In the international market, goods on sale coming from different countries and suppliers are always facing keen competition. Under such circumstances, they will try everything possible to familiarize themselves with the market conditions. In making investigations, we ought to get information about what similar items the competitors are offering on the market, what prices they are quoting (报价), what features their products have, who are their regular customers, etc. Then, how can we obtain such information? There are many channels that we can make use of in doing this sort of work. The commercial counselor's offices of our embassies stationed abroad can help us in making market investigations. Nowadays, our import and export corporations send their trade groups abroad every now and then. One of their purposes is to make market surveys on the spot.

　　Certainly, face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen are also important channels to get market information. The Chinese Export Commodities Fairs and some other fairs of similar nature as well as visits of foreign businessmen provide us with such opportunities. Of course , there are some other ways of making market investigations.

　　文章的第三题是词汇题。

　　The word "indispensable" in the first line means_____.

　　A. impossible　　B. essential　　C. advisable　　D. available

　　“indispensable ”在文章的第一段的第一行。从它后面的句子：“市场调查和促销的关系就像牙齿和嘴唇的关系一样紧密。”接着又说：“生产是为了销售，如果没有事先的市场调查，销售就不可能成功。”又根据所给的四个选项，B：必不可少的，必需的。最合适。

　　以下介绍几种通过上下文推断词义的行之有效的方法.

　　1、标点符号是理解词义的一条重要线索,因为有些词的定义是通过标点符号,如破折号，括号,冒号等来完成的.如:

　　Sometimes we work on night shift—— from 11:30 p . m to 7:30 a.m

　　从破折号后的说明，我们可以断定“night shift”是“夜班”的意思。

　　2、有些信号词如：is called, means, that is, is, or, define as, refer to 等通常是针对某一词汇的定义、解释或说明。如：

　　One sort of crimes which particularly worries people is juvenile delinquency，that is, crimes committed by young people.

　　从that is的解释来看,我们可以断定“juvenile delinquency”即 “青少年犯罪”。

　　3、举例可以帮助我们理解词义。对于有些重要的词汇，作者常在词后自带解释或例子。因此，根据例子可猜出词义。如：

　　You may select any of these periodicals ：Time Magazine, Newsweek, Reader′s Digest or The New Yorker.

　　从后边列举的时代周刊、新闻周刊等流行期刊，我们可以断定“periodical”即“期刊杂志”。

　　4、靠形成反差、对照的词或词组猜出词义。常见的这些词或词组有while, whereas, unlike, but, yet, although, however, in contrast, on the other hand, rather than 等。如：

　　Jane was talking with others while Eliza remained reticent all the time.

　　文章的while作“而，却”解，由此我们可以断定“reticent”作“沉默寡言的”解。

　　5、凭借常识和经验猜测词义。如：

　　The door was so low that I hit my head on the lintel.

　　只要你知道so that这个结构，凭借常识就应猜出“lintel”的意思是“过梁，上门梁”。