托福听力短文 I-04-2

(man) A lot of people in the United States are coffee drinkers. Over the last few years, a trend has been developing to introduce premium¹, specially² blended coffees --- knows as "gourmet³ coffees" --- into the American market.

Boston seems to have been the birthplace of this trend. In fact, major gourmet coffee merchants from other cities like Seattle and San Francisco came to Boston, where today they're engaged in a kind of "coffee war" with Boston's merchants. They are all competing for a significant share of the gourmet coffee market.

Surprisingly, the competition among these leading gourmet coffee businesses will not hurt any of them. Experts predict that the gourmet coffee market in the United States is growing and will continue to grow, to the point that gourmet coffee will soon capture half of what is now a 1.5-million-dollar market and will be an 8-million-dollar market by 1999.

Studies have shown that coffee drinkers who convert to gourmet coffee seldom go back to the regular brands found in supermarkets. As a result, these brands will be the real losers in the gourmet coffee competition.

1 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

2 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

3 gourmet   

n.食物品尝家；adj.出于美食家之手的

参考例句：

• What does a gourmet writer do? 美食评论家做什么？
• A gourmet like him always eats in expensive restaurants.像他这样的美食家总是到豪华的餐馆用餐。