
D．Coca-Cola and Pepsi are
people's two most favorite drinks
3.It
is implied in the first paragraph that
A．the competition between the two
colas is very strong
B．blind tasting is necessary for
identifying fans
C．the purpose of taste test is to
promote the sale of colas
D．the improvement of quality is
the chief concern of the two cola companies
4.The underlined
word "bumout" here refers to the state of ．
A．being seriously bumt in the skin
B．being badly damaged by fire
C．being unable to bum for lack of fuel
D．being unable to function because of too much use
5.The author's
purpose in writing this passage is to ．
A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related
to each other
B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality
control'of colas
C．show that taste preference is highly subjective
D．a(chǎn)rgue that taste testing is an important marketing
strategy